As the newsroom turns …
I don’t talk much about my day job here on the blog, but looking back at 2009, there was just more sheer drama at work than in any other part of my life. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad.
For those of you who don’t know, I work at a daily newspaper as a features page designer. That means I’m responsible for downloading press releases, editing stories, selecting photos, posting stuff on our Web site, and designing the actual feature pages that folks see every week, like the food and book pages (among many, many others).
So where did all the drama come from? Well, first of all, in the spring, we were told that we all had to take 2 weeks of furlough time — or 2 weeks off without pay. Mainly, because newspapers in general are absolutely tanking in the economy right now, and the company needed to save as much money as possible.
Then, in the fall, the powers that be upped it to 3 weeks. That’s right, I had to take 3 weeks off without pay in 2009. But hey, it was better than being laid off all together (which did happen to some folks at my newspaper).
That was plenty of drama by itself. But there was some sad news as well — one of the copy editors was diagnosed with a pretty serious brain tumor. I’m wishing him all the best with his recovery.
And, of course, perhaps the strangest thing was the fact that one of the editors was charged and convicted in regards to a child pornography case.
One of the features writers claims that we have enough drama for a soap opera. After this past year, I have to agree with him — we could call it As the Newsroom Turns …
Anyway, here’s hoping that 2010 is a little calmer than 2009 turned out to be!
What about you guys? Any drama in your lives in 2009? Share in the comments.