Week 2: Adjustment and initiative

I officially finished my second week at Newsday yesterday afternoon. As I get more comfortable with life at the paper, it becomes more endearing and I’ve realized it’s an incredibly fun, fulfilling job.

This week, my editors assigned me to a host of varying activities. On Tuesday, I covered a town hall meeting at Northport, one of Long Island’s quaint villages by the water. A brief sidenote about Nortporters: they are truly passionate about improving their town — maybe a little too passionate — but it really impressed me how dedicated they were to improvements. I wish people in El Salvador were as passionate about changing their living circumstances, maybe then we’d have some real development.

Anyways, on Thursday I had the chance to go zip lining and climbing on a high ropes course as I covered the park the course was located in, and on Saturday I woke up bright and early to cover a race honoring fallen hero Lt. Michael Murphy — the Navy SEAL who the movie “Lone Survivor” was based on. As a plus, I got to interview the actor who played him in that movie, since he was at the race. So far, I’ve had 5 longer pieces published, and 3-4 briefs that I mentioned in my last blog post. The work the editors assign me is really fulfilling, and lets me feel as if I am accomplishing something during the internship.

Another thing I’ve found really great is how the editors are so thorough in the editing process. They ask me multiple clarifications and help me restructure sentences to make my pieces flow better, which I do appreciate, since I hope it will improve my writing skills. In this respect, even though there is no clear “leader” or figurehead among the towns reporters, all main editors take a pretty one-on-one stance when it comes to interacting with their reporters. Some more than others, I’ll admit, but there have been times when editors have sat with me and explained the rationale behind their edits, which is infinitely more helpful to me than if they had just changed it. This suggests that the company culture is one that supports relationship-oriented leadership, rather than just task-oriented. I don’t think I’ve been at the paper long enough to determine that, especially because all the editors are different, but I hope that next week I can write a more in-depth post applying leadership theories based on my observations.

I think one of the main problems I’ve encountered thus far is the lack of a leadership figurehead who can answer my questions, and other interns have expressed that feeling as well. One of the interns who was also on the towns desk told me she didn’t get assigned many stories the first week, and she had no idea who to ask or talk to regarding this issue. Similarly, I had several questions about time logistics, since even though I’m not supposed to work more than 8 hours a day, sometimes I have to come in early, leave early or later to cover an event. I did not know who to ask about overtime, or whether that meant I could make adjustments to the timesheet and leave the office whenever I finished my 8 hours. My reluctance to ask lead me to work a couple 9 or 10-hour days this week without getting paid for my extra hours, but that’s probably my fault for failing to ask someone until Friday, when I went to human resources to inquire further. At least now I know that if I cover an event that starts or ends before my official shift time, I should count 8 hours starting or ending from that point and come into the office then. Knowing this before would have been useful, but at least now I know.