My boss talked to me about branching out and said he appreciated that my last profile (on the pilot kid) wasn't about babies or families or moms. I said, "I try to do every other ..." and he interuptted me. "The newsman in me says you're overdoing it. That your your personal beliefs need to be kept in check for you to remain professional. But then I stopped and thought ... aren't we all parents? Aren't half of us moms? The newMAN in me, I think needs to shut up some, because moms are definitely an underserved part of our readership. You have brought a voice to our paper that it was sorely missing before. So I hate for you to start to second guess yourself since I've said something. But I decided you'd probably rather have the feedback than not. I really liked your pilot kid profile, I felt like I had a real sense of who he was after reading it. ... (goes on to nitpick a few things in it, and is right about two of three of them) ... I sit there, dumbfounded.
Complemented? You bet. But also confuzzled. Not counted Mama Talk, which is duh, supossed to be about babies, I've done like six profiles in the year that I've been here. Only two were about babies.
first one: LLL leader
second one: musician, guy who won Grays Harbor Idol
third one: Jewish dude who saves oceans and made up stories so he could feel important
fourth one: blind guy with guide dog
fifth one: midwife
sixth one: pilot kid.
Seriously, you think I'm overdoing babies/families/motherhood? huh? there was a profile about a woman who invented a baby safety product (the baby bath gate) that wasn't even BY me, but everyone thought it was, just because it had to do with babies. Is it that hard to read the byline? Apparently, yes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
My new boss talked to me for the first time today. It was, uh, different thatn your experience.
"Looks like you're a one-man band tonight."
"It's like this every Monday."
"Hmm. Well, have we run anything about the women's world cup soccer?"
"Mike hasn't made it a priority, so no, I don't think so."
"Hmm. Well, let's run something."
"Sure."
"Okay."
All the work I do, and he's only concerned about the wire copy. Nice.
after talking for awhile with stephen, we decided it was an insult after all. "hey, i don't like your stuff, but other people do, so i guess you should keep writing it."
why hasn't your boss talked to you before? doesn't talk to anyone, or has nothing to say to you in particular? seems like that would be a good thing, up until the wire comment. i guess boss people can't be bothered to read about local high school teams. that's BENEATH them or something ...
Post a Comment