Thursday, April 06, 2006

Ignorance and publishing

As I become more experienced in publishing, and in particular journalism, I become painfully more aware of how little I know about the subjects I report on or editorialize about. Twenty-four pages is just not very much space for all the stories out there, or for a thorough treatment of the ones that make it into the paper. And I never seem to have enough time to familiarize myself sufficiently with the subjects I want to write about. I do research, but it never seems quite thorough enough. It's a bit depressing at times.

So on that note, we're off tomorrow for a little professional development at the Alaska Press Club Conference, in Anchorage (again, still, always), which means lots of rearrangement of schedules and driving and gasoline and whatnot. Or at least, I think we're off. We'll be late (the workshops start on Friday), but I really don't want to miss this. It's just too much fun and reminds me every year of part of why I'm publishing a newspaper.

2 comments:

John said...

The first step (admitting lack of knowledge) leads to true knowledge, knowing those who know. No matter how smart, we're better when we work together.

Robert Ellman said...

It's impossible to be knowledgeable about everything. At least you're aware of it. Too many newspapers don't know what they don't know and try to fake having a monopoly on wisdome. I doubt many take time off for professional development that way you are and its commendable.