My internship with the Times came to an end on Friday, July 17. I spent the final week of my internship with the Online Team. As has been the situation almost my entire internship, I came on board at a great time.
Lee Enterprises, the company that owns the Times, mandated that the company change the content management system for their web site, so when I began my time with the Online Team they were just getting the hang of the system. I really enjoyed working with them because they worked together as a team really well. We all bounded ideas off of each other, and any time we found something new we stopped to show others how to do it. I felt like I learned a lot this week that will help my students when they begin their web site next school year. Robert, the online editor, and I talked about how the newspaper is working to make sure the web site doesn't overpower the newspaper. Instead, they two play off of each other. Many of the stories in the newspaper, for example, include a refer that ask readers to go onlione for more information, latest updates, video, etc.
During this week, I was also able to spend a day with one of the staff photographers and go with him on two assignments. Both required that he not only take pictures, but take video as well. This was a great example for me to take back to my classroom on how journalists are expected to know how to do more than one thing in the field. Our first assignment was to shoot a weekend events video in which the Times' magazine, Shore Magazine, editors talked about different options for fun things to do over the upcoming weekend. Our next assignment was to shoot video of sailing lessons being offered through the East Chicago Marina on Lake Michigan. This was a really cool assignment. We talked to some of the people taking the lessons, and we found out that the people taking the class are students at East Chicago Central High School, and they are taking the class in order to get extra credits in school and either graduate on time or early. East Chicago can be a rough city, so I was excited to see how well the kids did on the boat. The instructor used all sailing lingo, and the kids knew exactly what he was telling them. It was a great story that we ran in print, but also posted the video online to tell more of a story.
I'm really going to miss working at the Times. It's a very positive place where the people truly care about their media. I gained a lot of valuable experience that will definitely benefit my classroom. I look back on the past few weeks and I still can't believe everything that I have done. How many people can say that they covered a murder case, talked to people who were close to Michael Jackson, read through the news before anyone else, put together five issues of the newspaper and worked on a redesigned web site all within four weeks? I'll definitely have some stories to take back to school. :-)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
It's been a while. . .
Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but getting used to working nights has been more difficult than I thought! Friday night ended my week working the copy desk. I was really impressed with how exact and picky the copy editors are about what goes into their paper, and the experience on the copy desk has definitely helped me learn more about journalistic style.
Today I start working the design desk. I'm a little nervous about this because this is the area in which I think I need the most work. And, on top of that, they use a different program, Quark Xpress, than I am used to. I think it'll take me a couple of days to really get used to the program, but I'll eventually get the hang of it.
Dennis asked me to post links to all of my stories from nwi.com, so here they are:
Valpo resident who named Jackson Five recalls time with Michael
Jackson's Gary roots bring back memories
Family, friends gather to remember Jada
'Public Enemies' cars tour region
Hot under the collar
Today I start working the design desk. I'm a little nervous about this because this is the area in which I think I need the most work. And, on top of that, they use a different program, Quark Xpress, than I am used to. I think it'll take me a couple of days to really get used to the program, but I'll eventually get the hang of it.
Dennis asked me to post links to all of my stories from nwi.com, so here they are:
Valpo resident who named Jackson Five recalls time with Michael
Jackson's Gary roots bring back memories
Family, friends gather to remember Jada
'Public Enemies' cars tour region
Hot under the collar
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Working nights
For the next two weeks, I will be working nights and flipping between the copy desk and the design desk as needed.
I started my run on nights last night. For the most part, I just shadowed people all night. My shift began at 4:00 and I shadowed Monte at the copy desk for a while. I found out that the copy desk is VERY thourough when they are editing stories. If the name of a place sounds a little off, for example, they will check to see how they have worded it in the past by checking the archives.
After shadowing Monte and learning how to edit a story "The Times way," I shadowed Diane at the design desk. The Times makes it so easy to design a page. They use style sheets, so they never have to worry about changing fonts or whether or not body copy is the right size, etc. Diane uses all quick keys, too, so she can design a page really fast. She ended up designing eight in all last night.
Once the designers have finished their pages, the copy desk takes one last look at the page before it is sent to the printing press. In all, all content in the paper gets three reads before it receives the official go-ahead to be printed.
The most interesting thing I learned about last night is how the paper is printed so quickly. The business and featuers desks have an earlier deadline than news and sports. Business needs to have all of their pages done and edited by 4 p.m. every night. Features comes next with a 5 p.m. deadline. While those two sections are printing, news and sports are working on proofing and designing. Sports has the latest deadline, since they are often waiting for late scores to come in. News, where I work, actually has four different deadlines throughout the night. The Times covers all of Northwest Indiana, and we split that into four regions: Porter County, Northern Lake County, Southern Lake County, and Eastern Illinois. Each region gets its own uniquely designed news section. Porter County deadline is at 10:00, North Lake County is at 10:30, South Lake County is at 11:30 and Illinois is at 12:40. My editors said that they normally don't take that long to get all of the pages done, as they are usually done around midnight. They were right, and I walked out of the times a little after midnight last night.
I'm not sure where I will be tonight or if I will be shared between the two sections. I will update tomorrow.
I started my run on nights last night. For the most part, I just shadowed people all night. My shift began at 4:00 and I shadowed Monte at the copy desk for a while. I found out that the copy desk is VERY thourough when they are editing stories. If the name of a place sounds a little off, for example, they will check to see how they have worded it in the past by checking the archives.
After shadowing Monte and learning how to edit a story "The Times way," I shadowed Diane at the design desk. The Times makes it so easy to design a page. They use style sheets, so they never have to worry about changing fonts or whether or not body copy is the right size, etc. Diane uses all quick keys, too, so she can design a page really fast. She ended up designing eight in all last night.
Once the designers have finished their pages, the copy desk takes one last look at the page before it is sent to the printing press. In all, all content in the paper gets three reads before it receives the official go-ahead to be printed.
The most interesting thing I learned about last night is how the paper is printed so quickly. The business and featuers desks have an earlier deadline than news and sports. Business needs to have all of their pages done and edited by 4 p.m. every night. Features comes next with a 5 p.m. deadline. While those two sections are printing, news and sports are working on proofing and designing. Sports has the latest deadline, since they are often waiting for late scores to come in. News, where I work, actually has four different deadlines throughout the night. The Times covers all of Northwest Indiana, and we split that into four regions: Porter County, Northern Lake County, Southern Lake County, and Eastern Illinois. Each region gets its own uniquely designed news section. Porter County deadline is at 10:00, North Lake County is at 10:30, South Lake County is at 11:30 and Illinois is at 12:40. My editors said that they normally don't take that long to get all of the pages done, as they are usually done around midnight. They were right, and I walked out of the times a little after midnight last night.
I'm not sure where I will be tonight or if I will be shared between the two sections. I will update tomorrow.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Team MJ!
My assignment for today was to join what we called "Team Michael Jackson," or Team MJ for short. Basically, I worked with another reporter and two editors to get a variety of local angles on Michael Jackson's death and write. I decided that I would try to contact people who knew
Michael Jackson as a child, either professionally or personally. My first two contacts were great; Charlie Brum is a Talent Buyer for the Star Plaza in Merrillville, IN and was the Jackson 5's publicist when they performed for 10 days in Maryland; Elanor Johnson went to elementary school with Michael Jackson and knew him before the Jackson 5 even formed. My third contact ended up being so incredibly cool that she deserved her own story, which turned into a feature piece that is going in Sunday's edition.
Mrs. Evelyn LaHaie started off as a possible source of information. One of the reporters at the Times had talked to her in the past for a different story and thought she may have worked with the Jackson 5 when they were first getting started. As I was talking to her, she said that not many people realized that she was the person who gave the Jackson 5 their name. I won't lie, I talked to so many people that day who claimed to have some sort of connection like that to the Jackson family or Michael himself that I almost wrote her off as crazy. Now came my lesson in double-checking facts: Something was nagging at me to check this out. Evelyn said that Michael Jackson made mention of her in his book Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness on pages 16 and 17. I called the library at a local community college and asked them to look up the book for me and asked them if they saw her name on either of those pages. Well, Evelyn was right; Joe Jackson, Michael's father, gives Evelyn LaHaie complete credit for giving the group their name. I ran to my editor and explained my most recent find. She passed that on to the managing editor and executive editor in their daily afternoon meeting and they thought that this was such a great find that they thought I should talk to her some more and write up a feature piece on her. It turns out that Evelyn has all sorts of unique memorabilia from when she booked the band to play for her modeling school's fashion show, including posters, ads, pictures and even their audition form. The article is set to come out this Sunday.
I was kind of hoping that my editors would have kept me on the Jada case, but there wasn't enough breaking news today for me to help with today. I was still able to follow what the reporter on the case found today, and it all took a gruesome turn for the worse. After autopsy reports came in this morning, Jada's babysitter and her boyfriend werem charged with the murder of Jada Justice. The rest of the details are extremely unsettling, so if you would like more information about what happened, visit http://www.nwi.com/articles/2009/06/26/updates/breaking_news/doc4a452d88851ca193114268.txt.
I have the next two days off to take a break and recouperate from the crazy first week I had at my internship. I'm so glad that I decided to do this, and I'm extremely glad that I am with the Times. They have been wonderful about letting me tag along and cover some great stories. :-) I'll be back in the office on Monday to learn how to design some pages.
Michael Jackson as a child, either professionally or personally. My first two contacts were great; Charlie Brum is a Talent Buyer for the Star Plaza in Merrillville, IN and was the Jackson 5's publicist when they performed for 10 days in Maryland; Elanor Johnson went to elementary school with Michael Jackson and knew him before the Jackson 5 even formed. My third contact ended up being so incredibly cool that she deserved her own story, which turned into a feature piece that is going in Sunday's edition.
Mrs. Evelyn LaHaie started off as a possible source of information. One of the reporters at the Times had talked to her in the past for a different story and thought she may have worked with the Jackson 5 when they were first getting started. As I was talking to her, she said that not many people realized that she was the person who gave the Jackson 5 their name. I won't lie, I talked to so many people that day who claimed to have some sort of connection like that to the Jackson family or Michael himself that I almost wrote her off as crazy. Now came my lesson in double-checking facts: Something was nagging at me to check this out. Evelyn said that Michael Jackson made mention of her in his book Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness on pages 16 and 17. I called the library at a local community college and asked them to look up the book for me and asked them if they saw her name on either of those pages. Well, Evelyn was right; Joe Jackson, Michael's father, gives Evelyn LaHaie complete credit for giving the group their name. I ran to my editor and explained my most recent find. She passed that on to the managing editor and executive editor in their daily afternoon meeting and they thought that this was such a great find that they thought I should talk to her some more and write up a feature piece on her. It turns out that Evelyn has all sorts of unique memorabilia from when she booked the band to play for her modeling school's fashion show, including posters, ads, pictures and even their audition form. The article is set to come out this Sunday.
I was kind of hoping that my editors would have kept me on the Jada case, but there wasn't enough breaking news today for me to help with today. I was still able to follow what the reporter on the case found today, and it all took a gruesome turn for the worse. After autopsy reports came in this morning, Jada's babysitter and her boyfriend werem charged with the murder of Jada Justice. The rest of the details are extremely unsettling, so if you would like more information about what happened, visit http://www.nwi.com/articles/2009/06/26/updates/breaking_news/doc4a452d88851ca193114268.txt.
I have the next two days off to take a break and recouperate from the crazy first week I had at my internship. I'm so glad that I decided to do this, and I'm extremely glad that I am with the Times. They have been wonderful about letting me tag along and cover some great stories. :-) I'll be back in the office on Monday to learn how to design some pages.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
All I can say is wow. . .
The past two days of the internship have been full of highs and lows, but were also probably two of the most exciting days I've had in a long time.
Yesterday, I was assigned my first article. The story began as an idea that my editors had that revolved around the fact that people become crabbier when it's hot outside, so we wondered if the local police departments saw more cases of road rage and/or arrests. Well, that went bust, so I had to take a new avenue with the story, as not doing the story IS NOT AN OPTION in the professional world of journalism. I decided to talk to people who were forced to work in the heat, even though the National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory for our area. I ended up talking to some construction workers and found out how they deal with the extreme heat. It turned out to be a pretty good story and was placed on the front page!
Today was very different from yesterday. I met with my editor this morning and he assgned me a story about a national conference that was being held in the area for Model A car owners. I expected having to do most of my stories on conferences and meetings and such, since they are not so much spot news, which is often reserved for their best reporters. The next part of my day deserves a little background information: Jada Justice, a 2-year-old from Portage, was reported missing from her mom's cousin's car at a local gas station on June 16. Jada's mom left her in the care of her cousin so she could go on vacation with her boyfriend. The cousin, Engelica, and her boyfriend, Tim, were taken into custody as persons of interest in Jada's disappearance, but released. As the investigation continued, police found that Jada was never at that gas station and was actually missing for a much longer period of time. Last night, both Engelica and Tim were arrested after being busted at a meth lab. Now on to my day: The Times had been receiving tips all day about the situation, and the tips were simply that; they were nothing we could confirm. The Hobart Police Department then called a press conference to take place at 5 p.m. tonight. As I was writing my car show story, my editors asked me to go to the press conference with two other reporters and a photographer to help them cover crowd reaction. Unfortunately, the police announced that they found what they believe to be Jada's body earlier this morning, and that they took into custody two poeple (we assume those are the cousin and her boyfriend, but that has not been confirmed) who they are connecting with the murder. We then got word that there was going to be a small gathering of family and friends at the gas station where this all began, we took off, and I was assigned to cover the atmosphere at the gas station. I covered it, raced back to the newsroom, wrote the story, uploaded a couple of pictures I shot, and left at about 8:30 p.m.
I'm feeling such a mix of emotions right now. Part of me is so excited because I'm able to cover this hard, breaking news. However, part of me is heartbroken for Jada's family and friends. Doing this story has definitely made my skin a little thicker. I truly feel for the reporters and photographers who have to keep an unbiased attitude during situations like this that are so difficult. As I sit here writing this, I find myself tearing up a little for the first time today. Listening to the announcement that they found Jada's remains was difficult. Watching her friends and family collapse and sob with grief was ever harder. Reading statements from her father about how he will miss his little girl's hugs and kisses, and the way she said his name was even harder still. What helps is knowing that I am helping Jada's friends and family express their emotions, as they were all very willing to talk to me and explain how they were feeling.
Tomorrow is my last day of reporting before moving over to the design desk. I am excited to improve my skills in the area of pagination, but I will miss the excitement of going out into the field to cover stories. I will definitely update either tomorrow or Saturday. If you want to check out my stories or follow the Jada Justice story, go to nwi.com.
Yesterday, I was assigned my first article. The story began as an idea that my editors had that revolved around the fact that people become crabbier when it's hot outside, so we wondered if the local police departments saw more cases of road rage and/or arrests. Well, that went bust, so I had to take a new avenue with the story, as not doing the story IS NOT AN OPTION in the professional world of journalism. I decided to talk to people who were forced to work in the heat, even though the National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory for our area. I ended up talking to some construction workers and found out how they deal with the extreme heat. It turned out to be a pretty good story and was placed on the front page!
Today was very different from yesterday. I met with my editor this morning and he assgned me a story about a national conference that was being held in the area for Model A car owners. I expected having to do most of my stories on conferences and meetings and such, since they are not so much spot news, which is often reserved for their best reporters. The next part of my day deserves a little background information: Jada Justice, a 2-year-old from Portage, was reported missing from her mom's cousin's car at a local gas station on June 16. Jada's mom left her in the care of her cousin so she could go on vacation with her boyfriend. The cousin, Engelica, and her boyfriend, Tim, were taken into custody as persons of interest in Jada's disappearance, but released. As the investigation continued, police found that Jada was never at that gas station and was actually missing for a much longer period of time. Last night, both Engelica and Tim were arrested after being busted at a meth lab. Now on to my day: The Times had been receiving tips all day about the situation, and the tips were simply that; they were nothing we could confirm. The Hobart Police Department then called a press conference to take place at 5 p.m. tonight. As I was writing my car show story, my editors asked me to go to the press conference with two other reporters and a photographer to help them cover crowd reaction. Unfortunately, the police announced that they found what they believe to be Jada's body earlier this morning, and that they took into custody two poeple (we assume those are the cousin and her boyfriend, but that has not been confirmed) who they are connecting with the murder. We then got word that there was going to be a small gathering of family and friends at the gas station where this all began, we took off, and I was assigned to cover the atmosphere at the gas station. I covered it, raced back to the newsroom, wrote the story, uploaded a couple of pictures I shot, and left at about 8:30 p.m.
I'm feeling such a mix of emotions right now. Part of me is so excited because I'm able to cover this hard, breaking news. However, part of me is heartbroken for Jada's family and friends. Doing this story has definitely made my skin a little thicker. I truly feel for the reporters and photographers who have to keep an unbiased attitude during situations like this that are so difficult. As I sit here writing this, I find myself tearing up a little for the first time today. Listening to the announcement that they found Jada's remains was difficult. Watching her friends and family collapse and sob with grief was ever harder. Reading statements from her father about how he will miss his little girl's hugs and kisses, and the way she said his name was even harder still. What helps is knowing that I am helping Jada's friends and family express their emotions, as they were all very willing to talk to me and explain how they were feeling.
Tomorrow is my last day of reporting before moving over to the design desk. I am excited to improve my skills in the area of pagination, but I will miss the excitement of going out into the field to cover stories. I will definitely update either tomorrow or Saturday. If you want to check out my stories or follow the Jada Justice story, go to nwi.com.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Day 1 at the Times
I just finished my first day as an intern with the NWI Times, and I am over-the-top impressed with the paper! I started off the morning by meeting with the Times' Managing Editor, Paul Mullaney, and he went over the inner workings of the newspaper. Something that I found interesting was the fact that they call their newsroom a "media center," so I was very conscious of that all day, because I grew up calling it a newsroom. He then took me on a tour of the entire branch, including the different sections, departments and production area. Paul then passed me off to Olga, who is the editor of the Enterprises stories and their free Latino edition called Viva. She explained their system to me and explained the meaning of Enterprises stories, which are stories that are anything but spot news. She then let me sit in on a weekly meeting with all of the other editors where they discuss the big stories they are working on right now that will run in the weekend issues of their paper. Olga took me out to lunch, then handed me off to one of her reporters so I could shaddow her on an interview. Carmen was a great person to shadow. She's an excellent interviewer and knows how to make contacts with people so she can call them if she needs to quote them for another story. She actually keeps a "Little Black Book," if you will, of all of her contacts! My last task of the day was to sit in on a training session for the reporters on how to use the Times' new online Content Management System (CMS) for their website, since I will spend my last week working with the online team.
I was SO impressed with how the paper is run. The editors work very hard to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as it can. They have very specific ways for making sure that every story is edited at least twice, three times when it is published on the web. From everyone I met today, I could sense that they all expect everyone to be 100% committed to their jobs and to do the best job possible. They also expect everyone to work together as a team; people are willing to share stories, ideas and responsibilities with everyone else.
Tomorrow, I will meet with Paul again in the morning to visit the Human Resources department and get some of the logistics of my internship worked out, like creating a username and password for myself for their system and an e-mail address. After that, I will visit their other branches in Crown Point, Valparaiso and Portage. These branches are much smaller than the Munster branch, but they often have their own sets of reporters to create the four different editions of the paper (Southern Lake County Edition, Nothern Lake County Edition, Portage Edition and Valparaiso Edition).
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I will be doing some actual reporting, which I am really excited about. I will post again tomorrow after my shift.
I was SO impressed with how the paper is run. The editors work very hard to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as it can. They have very specific ways for making sure that every story is edited at least twice, three times when it is published on the web. From everyone I met today, I could sense that they all expect everyone to be 100% committed to their jobs and to do the best job possible. They also expect everyone to work together as a team; people are willing to share stories, ideas and responsibilities with everyone else.
Tomorrow, I will meet with Paul again in the morning to visit the Human Resources department and get some of the logistics of my internship worked out, like creating a username and password for myself for their system and an e-mail address. After that, I will visit their other branches in Crown Point, Valparaiso and Portage. These branches are much smaller than the Munster branch, but they often have their own sets of reporters to create the four different editions of the paper (Southern Lake County Edition, Nothern Lake County Edition, Portage Edition and Valparaiso Edition).
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I will be doing some actual reporting, which I am really excited about. I will post again tomorrow after my shift.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Hello!
Today I had my first meeting with the Executive Editor of the Times so we could set my the time frame for my internship and get other little details worked out. It turns out that I will begin my internship on Monday, June 22. Bill Nangle, the Executive Editor, gave me a very general schedule that outlined what I will be doing each of the four weeks.
I will be spending the first couple of days visiting all of the offices around the region and getting to know the people I will be working with. The remainder of my first week will be spent doing some actual reporting, although Bill isn't sure what type of reporting I will be doing.
I'll spend my second week working the copy desk. This means working some pretty late nights, but I expected that. This will probably be the area with which I'm most comfortable, since editing is what I do on a daily basis with my newspaper and yearbook staffs at school. The only difference is that I don't have to sit down with every person at the paper and explain their mistakes and how to fix them next time. ;-)
My third and fourth week will allow me to focus on the two areas in which I feel like I need work. I explained to Bill that I've had some training in pagination and design techniques, but I would like to know more about upcoming trends and design techniques that will help me help my students take the newspaper and yearbook to the next level. I also told Bill about the newspaper's plans to go online in the fall, and that I will be attending a workshop at Ball State to help me brush up on my web skills. He thinks it would be a good idea for me to spend some time with their online team so I can learn more about how a news website is put together.
Right now I have a variety of emotions going through my mind, including excitement and nervousness. I can't wait to start because this is what I originally went to college to do before I decided to add on education. I've always had such a love for journalism, even when I was little, and to be able to practice it in a professional setting is so exciting for me. However, naturally, I am a little nervous about working for the second largest newspaper in the state.
I should hear back from my managing editor, who will be creating my schedule, sometime in the next week. I'll update again then. In the meantime, the Times has a great website; you can check it out at www.nwi.com. Until next time. . .
I will be spending the first couple of days visiting all of the offices around the region and getting to know the people I will be working with. The remainder of my first week will be spent doing some actual reporting, although Bill isn't sure what type of reporting I will be doing.
I'll spend my second week working the copy desk. This means working some pretty late nights, but I expected that. This will probably be the area with which I'm most comfortable, since editing is what I do on a daily basis with my newspaper and yearbook staffs at school. The only difference is that I don't have to sit down with every person at the paper and explain their mistakes and how to fix them next time. ;-)
My third and fourth week will allow me to focus on the two areas in which I feel like I need work. I explained to Bill that I've had some training in pagination and design techniques, but I would like to know more about upcoming trends and design techniques that will help me help my students take the newspaper and yearbook to the next level. I also told Bill about the newspaper's plans to go online in the fall, and that I will be attending a workshop at Ball State to help me brush up on my web skills. He thinks it would be a good idea for me to spend some time with their online team so I can learn more about how a news website is put together.
Right now I have a variety of emotions going through my mind, including excitement and nervousness. I can't wait to start because this is what I originally went to college to do before I decided to add on education. I've always had such a love for journalism, even when I was little, and to be able to practice it in a professional setting is so exciting for me. However, naturally, I am a little nervous about working for the second largest newspaper in the state.
I should hear back from my managing editor, who will be creating my schedule, sometime in the next week. I'll update again then. In the meantime, the Times has a great website; you can check it out at www.nwi.com. Until next time. . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
