Reflections: Inside my shoes the past year

12-31-2009

Reflections: Inside my shoes the past year

By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian

I get no respect.

OK, that's a little strong, but I just finished up my first full year as the community editor of the East Oregonian and some of my co-workers don't always view the community page as real news.

These are the same people who readily read (if not write in) the cop log, which certainly isn't Pulitzer Prize writing.

This past fall during a newsroom meeting, Samantha Bates asked if I was writing a precede story on the new exhibit at Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts.

"Are you talking about the one with Adnan Charara?" I asked.

She didn't remember the name but knew the artist did some brightly colored monoprints.

"That was in Friday's paper - thanks for reading," I said with a laugh.

Photographer E.J. Harris then said, "Oh yeah, I saw that."

Surprised, I said at least a photographer read my story.

"I didn't read it, I just saw the photos in Daily Photos," he responded.

On another recent occasion, Erin Mills, who sits across the room from me in the Hermiston Bureau, opened the paper and exclaimed, "Oh my god, there's no page 3A."

For those of you not familiar with the layout of the EO, page 3A is typically reserved for local news. However, on this particular day the community page graced that space.

"Yeah, it skips from page two and goes directly to page four," I responded in a monotone voice.

"You know what I mean," Erin stammered.

Despite sometimes being dissed by co-workers, there are people out there who respect the community page.

Shortly after I became the community editor, I was talking to EO Publishing Co. Board Chairman Mike Forrester at the company Christmas party.

"The community page is very important - years ago it was called the society page," he said.

And there's a host of people who make my job easier. Near the top of the list is Roberta Lavadour, director of Pendleton Center for the Arts.

She's great about sending press releases. And what earns her a gold star is the accompanying photos are high resolution. So on the rare occasion when I'm twiddling my thumbs pondering how I'm going to fill some space, I'll shoot off an e-mail to see if she has anything she wants to get in.

Another invaluable contributor is Robert Luke of Lukes Photos. There's good reason he received the Community Service Award from the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce in January.

Additionally, people like Erin Heideman of Ione and Carol Michael of Boardman are among the regular contributors to Your EO News. Thanks to their submissions, I rarely have to send out YEON alerts to the rest of the news team.

News Assistant Renee Struthers-Hogge is awesome in putting together the various calendars and forwarding e-mails I may not have. She also keeps me entertained by throwing in an occasional image of me with a moose - thanks to the magic of Photoshop.

And last, but certainly not least, there's Terry Murry, the former community editor who took me under her wing.

Early in my days at the EO, she would call me as deadline loomed with what I called, "Tips from Terry."

And very quietly she would say things like:

"When you're including a quote, put it in a new paragraph."

"Only in very rare circumstances is it appropriate to start a sentence with a number."

"You need to remember to put your story in the right style."

And my personal favorite, "Remember to set off nonessential phrases with commas."

Growing up with ADHD and the bulk of my professional career consisting of clinical writing - all commas were nonessential.

Even though Terry's a Red Sox fan and still owes me a case of Pepsi, some pizza and a feral cat, I truly appreciate her mentorship, which prepared me to step inside her shoes.
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Tammy Malgesini is the EO community editor. Her column, Inside my shoes, appears twice a month. You can reach her at tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4539.