I kind of see working at a student paper as like playing house.
It’s like playing house because, as managing editor of the Alligator, I hold a position I would never hold at any other paper. I’m 20, and I feel like I’m playing at being a grownup.
But here’s the problem with that analogy: running a student paper is anything but play. In terms of news content, you have the ability to really make a difference. And as anyone who has ever worked at his or her student paper knows, it’s really a full-time job. I’m managing people — people who care about their jobs as much as I do, and who care about getting the news out.
And even though I like to think of the Alligator staffers as competent journalists, the truth is: we’re all young. We are all, to some degree, inexperienced.
If the pen is mightier than the sword — well, we’re flying bombers at young ages. The paper has the potential to make people incredibly proud or incredibly angry; see the cartoon scandal.
That means the Alligator has problems that a well-oiled, well-managed decades-old newsroom wouldn’t face. Add the high staff turnover from semester to semester to that, and you’ve got a management nightmare.
Student paper though we are, we’re the biggest student paper in the country. We have a huge voice in our community, which means the editorial board needs to strive to make decisions with the discretion people twice our age struggle to harness.
I’ve realized over the past week how tough this job is going to be. Turning people down for jobs is one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done. I’m finally understanding the apology and nervousness in a former Alligator editor’s voice as she called to tell me someone else had been given a job I’d applied for.
Managing means listening and communicating, but it also means making tough decisions and not always making people happy.
Making people unhappy is not my specialty. I’m the girl who, growing up, would let my sister win when we played board games just so she wouldn’t turn over the board or quit playing. But that’s a skill set I’m going to have to learn. I’ve got to be able to put the good of the paper over situations that make me uncomfortable.
I think this semester is going to make me a better journalist and give me experience I might otherwise have only come into 15 years down the road. It’s going to be tough. I’m going to have to seek out the advice of the older and wiser journalists in my life.
I’m so happy to be in this position — and I’m going to do my best to live up to all it entails, even the unpleasant parts.
