Let's Chat: Keeping a chaotic schedule while chasing local news

I have some pretty hectic days. Some make me wonder why I didn’t opt for a job that simply required a 40-hour work week and a time clock.

To be honest, some of my days are riddled with scheduled appointments and infused with unexpected surprises. The daily schedule is always fluid and sometimes completely derailed by unexpected events.

For instance, I hadn’t really planned on walking around the upper floors of the old high school on Monday or I would have opted for boots instead of dress shoes and brought a flashlight to go with my borrowed hard hat. Note to self: buy a flashlight for your camera bag.

The hour-long experience was worth it in terms of the pictures I’ll be able to share with all those who are following the demolition of the building and reminiscing about its better days.

Wandering the murky halls did cause me to wonder if people have any idea how many hours the three full timers at The Journal actually invest in producing the newspaper. It can be far more than a traditional work day. If you factor in the amount of time invested in our social media efforts, I can assure you, our hourly wage isn’t very impressive.

While I was attending my second evening meeting Monday night the thought crossed my mind.

“Why are there only five of us in the room? This is an important matter,” I thought. The public was invited and there should be more interest.

Sometimes the selfish part of me follows up that kind of thought with, “If it’s not important to others, why is it important to the newspaper?”

Here’s another example, Ritzville City Council meetings typically are poorly attended, until high school students fill the audience to complete a task for their Current World Problems class. I’m always there.

If we aren’t in the room during the Adams County Commissioners meeting, then who would be?

The real answer is that we will be there. We are supposed to be as your community newspaper, on your behalf. We are the ones who signed up for the duty to attend community functions, meetings and school events. We turn out when someone celebrates a milestone, a tragedy occurs or breaking news happens.

We gather information, images and additional content constantly. Morning, noon and night. This happens every day of the week. While those who work eight hours a day, Monday through Friday, enjoy their guaranteed weekends, we often cobble together days off to rest and recharge in a more fragmented way — during the lulls and slow periods when they occur.

The community calendar drives the basic platform of our week no matter how many hours or days that takes. From there we must consider all the pieces of the puzzle we have gathered and put as much as possible into the printed newspaper. All of that and much more, especially pictures and unplanned, breaking news goes directly to our electronic formats.

Many things that people choose to participate in as part of their lifestyle, or their family’s routine, are things that we attend as community journalists.

We are “on the clock” during two hour city council meetings or school board functions. We’re pacing the sidelines with our cameras for a work-related purpose, not just the fun of it as a fan … even though we are huge fans of the Broncos and Tigercats.

The process of news gathering is far from perfect. We can’t be everywhere at once. We can’t put everything in the newspaper due to space and expense limitations. Believe me we try to.

The demolition of the old high school is another example of an unprecedented event that we need to report on. Since last Thursday, one of us has been at the site with a camera every day, at least once.

In order to capture the actual demolition, we have been running to the site on a moment’s notice. Once on Saturday, twice on Monday and then three times on Tuesday. One of those times two of us were there to photograph the demolition of a corner from two different angles.

Some might say that is a choice we make and that we don’t need to be there that often.

Perhaps.

But we are documenting a moment in history, the destruction of a majestic old building that helped raise our community’s children since 1910. It needs to be covered. It must be reported on.

Over 30 years of being a community journalist I have learned that individual readers have different wants and needs in terms of news coverage. I’ve also learned we can’t fulfill all of those needs all of the time.

Although, I think we try to, often times by sacrificing our free time.

We aren’t perfect and we make mistakes. But we have the best of intentions every week as we aim to bring you the best coverage possible. We are proud of our work and our communities.

The work can be hard and tiring and frustrating, yet fulfilling. Covering the harvest bee for the Hennings family a week ago was tremendously satisfying. It was amazing to witness and to share with those who may have never experienced such a coming together of friends and neighbors to help one of their own.

The most difficult part of this job is not pleasing all of the people all of the time.

The most common complaint we hear is, “Why wasn’t this in the paper?”

The answer may be as simple as we just ran out of time or space. Sometimes, we missed it or accidentally left it out. That’s usually when the human factor and Murphy’s Law meet.

Collectively I hope we deliver a solid product. There’s always ways to improve. Not always a means.

No matter, we will continue to try and be everywhere at once. It’s what we do. What we produce, our finished products, I believe are strong representations of good community journalism.

What brought up this chat? More than likely this is a therapeutic reminder for myself that this crazy, hectic schedule is the career path I chose, with my eyes wide open. A career I have loved passionately for many, many years.

I need that therapy sometimes after hearing a complaint from someone who doesn’t seem to have a clue just how hard the three of us work to “simply” gather the news. Like they said, “How hard can it be?”

For a writer, sometimes writing is the best available vent.