Bye, Bye, Bye
It might be time to dump a bad printer.
B
I hate finding a new printer. I’m more likely to stick with a flawed printer than to try out a new printer because that new printer could force me to change my layout dimensions, my print schedule, and my submission format and still may screw up an issue’s worth of hard work.
But sometimes it has to be done, and sometimes it can be an awesome change that makes you wonder why you stayed with a bad printer for so long. I’m in my 14th year as an adviser, and I’m on my fifth printer. Each one has been an improvement.
The good thing is printers typically want your business! You’re a big account. This isn’t like asking your principal for funding or asking your tech guy to set up something. You are the prize!
So if you decide it’s time to break out of a bad relationship, the JEMKC board came up with seven questions we would ask any new printer. Like any relationship, different people want different things. Flaws I tolerate may be deal-breakers for you, and vice versa.
- How flexible is our deadline? Some printers have zero flexibility due to tight schedules. If you miss your deadline, you may be paying a steep penalty or waiting awhile for the next slot. But my printer is typically fine with me submitting a day later. He’ll just return it to me a day later.
- What is the turnaround time? I have had printers that could get return a paper in 24 hours. My current printer takes a solid week.
- What paper formats do you have? Even within the standard categories (broadsheet, tabloid, magazine), you may have a lot of variation in sizes.
- What paper options do you have? Please send us samples of your printing. There’s glossy versus traditional newsprint, lightweight versus heavier weights, and brighter white options. When I was terrible at teaching photography and using the cheapest equipment, I didn’t need a super-sharp printer. I asked my printer in 2007 for a quote on recycled newsprint for our special issue on the environment. He said, “You’re already getting recycled paper. Newsprint is the scrap heap of printer paper.” We’ve upgraded to brighter, more expensive paper twice since then, and I still see a couple steps up available.
- What is the cost for x-amount of copies for 16/24/32/40 pages? I’ve had a printer who charged more for 24 than for 32 because 24 adds a step (not sure why). Others make 32 almost as cheap as 16. You may find out shortening your paper leads to big savings, or that expanded coverage will barely impact your budget. Make sure you get the whole table of price options.
- Do you charge extra for shipping?
- How do we submit pages? Some want PDFs, others want ZIPs. Some use email, some have a special FTTP site.
Printers used by JEMKC Board Members
- Sedalia Democrat: Patrick Dehaven (patrickd@sedaliademocrat.com), used by Blue Valley
- Osage Graphics: Corey Hale (corey@osagegraphics.com), used by Saint Thomas Aquinas
School Portrait Photographers
I asked the JEMKC board who they used for school portraits, and I received a lot of strong opinions. I was looking for a solid choice, but what I found was a lack of consensus. It seems no company is consistently good for years, so don’t expect a lifetime commitment.
- Rolland Studios in Raytown: Steve Mullally (steve@rollandkc.com), used by all Blue Valley high schools
- Lifetouch in Stilwell and Gladstone: Nick Waldschmidt (nwaldschmidt@lifetouch.com), used by Saint Thomas Aquinas and Gardner-Edgerton
- Inter-State Studios in Sedalia: (inter-state.com), previously used by JEMKC board members
- Strawbridge Studios: will likely be used in the future by a JEMKC board member
- Reed Portrait Group in the Northland: (816) 436-5550, used by Park Hill South and local schools
- Pearce Photo Graphics in Belton: (816) 331-8586, used by Liberty
- Scholastic in Shawnee Mission: (schphoto.net), used by North Kansas City
Speaker: “You can’t find a more satisfying career”
The full video is available on Facebook.
Reeves Wiedeman is living the dream of so many aspiring journalists: He interviews interesting people to write unique stories for New York magazine while living in Brooklyn and going to the same pizza parlor as Beyonce and Jay-Z.
But Wiedeman didn’t always have the coolest job. The product of Lincoln Prep Junior High and Rockhurst High School wasn’t allowed to sign up for a journalism class at Rockhurst because his mom wanted him to continue to play percussion in the jazz band. And multiple times after that during his career, he was rejected, insulted and struggling to keep his career going.
Still, he kept pushing until his hard work and a stroke of luck started his career rolling.
Wiedeman had four tips for students:
New York editor Reeves Wiedeman tells the JEMKC crowd about how he had to write about going on a date for a story in The Kansas City Star.
- stop worrying about resume fodder
- be flexible
- get used to rejection
- and get lucky.
#1 Stop worrying about resume fodder
Wiedeman noted the irony of downplaying awards while speaking at an awards show, but encouraged the students to “just do the work” without a focus on recognition. The joy of the work itself, and the impact the work has on others, can be the reward. As a kid who looked up to Kansas Star Star columnists Joe Posnanski and Jason Whitlock, Wiedeman badly wanted to be a sports writer. But as he grew up, he found what really interested him was interesting people.
Awards today are not a guarantee or requirement for jobs tomorrow. Likewise, students do not need to get into a top college journalism program. Wiedeman said he was rejected by all of his preferred colleges and ended up at a college with no journalism program at all. He is grateful he was a “big fish in a small pond” because he was able to start writing for the Boston College newspaper nearly immediately and was editor-in-chief by his sophomore year. And while he’s applied for a lot of jobs since then, “no one has asked me for my academic credentials.”
#2 Be Flexible
While Wiedeman has steadily worked as a writer at magazines, one of Wiedeman’s former fact-checking peers at The New Yorker has had a variety of jobs since then: producing podcasts, turning stories into movie scripts, producing a nightly TV show, and now publishing a book. Flexibility has been a necessity in her career.
#3 Get used to rejection
Rejection will constantly happen to journalists. Wiedeman failed to get an internship. He was eventually working 60 hours a week for no pay and living in an aunt’s basement in New Jersey and spending two hours each day on a bus. And even today his ideas get rejected by his bosses.
#4 Get lucky
Finally, Wiedeman admitted that despite all of his hard work, it still took a series of flukes for him to get an interview at The New Yorker magazine. An old friend of his mother’s worked at The New Yorker and stopped by his mom’s store in Brookside.
That got Wiedeman in the door for an interview as a fact-checker, but he still had “many rounds of interviews” before getting the job.
“The unfortunate reality is you’re going to need some dumb luck. There is no secret sauce,” he said.
But those years of work plus the bit of luck has led to being published in Rolling Stone, Harper’s, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Men’s Journal and Popular Mechanics, plus others, before his job at New York magazine now. It led to him hanging out with Mike Tyson and his pigeons and taking 7’6” basketball legend Yao Ming to the zoo. He’s talked to bourbon thieves in rural Kentucky, Bieber fans in New Jersey, pot-smoking soccer moms in Colorado, and Kansas City people in New York.
And when the Royals won the World Series in 2015, the sports-loving Kansas City kid was on the field as the team celebrated.
Wiedeman said if you don’t really love journalism, there are plenty of other good jobs that pay well.
“But if you do really love it, you can’t find a more satisfying career.”
For more Reeves Wiedeman:
- ReevesWiedeman.me is his professional site.
- His New York magazine hiring
- His Rolling Stone stories
- His Grantland stories
- His Men’s Journal stories
- His stories for The Atlantic
- His Popular Mechanics stories
Read More
Mary Beth Tinker to speak at Missouri Western
Mary Beth Tinker will speak at Missouri Western State University Monday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. Advisers and students are invited to attend the event in Spratt 101 (Kemper Auditorium).
She, too, will speak with Bob Bergland’s class at 9:30 the following morning. If you’re interested in attending the morning session, please contact Bob at bergland@missouriwestern.edu to ensure there is plenty of room.
Read MorePuntney Journalism Grant
