I miss the old days, but just a little.
I started this journalism blog in 2014. I started in journalism in 1997. I came back January 1, 2024 to the community newspaper where I began after other newspapers and other jobs and found things are different now.
The community where I live and work has grown, the staff at the paper has grown, and we don’t see each other much at all. Thanks in part to technology and a changed industry, we work from home.
A month into being back at my paper I met one of my reporters at a fundraising event. She was interviewing a school administrator and I thought she could be from one of the two competitive newspapers of our area. I politely introduced myself and was delighted to learn we were co-workers and didn’t know it. “Oh, right. I like your stories.” Five months later I haven’t seen her except in the newspaper, but we text each other when we need something or have a question.
I miss sitting in a newsroom under fluorescent lights with fellow reporters typing nearby, interviewing on the phone, and rushing in and out. I miss discussing stories with co-workers or going out with my camera to help another reporters.
There was more collaboration then and we knew more of what was going on with the paper. Even when I was in an office at a newspaper group being one of five editors working on different publications, I knew more of the “big picture” of what was going on in my company.
I do like the flexibility and leisure of working from home. More reporters mean less stress for me. The view from my desk is like no other with three bay windows looking out at a bird feeder in my garden. One negative is having the kitchen a few steps away.
