Newspaper vs. Newswire

This post comes prompted by my sister, who is working at a band camp this summer and still has time to check my blog to see if I’ve written anything new.

I’m on Month #2 at The Buffalo News, working nights and weekends. The newsroom has switched over to a new system, so not only am I confused, but everyone else is. It’s certainly an adventure, but I’m reminded every day how fortunate I am to be at this paper. I was worried that this internship might be a little like last summer’s – sitting at a desk all day reading business copy.

Here’s a list of things that are different:

• First, the lighting isn’t as bright, which may or may not be a good thing. The air quality – well, it’s kind of dank.
• I’m reading local news, national news, book reviews, event coverage, concert previews, politics, music reviews, consumer reports, etc. Such a great variety!
• There’s an actual deadline. With the newswire, our deadline was always “now.” This summer, our deadline is 10:30 p.m., so the intensity builds the half an hour before.
• There’s another intern on the copy desk! Last summer, I was the only one. I like it because we’re going through the same stuff. We lunch together a lot.
• The copy desk features a “cast of characters,” which is actually a self-proclaimed title. A former intern advised me of this before I started, but I brushed it off because I thought, “Well, everyone’s a character.” Now I definitely know what he meant.
• The vocab? Much more extensive. I’ll post later with new words. Probably.

Anyway, I love interning.

I had my 22nd birthday Wednesday, and my friends took me to The Chocolate Bar in Buffalo to celebrate. They spoiled me. Here’s me with my chocolate mint martini:

Hopefully, I’ll be blogging more to keep you up to date. Sorry for the hiatus!