A Crazy 2008

"Hello?"

The words echoed in the dark with no response.

Hey guys. I know you're out there. So another year is coming to an end and that means another year as a cog in the journalistic wheel of this cruel, cruel world.

News is slow this time of year. I spent at least 12 hours last week compiling a "Year in Review" for our newspaper. That was riveting journalism. Hey I got one for ya ... in October we had two weeks with $900 total in advertising each week. That is roughly half the cost of printing the paper for one week. Things are better though. Thank God for the consumerism of the holidays. We fired our publisher, so now the owner is publisher and I'm taking over more of the publishing duties, short of selling advertising though. But I'm optimistic. The Alt monthly in Bozeman, the Tributary, which was a Lee paper, shut down and so we're basically the only alternative to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle on the market.

The best news is my wife is days (maybe hours) away from going into labor. I'm pulling for a New Year's baby since I think you get free shit as well as your picture in the paper. Renee's doing really well and everything looks good. We don't know whether it's a boy or girl, but I'll report back as soon as the small Lemon comes into the world.

I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the holidays.

Merry New Year,
Lemon

thanks

Mr. Lemon,

Thanks for joining. I tried to watch the whole debate tonight, but calls kept coming in, including from telemarketers. Oh well ... 

How's your new job in the new town going? 

As for me, it's hard to imagine I'm leaving the states in three months. Reality is finally dawning upon me. 

Guys, I'm doing some business stories now because that's what I need most to do well in Japan. I'm likening business stories much more that I thought. 

I'm In

Hello my fine newsy friends,

Sorry it took me so long to engage in our blog.

So a month ago I scheduled a book reading here in Bozeman on the night of a presidential debate. What a dumb move. So tonight while I'm reading to a small crowd of people who will only show up because I asked them to, the rest of you will be watching this town hall debate, which I think will be the best of the silly season.

Did anyone ever find Malcolm? Is he still writing?

Of course he is, dumb question. I haven't seen him or heard from him forever.

Peace out.

five weeks to go

Forgive me for writing about politics here. But it's that time again: election season. And I'm doing a few typical profile stories for state legislature races. Have you guys seen any papers doing those stories in innovative ways? I'm trying to bring some change to those routine stories.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Hoarse

Ever tried reporting after losing your voice? Oh my goodness. That's where I'm at today, and thank heavens for a source who's agreed to e-mail me back and forth. (He was sick and hoarse himself about a month ago.) All in a day's work!

let's keep it going

I think I have Lemong's correct e-mail. I will shoot him a note. 

Jed, did you know he just moved to Bozeman to become an editor for a weekly paper?

Also, I thought I would use this blog to share useful site I visit. You guys may know the first one already, but it's Nieman Narrative Digest, which features tons of cool narratives. Just Google it and you will find the site.

I will post more links later on multimedia ...

Guys, I know we all are busy, but let's keep this blog going. 

Where is Lemon?

So I must have sent the e-mail to a wrong address or maybe it went into his spam file. Anyone else have an address for Greg? I'm guessing Malcolm is still busy building in the Big Hole or Dillon or wherever.

rewriting press releases ...

Jed, glad you are in! I had a blast in Missoula. Hope you and Jen are well. 

Give me a few days so that I can find something good to post. I am catching up to work in the newsroom ridiculously short-staffed. And I do rewrite press releases to fill the paper... 

Anyway, more to come soon. I have a copy of Greg's book as well. I will get to it soon.

I'm so glad we are having this blog, which Keila came up with. 

Cheers (Kanpai),

Yoshi

Funniest correction ever

OK, I have a correction that's so amusing it's turned into its own (brief) story. Here's the original story -- http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/09/09/news/local/news03.txt. And the correction -- http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/09/09/bnews//br24.txt. (You can read only the correction for full effect, I think.)

I'm sure there's a fancy way to post a link instead of the whole URL but I don't know how to do that yet on this blog.

One of my editors said I should apply for an award for best correction next year. Now that's a vote of confidence.

Hey All

My excellent friends! How are you? Yoshi sorry I missed your call when you were in Missoula. I like this blog idea. Let's post links to our stuff here that we think needs to get out. Currently reading Greg's book and loving it. Sorry my name on the blog is "Obama2008" but I'm registered on Blogger because I have another blog thing I'm doing: http://convincemydad08.blogspot.com/ If you can help out please do.

up and running

Keila, thanks for starting this. Jed and Greg, I hope you guys can join this blog. I just came back from Missoula to Everett, where I face the tough reality of our short-staffed newsroom. 

I hope we can post our stories on this blog for advice and comment. As I'm moving back to Japan, I'm very excited about this blog and hope to stay in touch with all of you. 

Cheers,

Yoshi

Five years?

So it was great to see Yoshi here last week and so good to catch up with Greg. I can't believe all the cool stuff you all are doing. A book? Sheeshawamba. Anyway, in the interest of staying in touch, Yoshi and I talked about starting a class blog. I thought I'd give it a name we heard often -- and the one by which Jed still calls us. "Best class ever." (And I've been dissing the DNC for the self-congratulatory nature of its shindig in Denver ...) Anyway, can we chat this way? Holler.