Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy....

This morning (it's November 17th, even though this has published on the 13th...the perks of being lazy with your drafts) marks one month since I packed up much of my life as I could in a 1992 Pontiac Bonnveille and started my life as a full-time sports writer here in Southern Maryland. As I reflect back on going from freelance to full-time in such a short time, I feel like I should be nothing but blessed and grateful for the opportunity that was given to me. However, I'm not completely satisfied. Working for a paper that doesn't necessarily have a corporate office or a real chain of command can be taxing; you're pretty much responsible for making decisions about what to write, pictures to go with it, things of that nature. For me, it really shouldn't be a new hat, seeing as that's what my four years as sports editor at my college paper basically were; deciding and delegating. However, the pressure is a bit more intense, even at a small weekly such as this.

The pressure is magnified when someone attempts to form a chain of command and micromanages an already stretched writing staff to death and doesn't know how to talk to people at all. Yet, the silver linings far outweigh the dark clouds. I've gotten a couple of e-mails since I started from gratified moms who loved seeing their sons' and daughters' names and pictures in the paper and encouraged me to keep up the good work.

Those moments are what make this job worth it. When the readership can take time out of their busy day to drop you a line and let you know that they appreciate and at least notice what you're trying to do is a rewarding feeling.

That's pretty much the way this field goes. "You win some, you lose some, but you live....you live to fight another day." And quite frankly, that's all that matters to me at this point.
continue...

Posted by Chris at 8:20 PM | link

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