Doing it better

[c.mccarthy@theday.com]

Hi All,

I work at a 38,000 circ. daily in Connecticut, and like everyone else, we have fewer warm bodies in the newsroom than a year ago or even three months ago. We've been having trouble meeting deadline, and it has become a BIG issue to those at the paper who work in the offices with windows.
It occurs to me that the desk is organized in terms of work flow the same way it was 14 years ago when we had 7-8 full timers and a huge paper every night. Now we have 4-5 people a night and a smaller paper. I'm thinking there's got to be a better way to make the most of people's time, do quality editing and make deadline. Or am I high?

Here is how the jobs break down now:

[b]Page 1 editor [/b]works with Page 1 designer. Edits all Page1 stories, writes heds, cutlines. Places jumps, writes jump heds, and fills out jump pages with wire stories/photos

[b]Region editor [/b]designs cover of local news section. Edits all stories for the cover and writes heds and cutlines. Puts together obit page and lays in jumps. Uses briefs, etc. to fill jump page

[b]Inside Region editor [/b]does police/courts page, including editing and layout. Edits/lays out other inside Region page(s). Begins shift proofing pages that were completed during the day. (Editorial/OpEd, featur pages, Business page and jump)

Wire editor Prepares wire report for budget meeting. Suggests stories for A1, designates stories for world display page, nation display page, state/northeast display page and other wire pages as needed. He edits and lays out world page and state page.

Slot editor Does some proofing of pages done during the day at start of shift. Edits/lays out nation page. Fills in as needed reading stories/doing heds, laying out pages. Proofs life pages and releases them to composing room.

Any and all ideas much appreciated!
Thanks,
Carol

[LisaMc]

That's a boatload of work no matter how you slice it.

What you might look at is where (if) there are any redundancies.

For example, could the wire editor pull and prepare possible filler stories for the 1A jump pages at the same time she's preparing the wire pages?

Also, is everyone in the job that's best suited to his or her talents? Maybe someone can fly through obits with a keen eye for all the little stuff that always has to get changed in them, whereas someone else slaves over them in twice the time? Maybe some people are faster in layout and could get pages ready for stories that others edit.

Good luck,
Lisa