In celebrating over four decades at the StarNews (including the Wilmington Morning Star and Sunday StarNews), I want to focus on what I’ve learned about making mistakes, listening to customers, learning how to take helpful criticism and more.
When I started at the paper in 1980, I began parttime working as a news clerk in the newsroom. Believe it or not, there were over 80 employees in the newsroom. The newsroom had a copydesk, lifestyle/features, sports department, a library and the photo department.
I worked four days a week ― Thursday through Sunday starting at 2 p.m. My job was doing the obituaries, and there were a bunch of obituaries. I also had to do the obituaries over the phone by someone dictating to me as I typed. So, I had to be a fast typer and know how to spell. I am very glad I took typing while at Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn, although it’s ironic that I failed typing. I remember the teacher saying you don’t look at your hands on the keyboard. And I guess I was a smart mouth student because I answered back real fast, “Do you think my boss is going to watch me type or will he just want to make sure that I’m fast and everything is spelled correctly?”…