Out-and-About Deadline

Last week was the Out-and-About Magazine's deadline. When I went into the office on Monday morning, there was a pile of articles on my desk. I had to edit the stories that were going into the February edition of the magazine. The stories were really impressive, and just as it was with the CityLife editing, I did not find too many errors. The biggest changes I made were to paragraph indentations or to small spelling errors. I truly enjoyed the experience of being able to see how everyone in the office reacted to the deadline. Once again, everyone remained calm during the entire week. Monday thru Wednesday was strictly used to get ready for the Out-and-About deadline. I saw just about all of the articles. The cover story for the February edition was intriguing. It talked about smokers around the Delaware area and told the personal stories of why these people began the addicting habit. It really made me think because a lot of people in my family smoke and it was interesting to hear the personal struggles behind the addiction. I just can't imagine what people go through when they try to stop the behavior.

Thursday and Friday were slower days because the final touches of the magazine had been finished for February's edition. Mike told me that everyone in the office was there until about 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday...Wow! On the last two days of the week, I took it easy and looked up events for the March calendar and searched the internet to see when bands were playing. I added these changes to the data base for the magazine. On Friday, I was able to write an advance about a Bluegrass Festival that will be coming to the Wilmington area. I think I might have to check out the festival...and I'm not even a Bluegrass fan.

Deadline for City Life Magazine

Last week, everyone in the office was getting ready for the deadline of the CityLife Magazine. It was really neat getting to see how all of this works. It was surprising to see how calm everyone remained in the office. Starting on Monday, I did a lot of editing for the magazine. Since I was one of the last to see the articles, there was not much that needed to be changed. I found a few paragraphs that were indented too far and a few words that needed to be switched, but other than that, everything was ready to go. I did not have to write any advances last week because the work mainly had to do with editing. Everyone in the office said that last week was for CityLife Magazine and then the next week will be preparing for the deadline of OutandAbout Magazine.

On Tuesday, I did a lot more research for the magazine's 20th anniversary edition, which will come out in March. Mike Pollock wanted me to look for events that happened around the area. I found that Joe Biden was the senator 20 years ago, and yet, he still faithfully serves the state as its senator. It was really interesting getting to do all of the research because I have lived in the state for 21 years and yet I still learned a lot by looking up the information.

I did a lot more editing on Wednesday for the deadline for CityLife Magazine. Toward the end of the afternoon it got slower for myself and the other intern. On Thursday, I did more research because Mike said there was not as much to do since everything had been finished with CityLife. The research was getting harder to do because I was having to do a lot more digging since I had been looking for information for awhile. He told me to get ready for next week because he said it would get really hectic with the deadline of OutandAbout approaching.

On Friday, I filled out the events calendar for the month of March. This takes a long time to do, but it's not very exciting.

Beginning at Out-and-About

Last week, I began my internship at Out-and-About Magazine. The first couple days of the internship I was writing information for the magazine's event calendar. This took awhile to do because it was tedious work. I had to go to the websites of different groups around the New Castle County area and find out what events are going on for the month of Feb. Even with just the first few days, I can see that working at a magazine is much different than working with a newspaper. At The Review, my stories are for the next day, but here, stories are for the next month.

On Tuesday, I began writing advances for the magazine. I would take press releases and write between 150-200 words. I found that the most difficult part of writing these were trying to really cut down on the unecessary words. These advances will help with slimming down my writing. I wrote an advance on the First State Boxing Series. This event will be huge for Delaware because the fight card will premiere on ESPN Feb. 8. I wrote another advance about the Wilmington Photo Club. This group is having a major photo exhibit during the month of Feb. I might have to check it out myself. There will be hundreds of photographs from around the world.

During the end of the week, the other intern, Sarah Wahlberg and I, went over to the Wilmington Public Library and researched for awhile. Out-and-About will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in March, so I have to find out what events were going on during 1988. I had a lot of fun finding out this information. Through my research, I found that not a lot has changed. There was a major writer's strike in 1988, the U.S. was not getting along with Iran, various players were being caught with steroids (Ben Johnson had to give up his medals that he received in the summer Olympics), etc.

I really enjoyed my first week at the internship and look foward to the upcoming weeks.