As we prepare to start 2023, I was reminded of my own start at the Journal-Tribune.
I was thinking about this watching the J-T newsroom staff work this week to prepare the list of Top 10 local stories for 2022. That same assignment was the first story I wrote at this newspaper, compiling the list of top stories of 1990.
I was looking back at copies of that newspaper today, the top story being about the efforts of local residents to stop the construction of a incinerator facility for infectious, medical waste. Other top stories included the departure of a controversial former Marysville school superintendent, local YMCA officials filing a lawsuit against the YMCA of Central Ohio, the county plans to purchase the former Marysville school buildings on Sixth and Seventh streets and, ironically enough, stories about the city’s plans to purchase the facilities of the Ohio Water Service, which were recently replaced by Marysville’s new water plant. Also landing at number 8 on the list of stories was an incident in Richwood in which police officers were using their positions to purchase AR-15s for personal use and to sell. I have to think that story would have been higher on the list today.
I started at the newspaper as an intern over Christmas break during my freshman year of college. Roughly a year later, I began working in the newsroom full time while still going to college.
In the early years, I covered police and fire issues, as well as helping with some sports coverage. After a brief stint as sports editor, I went back to news, adding duties covering county government, courts, the Village of Richwood and North Union Schools. After being named managing editor in 2000, we shifted coverage areas and I moved over to cover Marysville Schools, the hospital and Village of North Lewisburg.
I have also worked most Friday nights of the year since 1994, when the J-T started putting out a Saturday newspaper.
I mention all of this because I was taking stock of just the sheer volume of routine tasks I have done over the course of the my career. These aren’t “Watergate” type tasks. These are simple things all journalists do.
-Until recently, I had worked on Friday nights for 26 years. As an estimate, let’s say I worked 48 of the 52 Fridays each year (averaging in vacations and weekend holidays). That means I have given up an estimated 1,248 Friday nights, finishing up as late as 2 a.m., while my friends went out to eat, watched movies or took in sporting events.
-I have covered Marysville’s football team for about 28 years. Ten regular season games per year, plus a handful of playoff games on top of that. I have missed a couple games but very few. I would estimate I have covered about 290 Marysville football games, and will pass the 300 mark next year.
-I’ve covered all manners of evening council and school board meetings for the entire 32 years I have worked here. I would estimate I have generally averaged three meetings per month for my entire career. That’s basically 36 meetings per year, times 32 years, equates to more than 1,150 meetings about such things as financial forecasts, street paving and student enrollment.
-In the 22 years I have been managing editor, I would estimate I have overseen the creation of more than 6,700 editions of the Journal-Tribune. In each of those editions, I probably laid out an average of five pages, which means I was personally responsible for creating more than 33,000 pages as managing editor.
–We create more than 300 editions each year at the Journal-Tribune. So in 32 years, I have played a role at some level in helping produce more than 9,500 editions of the Journal-Tribune.
I think anyone who has been at a job for a few decades could break their duties down like this and come up with some pretty remarkable numbers. Whether it be oil changes, copies made, windows installed or operating system updates, routine tasks add up to pretty incredible numbers.
Now, before anyone thinks I’m puffing out my chest about three decades at the newspaper, realize that I look two desks over at 46 years of experience in Sports Editor Tim Miller.
Tim covers games four to six nights per week, during the school year. During the summer that might slow down a bit, but I would wager that over the course of a full year, he averages five games a week. The math isn’t hard. Tim has definitely covered more than 10,000 high schools games in his career, and more than likely 11,000 is closer to the correct number.
With five decades of local sports coverage within sight, Tim has seen so many changes in the local sports landscape. Truly high school sports during Tim’s first year at the J-T looked nothing like today’s contests.
For example, soccer, lacrosse, bowling, swimming and girl’s wrestling weren’t high school sports when he started. Softball existed, but only Marysville had a team.
The three-point line in basketball did not exist when Tim started and dunking the ball was outlawed. There were also no mercy rules in existence, so he saw some blowouts in his early years.
Tim also mentioned that athletes he has covered sometimes grow to lead local school districts, like current Marysville High School Principal Ken Chaffin (basketball at MHS), former Triad Superintendent Chris Piper (North Union basketball) and current Triad Superintendent Vickie Hoffman (cheerleading at North Union).
Combined, Tim and I have 78 years of covering local news and sports. That’s a lot of years covering one community. That is a ton of local knowledge, spread out over a wide horizon of subjects.
I would think few, if any, newspapers in Ohio have two newsroom staffers with that depth of knowledge of local sports, schools, cops, county, city and village government, courts, healthcare and business.
-Chad Williamson is the managing editor at the Journal-Tribune.