The pieces fall into place, except where they don't
In response to practically no reader inquiry, I'm obliged to offer a lame excuse for not updating this thing for however long it's been, four or five days:
I've been busy with money-making activities. Working, as it were, for The Man.
First came the Reno News & Review, about which several people actually did inquire. I'll be doing a weekly column and occasional other stories. Editor Brian Burghart and his staff have done a good job for a long time, and I'm happy to be there.
I don't know if this is still true, but when I was learning to write boring stories in journalism school, most students imagined themselves working for aggressive "underground" weeklies, blowing the lids off scandals and sending mayors to jail while the Big Papers could only placate their advertisers and envy our freedom. Some of the attraction wore off after we learned about the starvation wages that usually go with those jobs, but a working wife allows a man options. I'm pleased to be part of a noble effort.
Second, I'll be doing commentary now and then on KOLO TV, Channel 8. The details are still vague, at least to me, but for now it will be a couple of minutes of comment on the 6:30 News on some or perhaps all Wednesday evenings, then a short segment on Daybreak, the morning snow, the next day. I did the first two this week and thought I was fairly bad, though not humiliatingly so...less wooden than Howdy Doody, for those who remember him, but not as riveting as, say, the early Al Gore. Somewhere around Mitt Romney.
My brief acquaintance with television news has been instructive, though. As a career print journalist, I had the usual print bias: Only newspapers do real news. TV was all hair and capped teeth.
Uh, no. I've sat in the KOLO news room through a couple of production cycles (I'm not sure if "production cycle" is real TV talk or if I made it up), and I was impressed. The pretty faces, including mine, are a tiny part of the operation. Back where the cameras don't go, real news people are writing real stories and real editors are making making decisions under pressures I believe are greater than those at a newspaper. If a paper's press run starts 10 minutes late, somebody gets yelled at but the readers never know. If a news broadcast starts 10 minutes late, people change the channel and don't come back.
It's actually pretty intimidating, and I say that as a guy who wrote on deadline for three decades. Plus you have to wear a tie, sit up straight and there's no Backspace key, so your mistakes just hang there in God's own air.
KOLO has fixed me up with an e-mail address, cory.farley@kolotv.com, on which I'm happy to receive comments, advice and suggestions for future commentaries. I'm struggling a little with remote access at this point, but that will get well, and meanwhile I'll be going by the office to check it out. E-mails containing the word "pathetic" will be discarded.
I've been busy with money-making activities. Working, as it were, for The Man.
First came the Reno News & Review, about which several people actually did inquire. I'll be doing a weekly column and occasional other stories. Editor Brian Burghart and his staff have done a good job for a long time, and I'm happy to be there.
I don't know if this is still true, but when I was learning to write boring stories in journalism school, most students imagined themselves working for aggressive "underground" weeklies, blowing the lids off scandals and sending mayors to jail while the Big Papers could only placate their advertisers and envy our freedom. Some of the attraction wore off after we learned about the starvation wages that usually go with those jobs, but a working wife allows a man options. I'm pleased to be part of a noble effort.
Second, I'll be doing commentary now and then on KOLO TV, Channel 8. The details are still vague, at least to me, but for now it will be a couple of minutes of comment on the 6:30 News on some or perhaps all Wednesday evenings, then a short segment on Daybreak, the morning snow, the next day. I did the first two this week and thought I was fairly bad, though not humiliatingly so...less wooden than Howdy Doody, for those who remember him, but not as riveting as, say, the early Al Gore. Somewhere around Mitt Romney.
My brief acquaintance with television news has been instructive, though. As a career print journalist, I had the usual print bias: Only newspapers do real news. TV was all hair and capped teeth.
Uh, no. I've sat in the KOLO news room through a couple of production cycles (I'm not sure if "production cycle" is real TV talk or if I made it up), and I was impressed. The pretty faces, including mine, are a tiny part of the operation. Back where the cameras don't go, real news people are writing real stories and real editors are making making decisions under pressures I believe are greater than those at a newspaper. If a paper's press run starts 10 minutes late, somebody gets yelled at but the readers never know. If a news broadcast starts 10 minutes late, people change the channel and don't come back.
It's actually pretty intimidating, and I say that as a guy who wrote on deadline for three decades. Plus you have to wear a tie, sit up straight and there's no Backspace key, so your mistakes just hang there in God's own air.
KOLO has fixed me up with an e-mail address, cory.farley@kolotv.com, on which I'm happy to receive comments, advice and suggestions for future commentaries. I'm struggling a little with remote access at this point, but that will get well, and meanwhile I'll be going by the office to check it out. E-mails containing the word "pathetic" will be discarded.
posted by Cory | 4:15 PM
14 Comments:
Which still doesn't answer the question: what schedule, if any, do you post?
With the other paper, who abandoned you, there was regularity.
Do I need to send you a bag of prunes?
Not to sound uppity, but I post when I have something to say, or when I haven't posted in awhile, or when I feel like it. I plan to to it every other day or so, and probably will come close to that, but...well, hell, I'm retired, and I'm not making any money off this thing, and I'm not going to lie and say, "I'll to it five times a week no matter what."
There are some who actually DO make money from their blogs:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/
http://www.dooce.com
to name just two
Cory, you can post whenever you want to in my book. I check the blog daily, and I must admit I am disapointed when there is not a new article. However, the fact that you have not 'abandoned' your readers upon retirement rates pretty fantastic to me.
Good Luck , we will set the DVR for Wed.... That gives me a good excuse to go by My Favorite Chinese Take out Place, once a week to pick up dinner and a paper.
I don't think a personal blog like this should be a for-profit endeavor.
Having said that, Cory should be able to post when he feels like it - and not necessarily when we demand it.
His claim about retirement falls on deaf ears however because he is still gainfully employed on some level.
My two cents: Can we get a blog entry about bicycling?
I appreciate your blogs - you don't have to censure what you couldn't say in pulp. I'm pleased to read of your association with Channel 8. When we lived in town, that was our channel of choice, and of the picks, I'm glad it was your's. DH told me that you were going to be writing for the R&R - even better. It's been a bone of contention in this house that I refuse to read the local rag, like there's something in it. Thanks for leting me off the hook.
CF,
Hang in there on the tube. You will ease up and look more lifelike (mourner: he looks so lifelike) with experience. Some comments slash tips:
1. Lose the laptop. It's in your way and a distraction. We really don't think you were surfing the Web or writing your script just before you went on air and it's in the way of your hands. Kill the person who thought that one up.
2. I know you have to read the teleprompter, but only Tom Cruise locks eyeballs and doesn't let go. It's OK to look away from time to time. You wrote it. You know what's coming next.
3. Grab a pen in your left hand and hold it with your right. We'd rather watch you sitting there holding a pen than trying to figure out what to do with your hands. See No. 2. That, honestly, will go away when you reach the point where the God Awful Fact That We Are Live just starts to feel like "going to work."
It'll come. It's alot like jumping out of airplanes. At first, it's very scary. With experience, it becomes routine. After awhile, you're trying to figure out ways to endanger the lives of your friends.
TV is like that.
dude, if you need the money that bad, maybe we could take up a collection. i mean really, i don't know what they do in the "news room", but not much of what they broadcast could be called "news". lots of weather though, even if it is just the same thing repeated in three separate segments.
and i don't mean to sound harsh, especially after the last guy, but maybe you should try a few drinks to loosen you up before the show. it seems to work for john tyson. or get some of whatever miss bubbles is on and then just jiggle your way though.
long time RGJ reader. I remember the first column I read was about your son. Our daughters both played soccer at McQ and last term at UNR. I am thrilled with the blog (never read one before actually) I still read the paper but don't feel quite as cheated. Every damn time I like something they change it. Anyway, only chuckled at the tie on tv. The one you said you would never wear. Look forward to the R and R articles as well. Thanks for staying in touch with us all.
You think Cory was smart to take the buyout offer from the parent of RGJ?
Profit Declines 31% at Gannett - from the New York Times via AP (free registration required)
And a follow-up: Do you think the operating environment will improve at Gannett if our economy falls into recession?
Anytime you post is a good time, I can relate to the first "live " jitters, but you are doing fine. There is real news being done at KOLO,& there is only one station that reads the paper instead of doing their own reporting, they
" Partner " . We used to call it 'syncn" when I worked in the field.
Ignore the critic. My director used to threaten to tie my hands behind my back, they took on a life of their own. My first show it looked like I was having a petit mal seizure. Adjust the glasses, touch the earpiece, there is a lot going on the folks at home don't know about.
If you haven't done live coverage, think 7th grade oral book report; the whole room is watching.
Hmmm.
Was I too harsh? I thought I was being constructive. CF is doing a good job and will do better as he settles into the harness.
Heck, I'm a reader of the Blog, a reader of the RN&R column and a watcher of the KOLO piece. I'm a fan.
If I can work up my courage, I'm going to ask CF out on a date.
Good luck withyour KOLO gig, but please don't turn into a John Tyson clone. The way KOLO has spun him into the Nevada Yoda is quite amusing. If you didn't know any better you would think he was a 4th generation Nevadan. I don't begrudge Tyson for creating his old cowboy shtick, but frankly I will listen to you and Bruce Van Dyke regale us with tales of the absurd, than him any day. Watch out, you might become a television darling, get your own specials, be given a car with your name on it ....might not be too bad after all.
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