Monday, May 10, 2004

:: Are you kidding me? ::

I finally got last week's copy of my old paper, the Record-Gazette, in the mail. Because of the distance I usually get them a week behind schedule - since the newest paper comes out again tomorrow.

Now, when Ken left the paper, it suffered because Ken knew what he was doing. However, without sounding too arrogant, I knew what I was doing too, and I managed to put out 2 papers that were very good - and I got them done very quick too. But when I left, there was nobody there who knew anything about layout etc - I'm still convinced that this new editor, despite his long, very impressive list of journalistic accolades, doesn't know how to turn on a computer. Also, english isn't his first language..and it shows.

This weeks paper was AWFUL. I can seriously say, without exaggeration, that this is the worst published paper I have ever seen anywhere in my life.

EVER.

On Wednesday mornings, the office manager there used to take sadistic pleasure in pointing out to me and Ken the one or two mistakes we had in the paper. She used to think she would've caught them all, and never hesitated to tell us.

This week there were 29 errors. Including 6 on the front page. Hey Marie, where were ya on that those ones?

The sad part is, I haven't even read the stories. These are layout mistakes. 29.

Headlines? Fucked. Photos? Fucked. Columns lining up properly? Nice try. Photos? So bad I wouldn't even have downloaded them off the digital camera. Those pictures are what the 'delete' button is for. I would've said "DELETED!!!" so many times that week that you'd think that I'd turned into Strong Bad himself.

It's sickenly awful to think about because, as much as I don't like that paper much, me and Ken both worked hard to make that paper good. And it was. I got more compliments on my sports section than I can count.

Now the receptionist is writing the sports section.

I'm not fucking joking. Out of all the stories in the sports section, there is only one tiny one that would be suitable to run - the rest are either not stories at all, or are taken from other Bowes papers that are so far away from Peace River that it's not funny.

What a complete mess. I cringe just thinking about next week.

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