I assure you. My job isn’t that sexy. Some days it’s down right off the charts boring. The worst part is sitting at my desk and staring at the phone. Callbacks are a bitch. You are almost never guaranteed a source will return a call or show up for an interview. It’s a wait and see game. For the most part, I love what I do. I love hearing stories and telling those stories for others to read. Most reporters have a beat where they specialize or they are considered general assignment and write about lots of stuff. I work at a relatively small daily paper so I get to write about a mishmash of stuff. My interests lie in health, crime, sports and politics. Recently I switched to a higher profile beat (education to city hall). I get to cover city council meetings and keep the council in check.
Last week I wrote a story about the city’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. One project is its “greening the fleet” initiative. Pretty interesting stuff happening. I always like to read newspapers when I visit other communities. I can never get away from my job. That’s okay it’s important to stay on top of things. Yes, I know there is the internet (that I love dearly) but there’s nothing like reading a section of a folded newspaper over a cup of coffee or on the morning the train.
Do you read your local newspaper? How do you stay up to date with local news?