The View From Here

Production cycles, take two

2009-03-06T14:25:00.001-08:00

Not everything worked out 100 percent like I'd planned, but that's to be expected. So far we've run into significantly less problems than the last print issue.

Most of the problem last print cycle was the fact that the writers didn't have the Friday and Monday they usually do to work on stories, and many things were being done the day of. Also, without naming names, there were several writers who simply flaked on their assignments, which didn't help anyone.

That, combined with unclear deadlines and a lackluster sense of responsibility, meant everything was done in pitifully sluggish form. That led to working late, and that led to layout being started several hours later than it was scheduled to start. All in all, we were lucky to even get the issue on the stands on time.

This time, however, we have fewer of those problems. There's an absolute deadline set - anything not written by a certain time is simply cut, no exceptions. That's set at a time I hope will be early enough that we'll have ample time to copy-edit and do layout as our deadline for the paper marches steadily closer.

So far the section editors have been fantastic about taking the initiative and getting stories assigned, as well as having a hand in designing their sections instead of leaving it all up to the production team.

It's not all the editors, however - our writers, both in 300 and 302, have been great so far about getting their assignments done as soon as possible.

Hopefully this can all culminate in not only making deadline with no problem, but perhaps even - gasp - submitting the paper to the printer before we're toeing the "late line".

So far, all seems to be going well. If only there were a way to block people from watching videos on the internet, our productivity would positively skyrocket.

EIC smash

2009-02-25T17:01:00.001-08:00

I’ll take a deep breath to calm myself down here, because this is a blog/column, not a space for me to rant. I will say that if people keep treating the online edition like it’s excess baggage to the print edition this paper is going to ultimately fail.
Online readers, ESPECIALLY in off weeks, represent a significant portion of our readers. Treating them like we have been, with a couple new articles a week, is unfair, unprofessional, and if we want to succeed as a newspaper we can’t keep spurning that demographic.
That being said, I do enjoy the relaxed feel of doing the online edition. When we do print issues, there are extra responsibilities, like layout, and an absolute deadline to consider. Online, that doesn’t exist. Not to say there isn’t a deadline, but we don’t have to worry about doing layout and we don’t have a deadline hanging over our heads like a guillotine.
Still, people need to get motivated. Four articles in the online edition doesn’t cut it, and that’s probably the biggest thing I want to change this semester. Obviously it’s going to be more of a work in progress than I thought, but we should get there.
Eventually.

Apologies all around

2009-02-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

So many things went wrong this print edition it’s hard to know where to begin. The most visible error is in layout, which – as anyone who reads the print edition can clearly see – ranges from excellent to decent to ‘slapped together at the last minute’ bad.
Combine new layout people with a lot of work to be done, and we ran right up against our deadline and beyond trying desperately to get the paper done.
Unfortunately, there are many, many errors that slipped through the cracks because of this, which we are now aware of. The best I can do at this point is apologize again, and say that I will work as hard as I can to ensure that something like this never happens again.

Green could be my new favorite color

2009-02-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

There’s been an enormous drive to “go green” lately. Last print issue we talked about the coffee shop switching to more organic products. This issue we’re talking about an entire course of study devoted to environmentally friendly technology.

The point is that I like it. A society based entirely on finite resources (read: oil) is doomed to fail eventually. I can get behind the searching for alternative fuel sources 100%, especially if we’re not destroying the planet even further in the process.

When you look at practical applications of the alternative fuel sources we have, you admittedly don’t see much. Solar power only works during bright days, hydrogen fuel is still a long way off, and so on.

But it doesn’t help that under this country’s previous administration, billions upon billions of dollars that could have gone towards preserving our economy and our environment were squandered.

A war was continually funded, even when the government couldn’t come up with a reason why. People stopped buying companies’ products in favor of cheaper, better-made alternatives, and they took our money anyway with a massive bailout.

And with all that money leaving the budget, less and less was coming in. In a situation like that, you have to make some cuts. Unfortunately, the first things that get cut are the things you don’t need right here and now – and mounting costs into research are one of those things.

Still, maybe we’re getting a new shot at all this. With Bush’s administration gone, and Obama having made some weighty promises in his campaign, we could be looking forward to a promising future for efficient, clean technology.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

A word of thanks

2009-02-06T12:32:00.001-08:00

My hopes of being out of production early pretty much got dashed on the rocks, as we once again ran right up against our 10 PM deadline. I don’t want that to happen again, and hopefully when we actually get a staff things can go more smoothly.

Also, I feel like I should use this space to thank Nick Donofrio and Natalie Christine, both former staff members, for being generous enough to come back to the newsroom and lend a major hand in getting everything done. It would have been an absolute disaster without their experience and skill, and I really can’t thank the both of you enough.

That’s about it – we’ve got an online issue coming out Wednesday, so stay tuned!

Change not always bad

2009-02-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

A new semester means new classes. And new classes mean new fees to pay, and more books to buy. And with the mounting expenses of being a student, I’m sure that everyone is noticing the extra squeeze on their wallets. We’re in the middle of an economic crisis in this country, and it seems like all we do is keep on spending. As if it isn’t bad enough that the students are paying through the nose for textbooks every semester, the school seems to be turning right around and spending their money on things that are nice, but really shouldn’t be a priority.

For example, the new parking lot being built is nice, but is it necessary – especially if it’s staff only? I understand that the school wants to treat its faithful faculty well, but there are thousands of students that need to park here every day, and many end up circling the lots for twenty minutes or more hoping for a space to open up.

But in spite of all the decisions and expenditures we may not agree with, we can keep focusing on the positive things. The coffee shop “going green”, for example, or the fact that enrollment is up more than 10% since last semester. So instead of focusing on the negative, we can remind ourselves that there are still positive things happening around us, and they’re worth thinking about too.

Training and production cycles clash, news team discovers what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object

2009-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

The online edition went smoothly enough, I think, all things considered, and for that I breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, now we have the print edition to think about, and we're still smack in the middle of training new staff, meaning Nancy keeps taking people away from me while I'm trying to do unimportant little things like assign stories for the paper.

Oh well. things will smooth out soon enough.

Oh, and as for the life newsroom feed that is lying about when we're available, I'm hoping to get the go-ahead to start turning that on sometime next week. It's one of those things I need to get everyone's consent on, and I keep not having time to ask.

A whole new View.

2009-01-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

I think I know what Nick Donofrio ment when he bagan his first "View From Here" of last semester with "man, this is brutal."

Man, this is brutal. We've had a huge push towards getting new content online since the semester started, both to let you guys know that (like that picture says) we're back and to not let ourselves slip into a pattern of not doing anything.

Of course, in the rush to just get new content up online, we almost let ourselves forget that the regular schedule has to start up, and is going to keep moving like clockwork, ready or not. And, thanks to that, we had something like a two-day turnaround until we had to come up with enough content for a bona fide online edition. Thankfully, the staff seemed to be willing to rise to the challenge, and we've already got about three times as much content as normally goes online.

We've got a lot of new staffers, which gets me excited because it opens up the possibility to make some real changes in the way The Skyline View functions. Less people used to "the old way" means less resistance when you push for a radical change. And so when I stare down a huge crowd of faces and tell them that we're shortening our production cycle, I see significantly less of those faces filled with abject terror.

What I'd like to see happen is much, much more emphasis on our online edition. Our website has seemed like almost and afterthought to the actual newspaper, and that needs to stop. So, instead of two-week production cycles focused on the newspaper, I'm going to attempt to switch to one-week cycles - one focused on the print edition, then one focused on the online edition, and back and forth. It'll take a lot of extra work, but it's worth it to stop treating the online content like a sideshow, and I'm determined to keep it that way until the end of the semester.

Or until we all drop dead of nervous exhaustion. You know, whichever.