Blog: Rod Boyce: The editor's desk
Are ways of doing things changing at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner?
Oh yes, but when haven't they been?
I've been working at this newspaper for a little over 22 years and, with the exception of that beautifully consistent Goss press that rumbles to life every night of the week, things have constantly changed here. To steal a line I once heard from an Army colonel, we're not flexible, we're fluid.
Even though I feel a little aged when I realize I'm now hiring people who were born the year I started working here, time in this building has flown by because the change has been do consistent.
I like the idea that Associated Press wire was still coming across on paper when I started here (even though it was also piped into our ECRM computer system) and company memos came to us via IBM Selectric. It took at least 20 minutes to send a black-and-white wire photo to the AP on the old drum transmitter. I still have one of the old Radioshack TRS-80 word processors in my office -- not that I use it. I remember being amazed when I visited the pressroom at the Super Bowl in 1995 and saw half the writers still sending their stories over the phone lines via those indestructible "Trash 80s" at a blistering speed of 300 baud.
Each of us in the newsroom shared a video display terminal for writing until 1995. If you wanted to jump on your story you'd just write it in your notebook or hop on a typewriter and then transcribe into the system later. Conversations with photographers or reporters in the field started with the radio handset that sat on the copy desk and was hard-wired to an antenna atop the building, "KVZ-313, Base 3 to .... are you there?" It worked most of the time.
So, yes, things are changing. Always have, always will.
Yesterday I thought it was very cool that community news editor Mary Beth Smetzer figured out that her digital camera can take movie clips and that, perhaps, she can supplement her stories on the Web site with short video clips -- if she gets some lucky footage. That she is excited about trying is what's great.
I was pretty happy with my own ability recently to learn how to use some new tools that allowed me to create an audio slide show. I had written a feature for our Sundays section and had a number of images I would have like to included in print. With some digital audio from a handheld recorder I was able create a slide show. It's nothing award-winning, but it does add to the presentation.
Click here to watch the falcon slideshow
So the changes continue. Still, I also think that it's very cool that the two best tools on my desk are still a pencil and a notebook.
Kelly, I always thought you were so much smarter than me and come to find out, you are. I am proud of you and all at the paper for those extra steps you take each day to make the new-sminer as fine as it has become. I doubt you will hear from me again. How special and important the News-Miner is to this town? You know.
Dale Thacker
Speaking of changes, Kelly, I thought you sold your home in Fairbanks and relocated to Kansas. However, you are writing this Blog like you are still working as Editor at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and are physically located in the newspaper's building located on Illinois and Driveway Streets in Fairbanks, Alaska. Are you now stationed in Kansas. I didn't realize the Fairbanks News-Miner was based out-of-state. I recall an article in the paper last fall that you were leaving, but I haven't seen anything about your return. Maybe I just missed it? Please clarify.
Hi Joyce,
We haven't printed anything in the paper about my personal plans.
Since I bumped into someone the other day who thought I was just back in town visiting -- and another who thought my wife had dumped me and left with the kids -- maybe a little clarification here could help curb the rumor mill.
I'm still happily married and happily employed. It's true that I announced to staff last summer that our house was on the market (and sold in three weeks thanks to Sue Rainy) and that I would be leaving -- as in I won't be retiring here and we sold our home before the market went downhill.
Let me be clear. I have a great job here in a wonderful community and I don't plan to leave for just any old job Outside. There is no specific timeframe. The News-Miner has been very understanding and supportive of this life decision made for personal reasons. I have a fantastic employer.
My eldest daughter left to attend college in Kansas City.
Kelly,
I've thought about where I heard you were leaving, and it came from your neighbors in Hamilton Acres, and not the newspaper. Apparently, you didn't make it clear to them what you meant by leaving Fairbanks. I guess when you are the Managing Editor of the one local newspaper, folks are interested in your personal plans. It just goes with the territory as there are few folks who are interested in my personal plans.
Hopefully, you will let your readers know when you finally find that great job Outside, and leave the great job you already have.
Best wishes in your search - Joyce
change happens to ?
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