At the time that I write this, I've been back working at the papers for a whole three days. It certainly is a little different than it's been, but I still really enjoying it. I thought I'd use this week's column to give you a bit of a backstage peek, so to speak.
First of all, to our Charter Oak- Ute readers, if you missed this page last week, we're sorry about that. It ran in the Schleswig LEADER, but we seemed to have gotten our wires a little crossed and sent in two page threes.
No skin off my nose. Nothing terribly funny or vitally important, I thought it was kind of sweet though. If you REALLY missed it, you can visit "http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com/2006/05/thanks-i-needed-that.html"
By now a few of you have met a few of the new people here at the newspapers. Publishers Mark Rhodes and Brad Swensen and I attended a Community Club meeting in Ute a couple of weeks ago. Last week the publishers were at the ribbon cutting for the new bank building in Charter Oak. They took with them Julie Hamann, the new reporter at the Mapleton office and Kathy Boehm, the new advertising representative.
Just yesterday (Wednesday June 7) there was a coffee at the Beef and Brew in Mapleton for community members to get to meet the PRESS staff.
I can tell you that Karen Soukup will once again be covering news in the Charter Oak and Ute areas and Elaine Teut is still our woman in Schleswig, even though that office is now closed.
All kinds of people have been asking me if I'm "still working at the newspapers" and "What do they have you doing there?"
Well, yes I am, but all kinds of things, I guess- are the best answers I can offer for those questions. This week I'm mostly doing what's called "pagination," that means I'm putting together the pages on a computer. That would make me a graphic designer. You'll notice that they're still running ads for a graphic designer. That would be because I'll go back to teaching in the Fall.
More and more of the layout is being done on computer. I'm sure that the hope is to do it all this way eventually.
For the sake of the operations here, I hope they find a full time graphic designer as well as people who can take over permanently for Karen and Elaine. Be that as it may, I'd give my left hand to get Mark and Brad to promise to hire me back each and every summer from now on. That's because for some of us "Newsies," the ink just gets in our blood.
My first impressions of the new folks are all good. As far as I can tell they are each consummate professionals.
Mark Rhoads is a fifth generation newsman. He values small-town publications and promoting local communities like no one else.
I haven't seen many people work as hard as Brad Swenson. Yet he has a way of putting everyone around him at ease and he's quick with laugh and grin.
Kathy Boehm strikes me as being very outgoing and highly motivated.
I can't believe the good fortune of the PRESS, LEADER, and NEWSpaper to have found someone like Julie Hamann. She told me that she'd worked for years for the Sioux City Journal before getting married. Her husband farms between Danubury and Anthon. She's even working toward a Master's in Journalism from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. How much more qualified can you get than that?
Even with the most competent staff in the world, no community newspaper can do it's job without a community. I make this plea a lot, and here it is again- we need your participation. Some weeks there's not enough content to fill even just four pages. Please send us your news tips. In fact, you can send us your own stories and digital photos directly.
If you ever take pictures with a digital camera or know someone who did, go ahead and E-mail them to us. If you haven't got internet access at home, nag a friend who does, or see if there's a library or business that will let you borrow theirs for a few minutes. If you still can't get online, come see us in Mapleton, we can probably find a way to get your picture off your camera.
Other weeks there may be more than enough news and pictures to fill six or eight pages, but barely enough ads to pay for even four. We need your support, whether that's purchasing an ad, renewing a subscription, or giving someone else a gift subscription.
E-mail me your story ideas at "ted.mallory@gmail.com"
E-mail Ann Collins, the Office Manager in Mapleton at "mpress@longlines.com"
If you ever want to send us something the old fashioned way, on paper, there are drop-off boxes in the Hoffman Agency offices in both Schleswig and Charter Oak. There's also a drop-box on the side of the NEWSpaper office in Ute. Send an actual print of a photograph and make sure you tell us who it's from and if you want it back and we can scan it into the computer and return it to you.
Want to talk to us directly? Make a local call from your home town and it will automatically be forwarded to the PRESS office in Mapleton.
In Charter Oak, you can call 678-3571.
In Ute, call 885-2247
In Schleswig, call 676-3414
Or you can always call straight to Mapleton at 881-1101. And when you need to fax us something, the number is 881-1330.
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