The Typical Day of Newspaper Artist WFL
The most google-attractive articles on my blog tend to be my writings regarding graphic design in the newspaper industry. I'm not one to shy away from pandering to my market a little bit (hey, we're still ad-free here, so it isn't like I'm making any money directly from this blog), so I thought I would go over a typical day for me at the newspaper. If you are more interested in my work as an independent artist/web dev/etc, I'll write a similar article tailored to that demographic in the future.
My morning starts off at 8 AM, typically - I get up, check e-mail, shower, and do my morning routine.. which you aren't interested in. Sorry. I do spend my shower time to come up with cover designs, though.
At 9 AM I walk into the office (earlier if I know I've got a lot to do). I try to make it straight to my desk, but typically I have to answer to my boss, sales reps, the publisher, or someone else regarding one of the following: Print quality of today's paper, typographical errors in an ad, an ad that didn't run, or an ad that ran that shouldn't have (listed in order of frequency). Most of this I have no control over, but I try to answer these questions to the best of my ability and promise that it'll never happen again (ok, so I don't do that; I know better than to assume that it really woudln't happen again). Once I finally reach my desk, I check my analog inbox (a wire mesh basket that used to have a sign that said "Put the lotion in the basket", but the boss asked me to take it down when people from corporate were visiting). Usually, this is pointless; most people end up laying stuff in my chair or on my keyboard, trying to fight for my attention on their ads (whether it is for designing, or placement - one of my jobs is doing the advertising layout, AKA "Dummy"). After I give priority to everything in my basket, I then look at the ordure that is left in inappropriate places; late tickets (bright orange tickets telling me that an ad needs to be added to the layout that were submitted post-deadline), kill/change tickets (pink suckers telling me to remove or modify an ad's placement/size in the layout), or ad tickets (a sickly yellow paper denoting an ad to be designed, left astrewn on my keyboard like vomit - if they are left there, I try to get by with sticking em' at the bottom of the pile). Of course, there will also be numerous notes that demand my attention - some people are dumb enough to stick them on my monitor, which prompts a decisive brandishing of my fist in their direction, considering I now have to clean the sticky goo off my pretty Apple Cinema Display.
Information isn't always informative, however. I may spend part of my morning figuring out what certain chicken scratches meant, and sometimes when I finally get to the individual in question the issue has already been dealt with or forgotten.
I prioritize everything. Obviously, anything printing tonight needs to be done first. This may be artwork (such as cover designs), or ads. Occasionally I get the joy of doing content, which I loathe - not because I hate doing content layout or writing, but mostly because I'm given very little to work with. I despise having to bump body type up to 16 point just to get it to fill the space - I think recently me and fellow artists have finally convinced sales reps that, if we are doing advertorial content, we need LOTS of content and the option to trim if necessary.
Once my machine is booted up and I am logged into my e-mail, I sift through the bevvy of messages. A few will be regarding our forums, which I am co-admin of. We won't talk about that hell (I just recently had to ban another user, and she found it necessary to cram quite a few four letter explitives in her response).
We use Entourage for e-mail on the macs at the office, which.. well, works. At least I can set up custom filters, which makes my life easier. I have certain e-mails filed into certain folders automatically, such as classifieds ad copy or legal ad notice ad copy. I'm still debating on whether to set up a filter to automatically send anything with the body text "need this done this morning" (even though it doesn't print for another week) to the trash. Perhaps I shouldn't, though, seeing as how having a job is somewhat convenient for living.
After e-mail is dealt with, I check news using Sage (a firefox extension for reading RSS feeds); This ranges from news sites like Slashdot and ArsTechnica, to design related blogs such as GoMediaZine and I Love Typography, plus a smattering of SEO and web dev related news sites.
Now, its time to directly work on the product. I start building all the classifieds ads I've got, and then move on to ROP ads. I'll also put together the artwork for special sections, running with whatever idea I came up with in the shower (it has served me well for 2 and a half years, not going to stop now).
Once 11:00 AM rolls around, its time for lunch. Usually, I run home, since I live just a couple blocks away and am poor. Occasionally I'll go out to eat with a coworker, preferring something cheap and buffet.
I realize that only 2 hours have past - I do this for a reason. I then have a nice long stretch (at least 6 hours) of straight work afterwards, which is ideal considering the kind of work I do and how many times I get interrupted during the day.
At noon I head back to the office, and start my crunch.
The crunch consists of rushing to put late ads together, adding late ads to the dummy, preparing to build classifieds pages, and communicating with the other artists on their workload status (read: me asking them why the hell their ad isn't done yet so I can stick it on the page and print my proofs).
At about 3 (or noon on Fridays), I start building classifieds pages. This is a typically uninteresting process that I try to speed up as much as possible; quickest I've gotten a set of classifieds pages done is 11 minutes, from start to proofing. Sometimes, however, this can take hours; I'll have to redo the entire layout because of ad changes, or ads being removed.
After that, I'm proofing the ROP pages, and preparing to do the advertising layout for the next publication. We are a morning paper, so on a Tuesday evening we'll be proofing and printing Wednesday's paper, and I'll be dummying for Thursday. On Thursday evening I'll do the dummy for Saturday, Monday, and our separate weekly we also do.
Once I'm done with that, I usually get to go home, seeing as how it is 6 PM by then. Sometimes our special sections keep me late, however; I've had to work as late as 1 AM (I hate holidays - That 1 AM was actually 1 AM Thanksgiving morning). I'm not always done yet, though; If there is any problem with something going to press, I get called in to fix it (seeing as how I'm the only one without a family locally, and live within walking distance). They can call me as late as 1 AM, and have on a number of occasions. I don't enjoy it, but it is a part of the job, and overall, I'm lucky to be a part of the industry (including this market).
Well, there you have it - the summary of my day. Keep an eye out for a post on my day as an independent artist/web dev/photographer/musician.
My morning starts off at 8 AM, typically - I get up, check e-mail, shower, and do my morning routine.. which you aren't interested in. Sorry. I do spend my shower time to come up with cover designs, though.
At 9 AM I walk into the office (earlier if I know I've got a lot to do). I try to make it straight to my desk, but typically I have to answer to my boss, sales reps, the publisher, or someone else regarding one of the following: Print quality of today's paper, typographical errors in an ad, an ad that didn't run, or an ad that ran that shouldn't have (listed in order of frequency). Most of this I have no control over, but I try to answer these questions to the best of my ability and promise that it'll never happen again (ok, so I don't do that; I know better than to assume that it really woudln't happen again). Once I finally reach my desk, I check my analog inbox (a wire mesh basket that used to have a sign that said "Put the lotion in the basket", but the boss asked me to take it down when people from corporate were visiting). Usually, this is pointless; most people end up laying stuff in my chair or on my keyboard, trying to fight for my attention on their ads (whether it is for designing, or placement - one of my jobs is doing the advertising layout, AKA "Dummy"). After I give priority to everything in my basket, I then look at the ordure that is left in inappropriate places; late tickets (bright orange tickets telling me that an ad needs to be added to the layout that were submitted post-deadline), kill/change tickets (pink suckers telling me to remove or modify an ad's placement/size in the layout), or ad tickets (a sickly yellow paper denoting an ad to be designed, left astrewn on my keyboard like vomit - if they are left there, I try to get by with sticking em' at the bottom of the pile). Of course, there will also be numerous notes that demand my attention - some people are dumb enough to stick them on my monitor, which prompts a decisive brandishing of my fist in their direction, considering I now have to clean the sticky goo off my pretty Apple Cinema Display.
Information isn't always informative, however. I may spend part of my morning figuring out what certain chicken scratches meant, and sometimes when I finally get to the individual in question the issue has already been dealt with or forgotten.
I prioritize everything. Obviously, anything printing tonight needs to be done first. This may be artwork (such as cover designs), or ads. Occasionally I get the joy of doing content, which I loathe - not because I hate doing content layout or writing, but mostly because I'm given very little to work with. I despise having to bump body type up to 16 point just to get it to fill the space - I think recently me and fellow artists have finally convinced sales reps that, if we are doing advertorial content, we need LOTS of content and the option to trim if necessary.
Once my machine is booted up and I am logged into my e-mail, I sift through the bevvy of messages. A few will be regarding our forums, which I am co-admin of. We won't talk about that hell (I just recently had to ban another user, and she found it necessary to cram quite a few four letter explitives in her response).
We use Entourage for e-mail on the macs at the office, which.. well, works. At least I can set up custom filters, which makes my life easier. I have certain e-mails filed into certain folders automatically, such as classifieds ad copy or legal ad notice ad copy. I'm still debating on whether to set up a filter to automatically send anything with the body text "need this done this morning" (even though it doesn't print for another week) to the trash. Perhaps I shouldn't, though, seeing as how having a job is somewhat convenient for living.
After e-mail is dealt with, I check news using Sage (a firefox extension for reading RSS feeds); This ranges from news sites like Slashdot and ArsTechnica, to design related blogs such as GoMediaZine and I Love Typography, plus a smattering of SEO and web dev related news sites.
Now, its time to directly work on the product. I start building all the classifieds ads I've got, and then move on to ROP ads. I'll also put together the artwork for special sections, running with whatever idea I came up with in the shower (it has served me well for 2 and a half years, not going to stop now).
Once 11:00 AM rolls around, its time for lunch. Usually, I run home, since I live just a couple blocks away and am poor. Occasionally I'll go out to eat with a coworker, preferring something cheap and buffet.
I realize that only 2 hours have past - I do this for a reason. I then have a nice long stretch (at least 6 hours) of straight work afterwards, which is ideal considering the kind of work I do and how many times I get interrupted during the day.
At noon I head back to the office, and start my crunch.
The crunch consists of rushing to put late ads together, adding late ads to the dummy, preparing to build classifieds pages, and communicating with the other artists on their workload status (read: me asking them why the hell their ad isn't done yet so I can stick it on the page and print my proofs).
At about 3 (or noon on Fridays), I start building classifieds pages. This is a typically uninteresting process that I try to speed up as much as possible; quickest I've gotten a set of classifieds pages done is 11 minutes, from start to proofing. Sometimes, however, this can take hours; I'll have to redo the entire layout because of ad changes, or ads being removed.
After that, I'm proofing the ROP pages, and preparing to do the advertising layout for the next publication. We are a morning paper, so on a Tuesday evening we'll be proofing and printing Wednesday's paper, and I'll be dummying for Thursday. On Thursday evening I'll do the dummy for Saturday, Monday, and our separate weekly we also do.
Once I'm done with that, I usually get to go home, seeing as how it is 6 PM by then. Sometimes our special sections keep me late, however; I've had to work as late as 1 AM (I hate holidays - That 1 AM was actually 1 AM Thanksgiving morning). I'm not always done yet, though; If there is any problem with something going to press, I get called in to fix it (seeing as how I'm the only one without a family locally, and live within walking distance). They can call me as late as 1 AM, and have on a number of occasions. I don't enjoy it, but it is a part of the job, and overall, I'm lucky to be a part of the industry (including this market).
Well, there you have it - the summary of my day. Keep an eye out for a post on my day as an independent artist/web dev/photographer/musician.
8:18 PM
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