Kathy Day, La Jolla Light News Editor
La Jolla Light
A view of the business district of the village of La Jolla can be seen from the humble La Jolla Light/San Diego Suburban News office atop the three story building Pearl Plaza Building (?). With this a view of all that goes into the weekly newspaper can be seen by just looking out the window. The head of this local newspaper is Kathy Day, the La Jolla Light News Editor, the head honcho of the office, so to speak.
She sits at a large desk in the same room as the other editors, along with me, the intern, along with the occasional high school and college intern who comes in an hour at a time. Her desk is positioned for her to see what all goes on in the room at all times. A few times every hour, a coworker would come in to ask a question or a small favor, to which she always responded. I ask to myself, and eventually to her, how she came to be in the position she currently holds.
In order to be as successful as she is now, Kathy Day had to be "hard nosed" and "go around the backdoor" for information for her stories. Good relationships with people that she interviewed would be over in the drop of a dime if she was given the wrong information or lied to, from there a "bad cop" side of a news writer would emerge to get the correct story she needs. "You'd have to step back from being their friend for a moment," She told me. "Sometimes, you have to flat out say, 'You lied to me. Tell me the truth now.'"
During the interview with me, however, she finds nothing intimidating or incorrect about the way I ask things. She puts her assertiveness aside and sits down for a chat.
~~~~~~~
A view of the business district of the village of La Jolla can be seen from the humble La Jolla Light/San Diego Suburban News office atop the three story building Pearl Plaza Building (?). With this a view of all that goes into the weekly newspaper can be seen by just looking out the window. The head of this local newspaper is Kathy Day, the La Jolla Light News Editor, the head honcho of the office, so to speak.
She sits at a large desk in the same room as the other editors, along with me, the intern, along with the occasional high school and college intern who comes in an hour at a time. Her desk is positioned for her to see what all goes on in the room at all times. A few times every hour, a coworker would come in to ask a question or a small favor, to which she always responded. I ask to myself, and eventually to her, how she came to be in the position she currently holds.
In order to be as successful as she is now, Kathy Day had to be "hard nosed" and "go around the backdoor" for information for her stories. Good relationships with people that she interviewed would be over in the drop of a dime if she was given the wrong information or lied to, from there a "bad cop" side of a news writer would emerge to get the correct story she needs. "You'd have to step back from being their friend for a moment," She told me. "Sometimes, you have to flat out say, 'You lied to me. Tell me the truth now.'"
During the interview with me, however, she finds nothing intimidating or incorrect about the way I ask things. She puts her assertiveness aside and sits down for a chat.
~~~~~~~
SM: What made you interested in newswriting?
KD: I just started doing it in Junior High. I always liked it. It's a good way to get to know interesting people and talk to people, and you get to share interesting stories with readers and also give them information that helps them learn of the world around them.
SM: What'd you have to do in order to become where you are today?
KD: I had to have a degree in journalism. I had a summer internship that got my foot in the door during college and I got a job with it after I graduated. I was in public relations business, I've done freelance writing so I could great a broad view of the business. At first I was a copy editor, then a reporter, then a data reporter for a long time. Eventually, I worked my way up.
SM: Why are you interested in newswriting?
KD: I think it's important that people know more than what they get on a television, tv news, the internet, etc. In newspapers, you get to tell more of the story than tv news. It's always been my that people need to know what schools and government, etc. are doing. I really like being at the community level. Although I don't LIVE in La Jolla, I treat the readers like my neighbors. Readers and sources have to know about the readers to be on that level.
Sometimes, if you're working on a story and it's somebody you've known a long time and you have a good relationship with, but you find out they didn't tell the truth, perhaps broke the law, you've gotta step back from being nice to becoming the bad cop and wanting to push info out of them. Sometimes, you have to flat out say "you lied to me -- tell me the truth now." Sometimes you have to go around the backdoor in order to get information.
Sometimes you have to be hard nosed to get the story you need, you have to ask hard questions and the people you interview won't like it. But if you create a good relationship with your interviewees and they know you're just doing your job, then they're likely to open up to you more.
You make meaning early in the beginning of the first paragraph. In the third paragraph, don't be to use vague words. The beginning sentence catches my attention. To be honest, it gets a little boring at the end. Try and strengthen the last sentences of the third paragraph.
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