Day 1

On my first day during my senior project at the Dallas Morning News I:

- Attended the first meeting of the day which included the editors for each section and some staff writers speculating which stories would be best for the front page and what was in the works for the next day's paper/internet site.
- I took at tour around the Dallas Morning News office and met many people - writers, editors, designers, film staff, interns, and more. Each piece of advice I received was very helpful because it was an insight into each job.
- I started to work on my Story of a Story project - I wrote the questions I needed to ask each person involved in the story, and began my interviews.
- I observed my mentor, Chuck, work design for the economy section. Chuck spent time choosing graphics from the Dallas Morning News library of photos and iStockPhoto and placed them in the text. I was very impressed to see how quickly his page was done and looked great!
- Mr. Jennings came today to observe my first day and see what all I would be doing, it was good to see a familiar face after meeting so many new people this morning!
- My first interview was with the Public Safety/Dallas Police Cluster reporter Tanya Eiserer.
- At 3:00 I attended another meeting, this time there were more editors and section writers there and we discussed the progress that each story had made. This time, they came closer to choosing the page one story, as well as stories for each other section.
- When I left, more people began to arrive for what is called the night shift- the writers would begin to finalize some of their stories, the editors would begin to review the stories, photographers would submit their photos, and the design team would begin to set up the next day's paper.

Overall, I learned a lot about what a typical office day for a newspaper would look like. With many people on the field, the offices are never full, but the people working on the logistics are hard at work all day to produce the paper that many read daily.

I am excited for day 2, which also looks very busy. I have many more interviews for my story of a story project, a meeting with sports writer Kevin Sherrington, more meetings to attend, and a lesson about music/movie critiques. I am very excited to continue learning more each day!