working title

Job Number Ten, Newspaper Journalist

That awesome coworker I just mentioned at The Second Deli? Her husband got me a job, one I could do at the same time as the deli. He worked for the local newspaper as a freelance reporter and he knew they were looking for someone else to cover our area, so he introduced me to the regional editor. I showed her my work as a photographer for Word of Mouth, and she had the website address to see my written work, but with a Bachelor’s Degree in English, she wasn’t worried about my writing ability. I loved my editor. She was a sweet, bright person, a big difference from the majority of people I had known since I moved back to the area.

My first assignment wasn’t supposed to really be my first assignment. My editor was scheduled to cover an award ceremony in a nearby town, but she couldn’t make it at the last minute, and asked if I could fill in for her. I jumped at the chance, of course. I ended up interviewing a police chief who had saved the life of a little boy. I didn’t realize at first that I would be interviewing someone, so I didn’t have any questions prepared, but the questions just come to you when you’re put in a spot like that. You ask what any normal person would want to know.

I had my friend check over my “story” as they called them before I sent it in. I think he and my editor were both pretty happy with my work. The editors at the newspaper’s main office ended up making little corrections, but I used those to shape my future stories, too. Newspaper writing is a bit different than the type of writing I was used to, but overall, I was shocked at how creative journalism was.

When I was in college, studying for my degree in English, people would ask, “Are you going to be a teacher or a journalist?” and I would say, “Neither!” I never thought I’d enjoy journalism. I thought it was stodgy and boring. Reporting the news? How dull can you get? Boy, was I wrong! There is a ton of creative freedom in journalism. You’re not just reporting on an event, you get to choose which slant you want to put on it, what the focus is, who to interview and what to ask. I mean, you can’t just put some crazy opinion or conspiracy theory out there (unless it somehow gets past the editors), but really, there is a LOT of freedom and creativity in journalism. I have a much deeper respect for journalists after doing the job myself.

As a freelance journalist or “stringer,” I wasn’t technically an employee of the newspaper. I worked for them exclusively, but I had no perks of being a regular employee. I was given assignments and got paid for the work I submitted, but there was no legal commitment between me and the company. Just the illustrious title of “Journalist” and getting to see my name in the byline. I still have a scrapbook of all my published articles and photographs.

Most of what I did as a journalist was take photos of check presentations and write down names for the photo caption. I got paid a certain amount per photo printed and another amount for a story. So I tried to get a story out of everything I could, plus I’d send in a handful of photos to see if I could get two or three printed along with the story. I could make a few hundred a week that way, just for a couple of assignments. It was a fairly easy job, if time-consuming.

I covered a huge parade two years in a row, a St. Patrick’s Day parade. The worst part, other than standing out in the cold March Pennsylvania weather, was dealing with the rowdy drunk people celebrating the holiday. People I went to school with all of a sudden wanted their picture in the paper with a beer, something I wasn’t exactly excited about. There are only so many times you can photograph parade floats and interview inebriated people before it gets old.

Sometimes I think I got more out of my stories than other people. I covered an event at a local high school once, where a presentation was given to kids and parents on the dangers of drugs and alcohol, complete with bloody, gory photographs and a real body bag to show them the reality of drugs and alcohol. I’m not sure the program really reached every student, but it affected me, and I was particularly proud of the story I sent in on that one.

I learned a lot at this job about dealing with people. I’m not naturally good at meeting new people, small talk and all that. But this job brought out that side of me. I had to meet new people at every assignment, and it was no longer a dreaded event for me. I learned quickly that I had to open up to people so they could open up to me. There was no room for being timid as a newspaper journalist.

At a VFW for a check presentation, a few older gentleman veterans joked with me about their names, which wasn’t exactly funny at the time when I was trying to be accurate for a photo caption. I met the most interesting people with this job. I met Senators and Governors (one even asked me if I was stalking him, as I took his photo for the third time in one week. It’s not my fault he kept giving money to fire companies!), but sadly, no celebrities. It was a small newspaper.

After about a year, the newspaper and its one competitor were bought by the same person, which led to downsizing. Basically, I was out of a job again. They already had people to cover my area and the local office was closing, too. It was good while it lasted, but it was time to move on.