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What's it like to work at a newspaper?
By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog
January 10, 2010

Author and former newspaperman Ray Ring wrote this brilliant description in his 1991 book "Arizona Kiss."

I can tell you what its like to work for a newspaper. Imagine a combine, one of those huge threshing machines that eat up a row of wheat like nothing, bearing right down on you. You're running in front of it, all day long, day in and day out, just inches in front of the maw, where steel blades are whirring and clacking and waiting for you to get tired or make one slip. The only way to keep the combine off you is to throw it something else to rip apart and digest. What you feed it is stories. Words and photos. Ten inches on this, fifteen inches on that, a vertical shot here and a horizontal there, scraps of news and film that go into the maw where they are processed and dumped onto some page to fill the spaces around the ads. Each story buys you a little time, barely enough to slap together the next story, and the next and the next. You never get far ahead, you never take a breather, all you do is live on the hustle. Always in a rush, always on deadline, you keep scrambling to feed the combine. That's what it's like. The only way to break free is with a big story, one you can ride for a while and tear off in pieces so big, the combine has to strain to choke them down. That buys you a little time. But sooner or later the combine will come chomping after you again, and you better be read to feed it all over again.

In the 21st century, you can add new media to the mix of muck for the combine. You have to love this crazy business to endure the pressure day in and day out.

Why do it? Journalist Bob Considine put it this way:

Call it vanity, call it arrogant presumption, call it what you wish, but I would grope for the nearest open grave if I had no newspaper to work for, no need to search for and sometimes find the winged word that just fits, no keen wonder over what each unfolding day may bring.

Happy Monday to all my newspaper brethren and our readers. How would you describe your work?

Comments


  • SugarMagnolia SugarMagnolia Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    You do recall correctly.

    The kid in me is a sucker for heart-stopping rides.

    Our respective careers suit us well, don't they?

    January 19, 2010 at 10:18 p.m.

  • ChrisCobler ChrisCobler Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    Thank you, Sugar. The Kansan in me is a sucker for the majesty of a combine in a waving field of wheat.

    If I recall correctly, you work in the medical field so I appreciate what you're saying about roller-coasters. You surely know about handling stressful situations.

    A good story still thrills me after almost 30 years in this crazy business. I also get tremendous energy from working around people dedicated to doing their best for the readers and the community.

    January 19, 2010 at 8:12 a.m.

  • SugarMagnolia SugarMagnolia Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    That's an interesting analogy, Mr. Cobler. Thanks for giving us an insight into the newspaper world. I believe one truly does have to love their line of work to stay in it for years and to keep giving of themselves to their profession.

    I would describe my work as a roller-coaster ride, never knowing what is around the next turn, and at times feeling the bottom drop out from beneath you, but still being able to somehow hang on and show up the next day to do it all again.

    Good thing I've always loved roller coasters, thrill rides, and pumping adrenaline!

    January 18, 2010 at 6:51 p.m.