I’ve officially been at Stephens for two months and people are just now starting to ask whether I miss working at the Columbia Tribune.
Some have admitted they were scared to ask earlier; scared I would, I suppose, fall apart with regret.
Of course, if you read this blog, you know that’s not going to happen.
But I’m not going to lie, the Tribune is a great place to work mostly because of the awesome team there.
Managing Editor Jim Robertson was so great to work for. Any time I got stuck, I could go into his office, explain my dilemma, talk it out and figure out a way to move forward.
Lora Wegman, the city editor (who sometimes reads this blog!) is super talented. Not only does she keep up with everything happening in Columbia and around, she was so good about editing my stories and checking my facts, which were sometimes a little off. (I could always tell when someone else edited my stories: I’d often have to run “Second Thoughts” the next day. Lora made sure she caught them first.)
Then there were my super-brainy colleagues, Justin Willett and Joe Shultz, who helped me navigate all things technology.
And I miss working with designer Jason Tyler, who would take my hair-brained ideas for the Perspectives page on Sunday and turn them into reality.
Turns out, in my story specialist/strategist gig, I still need all of those people filling those roles.
And, fortunately, at Stephens, I have them.
Rebecca Kline is our marketing manager, and she’s great about seeing the big picture. I still get stuck on projects, and I still have someone to talk to who will bring me back to reality and help me move forward.
And I still make plenty of mistakes and typos. Fortunately, Sarah Berghorn, our communications coordinator, has a great eye for editing.
These days, when I get hair-brained ideas, I can take them to Jennifer Cropp, our designer, and Corey Ransberg, our photographer and videographer, who help turn them into reality.
And then there’s Stacey Franks, our digital manager, who is seriously talented in technology. She knows all about content management and platforms and apps and whatever else goes on behind my computer screen. She’s also good about not over thinking problems, which helps when dealing with me. Yesterday when I lost all telephone and Internet connection, Stacey figured out I’d simply re-plugged my phone jacks into the wrong outlets.
So, yes, I miss the folks I worked with at the Tribune.
Thankfully, I have an equally great group of colleagues here.
