THAT NEWSPAPER JOB

Mark Feuring – January 28, 2010 An event or period of time that changed the direction of who I am was in 2001 when I took a job for a community newspaper. That employment hiring on a June day by my new boss, Mr. M., was a great stepping stone for my vocation. I was hired as a graphic or composing artist. I didn’t know what composing meant but to newspaper people it was the art department that built all headlines and advertisements. I felt great for I had just studied graphic computer arts at the community college. I would be working with sales representatives and keeping Mr. M.’s wife happy for she was the publicist. My character would definitely be tested daily working for a husband and wife business. This was not a death or divorce transition, for I had worked in small business and for other husband and wife teams. I did not have that family business on my resume, but I guess emotionally it showed at the interview that I was set to work in a family environment and in small business. Maybe Mr. M. had called some of my previous employers and found out that this was the type of management that I was used to. Mr. M, the general manager, told me I would be working weekends Saturday and Sunday for full days with no special pay. It was a warm summer day and I was asked to come to work that Friday. I was being paid salary compensation with health benefits and that would have a lot of effect on my personality. Besides the casual dress at the job there would be a set time for lunch where I was on call but it was highly recommended to take my breaks for I would have long hours on the clock. After college it took me five years to find a job with health insurance even though I worked in college while gaining my undergraduate degree. My five previous years after graduating college were filled with entry level jobs and were hourly wage with no health insurance. This job for the community newspaper in my home town was the first job after college I would work for 3-5 years and that was my goal. My moral character was much better as this was the first job I would have to wear business casual dress and not jeans and work shirts to the dirty manufacturing sector. The job did a great deal for my personality for I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to find an art based career that could build my emotional and cognitive skills. My character and moral identity were quite different from the start. At first I was not used to the fast pace of deadlines for I mostly worked manufacturing or machine operator jobs. My boss, Mr. M, worked an egg carton facility when he was starting his profession in newspaper, and he liked that I worked at a cardboard box facility which was on my resume. I later learned he kept a pile of 300 resumes near his desk for all of the job positions at his newspaper. When I first began to work there I would keep my anxiety and drank a lot of coffee until around 2pm. I guess that was the fuel that launched my newspaper career. My job was to take paste up artwork like logos and pictures and compose with hot wax and newspaper print boards that would be photographed and built into plates. In 2001 my boss said he and everyone else needed to go electronic in 1997. Our job, and my job in particular, was to help the art department become electronic, and eliminate paste-up in the file cabinet. My buddy and partner in the art department said we were going to open some “whoop” on the file cabinet which was filled with folders containing artwork that needed to be digitized while at the same time completing the newspaper deadlines for print each week. Taking that job in June of 2001 was a very social move. I learned all about community and small business, worked with sales professionals and talked to proprietors on the phone about what their advertisements were to look like in the paper. The newspaper I was now employed at boasted a print of 50,000 newspapers per week and was the third largest newspaper in Missouri. The newspaper focused stories on schools and local government in the community. We use to work long Monday hours and have full page auto advertisements that would go to press on Monday night. We had Tuesday and Wednesdays off of work and I would go fishing. At the trout streams there were less people during the week so the flock of fish was always a greater catch. I wonder that the electronic digitized media has taken over somewhat at the newspaper. In 2009 no one person works weekends and everything is electronic. The emotions have to be down for the paper has decreased in print pages and there are fewer local advertisers. The writing is still the same work on the fire department, schools and local politicians. But, I wonder if the coffee still flows with the impediment of growth. The husband and wife still own the newspaper, but almost all of the staff has changed. I now find work in freelance package design projects. The computer has definitely created a gap with commerce and equity in professional print media. The newspaper still prints 50,000 copies each week. I wonder if Mr. M is still drinking tea at his desk.