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NEWSPAPER EDITOR - Franco Vanzini, West Wimmera Advocate
Where is West Wimmera Shire? West Wimmera Advocate provides local news to living in (or interested about ) or between Goroke, Edenhope, Apsley, Harrow and the South Australian border.
DESCRIPTION OF JOB
Owning and publishing a small country town weekly newspaper without any
previous experience or qualifications presented a number of challenges but
taught me to have a go, adapt and not be frightened to ask other people for
advice (no mater how trivial it may have seemed).
Effectively a one-person operation, I was responsible for writing and
editing articles, photography, graphic design, advertising (marketing and
preparation) and final page layout. I also handled the administration side
of the business.
Given the scope of the job it was rare to have one single task to perform
each day. A typical day could involve traveling to cover events and take
photographs, writing the article and selecting the best photo to go with the
story, many phone calls to interview people and to follow-up advertising
copy before deadline.
The only time that changed was the evening prior to publication day which
was spent entirely on page layout.
My past interest in writing during my school years, an interest in news
generally, and a failed interview in for a cadet journalist position with
the ABC in Adelaide in the late 1970s, all came together when I realised
that the asking price for the newspaper within my reach. I was fortunate to know a newspaper owner/editor in country South Australia and after several conversations with him, decided to make an offer to buy the paper, which was accepted. I kept in touch with my SA friend on a regular basis asking for advice which he gladly provided. Also, much to my delight, was the sense of community between other country-based newspapers and a willingness to assist one another either directly or through the Victorian Country Press Association.
The thing I remember most about school was the desire to do well in maths,
physics and chemistry only to find that my best results came from English,
history and art appreciation - basically any subject that required the
writing of an essay. It was frustrating and perhaps the reason that I
decided to repeat year-12 in 1978 after working for one year.
I had never settled on a particular career path while at school but it is
interesting how my experiences at school came rushing back to mind almost 15
years later when I decided to take on the newspaper in Edenhope in January
1992. Training for the newspaper was very much on-the-job. The previous owner stayed on for two weeks (2 editions) and then I was on my own. In that time he showed me how to load bulk film for a camera and develop photographs, how to use the old typesetters and develop the photo-paper which eventually finished on a paste-up sheet. Many hours were spent standing at a paste-up bench and laying down strips of typed paper for stories and advertisements. Even the borders for the adverts were pasted onto these sheets. All of this was eventually replaced by desktop computers and the learning cycle started all over again. In this regard I was fortunate to know a commercial printer in Hamilton who had a strong knowledge of computing and his help was critical at the time of changing over from old photo-mechanical typesetters to the desktop computer. It took about three months before I was able to retire the paste-up bench and produce completed pages from the computer.
There was also a rich source of information available from the computer
software publishers and other industry bodies. It was a case of asking and
looking for training aids and then making use of these. As a self-employed person, there was always something that needed to be done. Publishing a newspaper was basically a seven-day-a-week occupation and it took a while to find a balance between work, home and sport. When I first started I had a couple of people one day of the week helping to type the articles I wrote and edited while I spent time at the paste-up bench. My wife helped with this as well as doing the accounts. The income for that paper came from paid advertising while the price paid for the paper by readers covered production costs. The newspaper was printed in Horsham and then later in Mount Gambier. Once everything - newspaper and accounts - went digital, I undertook all of the tasks myself (apart from the printing of the paper).
The biggest highlight in the life of the newspaper was when the bank loan
was paid off. The loan included the cost of buying the paper, was added to
when we bought the computers and further extended when we purchased an
office in the main street after renting for seven years.
With a modest, but steady income, it took about 12 years before I was in a
position to consider superannuation contributions and retirement. Given the nature of the task at hand, I felt that I was too committed to undertake further study. The Victorian Country Press Association ran a number of training seminars during the year and I did attend a number of these which I found very helpful. However even though I published a newspaper for 22 years (from January 1992 to December 2013) I do not hold any recognised qualifications, so I regret not having made the time to undertake a self-paced course in journalism, or graphic arts while publishing the paper. We can always think back to things that we could have done better. If I had my time over, I would definitely make the time and take whatever opportunity I could to undertake further training or study to gain recognised qualifications to enhance my career.
1. You are to research the local West Wimmera Shire Council website by looking at the local events. 2. Choose one event to write about using your imagination to describe:
3. Create an advertisement advertising one of the cultural, arts or environmental attractions of the district. Use the West Wimmera Shire Council website under Discover to find the names of the attractions of the district.
For example, Baileys Rocks. Unfortunately, the Shire
Council website is still in production but this gives you an opportunity to
create a wonderful page enticing tourists to the district to see this
particular attraction.
Advertisement 4. You are to help the West Wimmera Shire Council with Indigenous Tourism. With a partner, go to the Maggolee website Look at the West Wimmera section of this website and in particular what the Council is doing to encourage Indigenous culture. Find out either:
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