Kevin Hensley
The editor has penned a column? Inconceivable!
But, alas, I am emerging from a lengthy stint away from page 4. Truthfully, I have no idea how.
The weekly newspaper cycle keeps me on the go, no doubt. People often ask me when I sleep and my immediate reply is, “When I can.”
Obviously, that’s a stretch, but there is little downtime when you juggle the finances, proof content, help build pages and cover events (which you then have to find time to write and recap; often a forgotten obstacle to the general public).
As I write this, it is 1:21 p.m. Monday. The final day of preparation. Tuesday is always a thrill ride, as the newspaper goes from a weeklong brainstorm to a physical reality. As such, Mondays are spent making sure all content is as close to ready to go as it can be before it actually goes into print.
Absent today is the daily conversation with my office manager, who is out for a doctor’s visit. Customers have flowed in and out since our doors opened (always a plus when you are a for-profit business) and plenty others have stopped by just to chat – part of what I love about this being your hometown newspaper.
There have been far too many events to offer my 2 cents on since the last time I wrote a column. I have wrote my name down on a checklist of sorts I prepare each week under the “columns” category, but it seems that the combination of recurring writers and letters take care of this page for me. That is very much welcome, I assure you; not only does it alleviate my workload, but it gives the newspaper more of a community feel.
Tomorrow is a pair of meetings, four ball games and deadline. We might close on Wednesdays and at 1 p.m., Fridays, but the editor is truly never “off the clock” – a hard lesson I have had to learn since taking over some 4 ½ years ago. The cycle simply resets after 10 a.m. Wednesdays, when the paper is sent to press.
Hang on, that just gave me an idea for another column – now I just have to beat the deadline of getting it wrote before the end of this calendar year.
Fingers crossed.
Kevin Hensley is the publisher/editor of The Graham Star. His open-door policy still exists, but your late-night inquiry while he is enjoying rare time at home can wait until the sun rises the next day. No, really, it can.