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It always happens on Sundays
We're newspaper people. We get excited when things happen. Today, for example, is a good news day: A fire, a sinkhole and a city man who dies in prison.
All horrible things, but things that must get covered.
When nothing happens, we sit around and scratch our heads and say "what should we FOI today?" Which isn't necessarily bad, because with Freedom of Information requests, we get the good stuff.
Just look at what the Hartford Courant got today by asking to see all e-mails sent and received by East Hampton Town Manager Jeff O'Keefe. We wrote our own brief story about it, and plan to follow up, but we have nowhere near the staff that the Courant has. Sifting through 8 months worth of e-mails takes time.
It's ironic that when things happen, they all happen at once. And they always happen on Sundays.
We only have three people working Sundays, and they are responsible for getting the paper out - both news and sports, as well as keeping the website updated. So when a big Sunday like today happens, we scramble to get everything covered.
After I wrote something up about the O'Keefe e-mails this morning, I saw on Twitter that a police car in Cromwell had been swallowed by a sinkhole. Then I got a press release from the Department of Corrections saying an inmate had taken his own life in prison. Where's he from? Middletown, of course. Had to write something up on that quickly to put on our website.
While posting that to Twitter, I saw that an asphalt refinery in Portland was on fire - it started early this morning. At this point, it was time to make some phone calls.
We now have a reporter on the way to the scenes in Portland and Cromwell. We will also follow up more on the O'Keefe e-mail situation. Even though the Courant beat us to the story, we have been covering it all along and have a more complete picture of what's going on. Another staff member armed with a camera is heading out to take pictures of the Portland fire - apparently it will take a while for officials to clear that scene.
It's hard when everything happens on a Sunday, but we do the best we can to bring you the local news. And, as always, we welcome the support from the community. We always welcome news tips, story ideas and submitted photos. Keep it coming!
All horrible things, but things that must get covered.
When nothing happens, we sit around and scratch our heads and say "what should we FOI today?" Which isn't necessarily bad, because with Freedom of Information requests, we get the good stuff.
Just look at what the Hartford Courant got today by asking to see all e-mails sent and received by East Hampton Town Manager Jeff O'Keefe. We wrote our own brief story about it, and plan to follow up, but we have nowhere near the staff that the Courant has. Sifting through 8 months worth of e-mails takes time.
It's ironic that when things happen, they all happen at once. And they always happen on Sundays.
We only have three people working Sundays, and they are responsible for getting the paper out - both news and sports, as well as keeping the website updated. So when a big Sunday like today happens, we scramble to get everything covered.
After I wrote something up about the O'Keefe e-mails this morning, I saw on Twitter that a police car in Cromwell had been swallowed by a sinkhole. Then I got a press release from the Department of Corrections saying an inmate had taken his own life in prison. Where's he from? Middletown, of course. Had to write something up on that quickly to put on our website.
While posting that to Twitter, I saw that an asphalt refinery in Portland was on fire - it started early this morning. At this point, it was time to make some phone calls.
We now have a reporter on the way to the scenes in Portland and Cromwell. We will also follow up more on the O'Keefe e-mail situation. Even though the Courant beat us to the story, we have been covering it all along and have a more complete picture of what's going on. Another staff member armed with a camera is heading out to take pictures of the Portland fire - apparently it will take a while for officials to clear that scene.
It's hard when everything happens on a Sunday, but we do the best we can to bring you the local news. And, as always, we welcome the support from the community. We always welcome news tips, story ideas and submitted photos. Keep it coming!
posted by The Middletown Press at
1:26 PM
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