Tuesday, May 26, 2009

June Paper

It’s paper time again! Even though I know exactly what will be in the paper (I either pick out, approve, or write every article), it’s always fun to see how it turns out. The process goes like this. I also get to pick the accent color for the paper. Some months there’s a good reason for a certain color--May is pink, in honor of Mother’s Day, June will be pink for Father’s Day—but often I pick the color for the month . . . just because.

I pick out, write (the articles I write have either my name by them, or [NFT]—denoting “Nebraska Family Times”—in front of them), or approve (by other writers, usually Marcie Sextro, who writes the “Open Door” and “Upcoming Christian Events” columns) the articles for the paper, and e-mail them to an account that the lady who does the layout, Jennifer Gleames, has access to.

I also e-mail information for new ads to Jennifer, and let her know where certain articles should appear in the paper, and if I have any suggestions for how they should be arranged (usually I don’t—she does a better job than I ever could!).

Jennifer arranges the articles in the paper according to what fits where and looks good, and she also fits the ads in. Jennifer also picks out the graphics—the pictures that go along with some of the articles. She does a great job of finding graphics that compliment the articles and add to the look of the paper.

When she’s done doing that, she emails me a file of the paper for proofreading. It’s neat to see the paper in semi-finished form on the computer. The way the pages of the paper are layed out for printing, on one computer screen I see the front and back page of the paper, on the next screen I see pages 6 and 11, and so on, so it’s not in order or the order in which it will appear. If there are any corrections or changes, I e-mail Jennifer about them and she makes the corrections or changes. She then e-mails the file to the Wayne Herald, where it is printed.

Marcie’s husband works in Wayne, so he now picks up the paper at the Wayne Herald and Marcie and I meet somewhere in between our homes (usually in Madison), and once the 16 or so boxes of papers are in my vehicle, I get my first look at it in “real life”!