The search: to be continued...

The offer was made. The offer was negotiated. I hoped it would be give-and-take. It was not give-and-take. I declined their offer. The only way I could have said yes and made the leap was to be absolutely happy and satisfied with the terms of the agreement. I was not - so I said, "sorry."

BUT...the life of this fledgling little blog continues...isn't that good news? I now continue flinging cover letters and clips every which way across the universe....well, actually that's not entirely true. I'm going to try to be a bit more selective: larger cities, near family and papers with a higher circulation (aiming at 50K+).

Now that the Wisconsin decision is over, I now face another set of choices. Should I continue my search from here, Atlanta? Or should I move home? Should I let myself land somewhere in between?

Pro/con lists

Here's my story as it appeared in the Stevens Point Journal on Saturday. The editor who interviewed me was kind enough to bring me a copy of the paper when she came to pick me up from my motel and take me to the airport. It was sort of weird to see my byline in another paper.

So now that I'm back in Atlanta, it's time to really start thinking about this job, considering the good, the bad and everything in between. I like to start my heavy mental lifting by warming up with a pro/con list. So far, they're running about even...

I survived tryouts

I finished up my first story today. It's suppose to run in tomorrow's paper so I'll post a link. Sort of strange to think of a stranger writing in your newspaper, isn't it? You're not a "contributing writer" or "special to" whatever paper - you're just, well, a tryout.

In other news - looks like presidential hopeful Barack Obama announced his VP - Deleware senator Joe Biden.

So, what you got?

I'll need to do some homework tonight. I picked up several copies of the paper so I can catch up on recent news so I can have half a clue about what to do when I get assigned a story tomorrow morning.

The paper is pretty thin. Since it's a small town paper, I'd say it's daily print product is about the thickness of a large metro paper's individual section. It's part of a regional collection of four Gannett-owned daily community newspapers. The managing editor and I went to dinner and I got to ask her a bunch of questions. She's fairly new herself and has a lot of plans in mind (video, multimedia, mentoring, etc.) but says she hasn't put things in motion yet.


Here are some pretty flowers . The scenery here reminds me of Oregon. I've been hearing a lot about this trail called the Green Circle, which is like a 26 mile loop that encircles the town (which also gives you another gauge on the size of this place).

Also, sports are big here. Baseball, hockey, and of course, with the Green Bay Packers, football. But I only like football that involves tv dramas like Friday Night Lights. Ah well.


Apparently another big deal here is fish fry. There are several bodies of water around. Ponds here and there. The great lakes not too far off. A river that cuts through the middle of town. (I guess they ran out of the letter "s" from the other side of the sign.)

I'll close with a nice view from the airplane and some ending thoughts on the day.

I'm feeling a lot more pressure now that I'm actually here. Not necessarily pressure from the company to take the job, but pressure to just make the right decision - a good decision.

I've heard someone say that when it comes to choices, you make a decision and then you make it the right one. When is that attitude/outlook beneficial? Or is it just the only option in some cases?

Wisconsin

So, I'm here. In Wisconsin. In Stevens Point, to be more specific. It's not what I pictured, really. I'm not sure what exactly I had imagined, but I think I was preparing myself for the worst, just in case. It's a '70's town, for sure, but quite hospitable.

I arrived and met the managing editor at the airport. We chatted on the 40 minute car ride back into town. Mainly rehashing my summer internship, etc. Then I had lunch at a cute little place called The Wooden Chair with the community editor (who, btw, shares the name of an X-Men character - cool or what? I'll leave you to guess which). We actually had a wonderful conversation that was part work/interview-ish, but generally totally enjoyable.

After that, one of the photogs - who's lived here forever - took me on a driving tour of the town. North, south, west, east. Nothing to raise the pulse, but I got a good honest lay of the land. There are a lot of parks here - strange parallel to Gwinnett county...hmmmm.

I took a good long nap after checking into my motel and am now waiting to go to dinner with the ME. Where are the pictures, you ask? They'll be coming soon enough....

Going for a test run

They've finally given me my schedule for the trip! I just got a call from one of the editors at the Stevens Point Journal and she gave me the breakdown of what I'll be doing there from Wednesday to Saturday.

The biggest news: they're going to test-drive my reporting abilities and have me write a few stories while I'm there. This should be quite interesting and, needless to say, challenging since I have never been to the city, will not have a car and will be in a totally new environment. I just hope there's no silly hoop-jumping....like a try-out tuned bad turned into a scavenger hunt (like find out the mayor's dog's middle name *shudder*).

Where's my coffee?

I practically became addicted to coffee after working at a place where a machine that produced nice individual cups of hot steaming [fill in the blank: everything ranging from costa rican to french vanilla to chai tea] brewed just steps away from my desk. So now that my internship is over, I must do without a late morning cup of joe in addition to being jobless. Great, just great.

My internship at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was a 10-week whirlwind that left me with memorable experiences, a stack of clips and many new friendships. There are some things that I eagerly leave behind (like banging down doors in a neighborhood where a 4-year-old girl was murdered, and driving around places lost with a map in the dead heat of summer - to name a few), but I have to say, I am fully satisfied with the experience. Now after 10 weeks, they've thrown me out on the street/out to the wolves. I have to find a job. Which is where this blog comes in.

I'm going to chronicle my job search here - the good, the bad, the weird. I'll do my best to post photos because, hey, we all know that those are the best part of blog posts (who wants to actually read this rambling nonsense?).

This all begins at a very opportune time, because I am going to be flying up to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, this week to interview at the Stevens Point Journal.

Any and all feedback is welcome. Don't check back too often, because it's not like I'm going to be updating every hour. In case you haven't checked lately, newspapers are shrinking/morphing like crazy, so those offers aren't exactly piling up. But I do get the job of navigating these waters during very interesting times. So, stay tuned! And welcome to The Search!