The Journalistic Mama

So it’s Monday, which means back to work and back to the regular grind of things. It’s a four-day week, with an evening meeting on Tuesday, and nothing like a divorce or a birthday or soccer practice to make this week busy beyond the point of sanity.

I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that we’re off Friday. There is just so much work to do between our monthly real estate guide and our annual Progress edition, in addition to our regular workload and planning our inaugural National Night Out here in Tipton County. I’ve also been working on taking webinars - seminars online - and reading whatever I can get my hands on that is journalism-related. New media and copy-editing in particular. I want to really hone my skills in these two areas, because if I do I should be able to build on those things and be marketable should I ever decide to leave the paper (or the paper decides I should leave or, as many predict, the newspaper becomes as outdated as phonographs and cassette tapes). And beyond that, I really want to better myself in any way I can. There’s nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that I have turned into a J-Nerd and get geeked out when I find other reporters blogging and Twittering. I have 17 new livefeeds in Firefox and 15 of those are journalism-related somehow.

I work for a paper that is published twice-weekly. I live in a county where there are a handful of people on Twitter (one is me, one is Darin’s ex-wife and a third is her friend). We rarely have breaking news and our readers/target demographic is not tech-savvy, but I would love to move our website in a new direction. A new look and feel. More user-friendly, modern and less cluttered. Blogs. Twitter feed. All of which can translate to more readership, more web traffic and thus, more advertising dollars (at least a potential for that, anyway). Some don’t think that the newspaper is a dying breed, but I see it. I love to read my byline and see my stories in newsprint, but the future of media rests not in newsprint, I’m sorry to say. I just hope to have job prospects after the dust settles. (Then again, there will always be McDonald’s and Wal-Mart.)

Also, this is not just election year on the national and state levels. No, this year we have county general and municipal elections. Once upon a time I dreamed of being a poli sci major, but those days, much like my size 4 waist, are long gone. I don’t do politics. And yet I am expected to report on things of a political nature. Oh boy. (This is where I freak out.) Our general elections and state primary in August will cover assessor of property (incumbent running unopposed) and school board elections (all incumbents, only one running opposed) as well as those for state Senate and House of Representatives (HOR) and U.S. Senate and HOR. In November, we bust out the big guns with state and U.S. Senate and House candidates plus we elect or re-elect mayors and aldermen/councilmen. Loveliness. So here’s to hoping I don’t totally screw this up. Definitely need to figure out how I’m going to pull this one off. lol.

Today Justin and I did a story on the local animal shelter and how they are in a crisis (they euthanized 60 dogs last week; typical rate is 35-40 per week). There were some lab/golden retriever puppies that were SO CUTE! I want one so bad, but I can’t have one. It would be irresponsible of me to get one right now because I’m not committed to taking care of a dog. I always said I’d consider getting one after all of my kids were potty trained, but Dad won’t let anymore animals in the house, so yeah. Not heartbroken, but I wish I could adopt one. A chocolate girl. And name her London. (Always wanted a chocolate lab named London. Don’t ask me why.) There were also some kitties that I know Jaiden would have LOVED to bring home, but we don’t need kitties, either. Maybe one day. But today’s not that day.