Not sure how or why, but, I just survived a couple of the busiest months of my life. Truth be told, sleep is overrated, so, I decided to buy stock in a bitter blend of Guatemalan dark roast. If you hit it with a splash of french vanilla creamer and give it a vigorous beating, it isn’t half bad. Much like a beverage costing 10x as much at a well known coffee shop.
Anyways, huge high five celebration at the office last week…Champagne, caviar, balloons, confetti, the Rockettes even popped by for a quick dance number. Yeah, actually, NO! None of that went down.
In the newspaper business there is no time to party. It is an endless cycle of information sharing. Like a tidal pool, the ebb and flow of information is constantly feeding a reservoir of ink waiting for its turn to ….evolve…reveal…enhance life …wash up…impart knowledge…ummm, at a loss here.
However with our fifth paper “in the can”, the Winter Park Times is fast becoming a living, breathing entity. I want to thank everyone for their input, contributions and feedback. I will stay away from the doldrums of a grammy award winning speech naming convention and cut to the chase. We want to make this a great community asset that everyone can utilize, share and enjoy, so, I thought I would cover some housekeeping concepts to help our workflow.
The information of today comes in a variety of mediums from multiple outlets. Emails, Press Releases, Posters, Websites, and, even pics from the post office door. You can imagine what 100+ emails a day can do for your sleep cycle. So, I want to coin a 21st century term (maybe not mine, feel free to judge me if it makes you feel better)
The term is “Think Digital First.” What does that mean? It means we are a small team trying to do big things, so send us assets that make sharing easy. Send us emails and documents we can cut, copy or paste easily into newspaper and web layouts. Give us actual photos, don’t bury them in a document. It also means label your stuff, so we can easily organize and share it.
For you old timers, or, digitally-challenged younger folks, think about this: if you give us a scan of your poster or flyer, it is not digital. You just turned it into an analog (old school) artifact. What does that mean? Well, it means we can’t cut, copy or paste it. Instead, someone has to retype your information into another digital file. It also means we can’t use the photos, logos or anything from it. Guess where that ends up (Hint: It was once referred to as the “circular file”.)? Even though I would love to share it, it’s not happening without getting up very early and sorting it out.
The solution is to remember the term “Digital First.” Speaking of digital (shameless segue), check out our e-reader online. We post our weekly publication Thursday afternoons. Sign up for our e-news blast and we will send you a friendly reminder that our paper has posted digitally. Plus, we are finally starting to develop our social skills. Like us, Love us and Share us, and, thanks for reading. 😉
