Good news! A local company is hiring, even in the face the
current dire economic conditions. The bad news is that the
company in question is the Antigo Daily Journal. A display ad
in the Wednesday, January 21, 2009 says, “Reporter Position
Open – The Antigo Daily Journal has an immediate opening for
a general assignment and sports reporter. Hours are Monday
through Friday days and Friday evenings. Newspaper writing
skills and knowledge of sports a must. Contact Fred….”
Wait a minute…. “Newspaper writing skills and knowledge… a
must”? Really? Could this be the Awakening of Linguistic
Sensibility at ADJ that we Defenders of the Mother Tongue have
so long awaited? Could this be the end of dependent clauses
with no dependencies, of adverbial phrases with no traceable
referents, of malaprops and mangled cliches, of over-used and
mis-used words, of run-on sentences in ruptured context?
I hope not. What would we do for entertainment and comedy if
the ADJ dropped its bad habits? Now that the Presidential
campaigns of 2008 have terminated their run, there’s almost
nothing to poke fun of, any more.
At least, there will be nothing until the ADJ begins running
stories by its new Fred-approved “reporter”.
—-
With your fantastic grasp of the written English language, why don’t you apply???
Maybe you could put your rants to good use and change the ADJ from the inside out!!!
Oh yeah, I’d fit in real good (nice, well, swell, uniquely, goodly, suggestedly, law enforcement officially, mishap-lier)….
Alexis, I second that. Albus, I think you’d make a wonderful addition to the ADJ, even if you only wrote the column for “Hidden Places”.
Thanks, gussy, though I’m not so sure your “second” is very high praise. After all, the average Antigo sixth-grader could make a wonderful addition to the ADJ. You’ve got me thinking, though…. When’s the last time you saw a coherent editorial by an ADJ staffer, instead of all the “guest” editorials offered up for our enjoyment? No sense in getting any advertisers or subscribers or local politicians all riled up by pointing out the errors of their ways, you know.
Boy Albus you sure do have it out for adj. What did the adj or the people that work there ever do to you that you have such disgust for them? Maybe if you are so much better with words and stuff you should take the job then we will not have to read all your bashings. Better yet start your own paper.
You have the germ of an idea there, duhhh. The national news is already covered by the news-headline menu column on AntigoBuzz home page. Local advertising needs are already covered by the Antigo-Wittenberg Shopper’s Guide. They also cover the police blotter and court reports in literate, no-nonsense fashion, something completely beyond the capabilities of ADJ. All that’s needed is a handful of reporters with access to a publishing web site, like the http://newsofthenorth.net/ thing up in Rhinelander, and we’d be good to go. Who do you know, wants to be a reporter?
Albus, I assure you, if infact you started to write for ADJ it would be about the only thing I would believe written in there. I have to say I dont always agree with your veiws on every subject, but I find your facts to be straight. That is so much more than I can say for the ADJ. I don’t have to agree with your opinions on everything (alot of it I do) but you are kind enough to include FACTS that your opinions are based from in each of your posts. I am tired of getting FRED’S opinion. I would much prefer ADJ to report facts like a real newspaper so I can form my own opinion. If at some point you decide to start a news paper of your own I suspect I would not be the only one to buy it. Please consider it because I would love to help in any way possible. I am a firm believer in action in place of talk to get something changed. Antigo really needs a paper that prints accurate facts and I would love to see That happen.
Start a newspaper of my own? Hmmm…. Antigo’s dying for new businesses. We could rent the vacant office next to the Antigo Daily Journal — I’m sure Fred would give us a good deal, to encourage local economic development. Start out with a web site for daily news updates, with a printed weekly summary, go daily with the print version when it takes hold. Initial staff of three people could do the job, maybe hire away the one or two people from ADJ who can actually spell and write…. Tie-in to local school English teachers and students and activity directors for content contributors…. Take about 6 months to get established, 9 months to hit weekly break-even budget, maybe two years to pay back initial investors…. Only need about $50,000 in start-up and ramp-up costs to achieve sustaining cash flow…. Not that I’ve given it any thought, mind you….
I’d love to work with you, Albus…let’s do it!
Thanks for the encouragement, Sherry. I suspect that getting volunteers would not be difficult — just wave a copy of ADJ and ask, “Can you do better than this?” The only problem would be turning away junior high-schoolers whose writing samples prove they CAN do better.
Raising start-up funds could be difficult, in these parlous economic times. I’ve done start-ups with just a handful of credit cards, but I’m not willing to go that route any more.
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