Captain’s Log: Movable Type

I just noticed that we have a bunch of chats going this morning, working on three separate papers, and it’s not even 6 a.m. yet.

I would like it noted for the record that there is no requirement at Fallon Media Co. to work in the pre-dawn hours, but it appears the team is picking up my early morning habit. I sort of feel bad – like I’ve led them all astray. 

At Fallon Media Co., we use a chat app on our computers to make it easier to communicate in real time, rather than sending emails or dropping everything for a phone call. This way, you can have several chats open at once and be working with someone on a project while you’re waiting for someone else to respond about the piece they’re working on. You can also drop a note to someone outside work hours so you don’t forget to talk to them about something, and when they get to work, that issue can get handled. 

Multi-tasking opponents would cringe, but we really can get a lot done this way. 

Currently, I’m chatting with Lori, who edits The Fallon Post, about making sure an obituary is correct and whether or not this one story is okay for the front page. Amber and I are also talking about what’s coming today – she keeps all the wheels greased for Fallon Media Co., sells ads in Fernley, and is learning to write stories and become a reporter. Another chat is with Allyson, who does the layout for Fernley. We’re trying to figure out if we have enough stories to fill space, and then a long, rambling conversation with Shania, who creates the Lovelock paper and is remote today, traveling to the Rural Roundup conference in Elko. We’ve decided we have to rearrange some of the pages she did yesterday on her laptop while she was on the bus heading up to the conference.

Ain’t technology grand? Honestly, it’s amazing what we’re able to do with all the cutting-edge tools we have at our disposal. I often joke that I can run my whole business from my phone. It isn’t really a joke, though; in theory, I could. Although I’m getting to the age where seeing that small is a bit of a challenge, but the ability is there in a jam. 

Sometimes I think about Mark Twain and movable type and what it would have been like back then, when “the editor was a young idealist who hocked everything to buy his press” (Movie line – points if you know which one), and I can’t even imagine how they managed to put papers together. 

We were all talking the other day with the Winnemucca crew about when they were a daily and had 30 people working in the building. Jen is our editor up there, and she said, “Who knew that I lived through the heyday?” 

But here we are – creating our own heyday. Who knows how this thing is going to go and what we’re going to be able to make these papers into? Judging by how we’ve evolved over the past seven years, I wouldn’t take a bet against us. 

So while we build on this early-morning energy and get all five of these papers to the printer today, we’ll always be right here…

…Keeping you Posted.

Rach.