John Quinn tells two stories

John Quinn

The story of the copy clerk

A 17-year-old college sophomore landed a needed full-time job as a 4 p.m.-to-midnight copy boy (now called news clerk) at his local newspaper, The Providence Journal.

That connection helped him become the newspaper’s correspondent on his college campus, which paid 10 cents per column inch for each bit of news published.

He hustled both jobs. But the city editor cut his campus copy, and fewer paragraphs meant fewer inches and fewer dimes. He asked a veteran staffer what he might do to suit the city editor and get more of his glowing prose into print.

"Don’t fight it, kid," the veteran said. "He is a great editor, but he insists on tightening everyone’s copy. Only one thing you can do -- work hard and get his job."

Good advice. In due time and much editing later, he did.

Lesson: Illegitimi nil carborundum. (Don’t let the bastards get you down.)


The story of the obit writer

A college student working nights as a newsroom copy boy was offered a big promotion — to the dictation bank. There he would type stories dictated by reporters in bureaus and take information from undertakers to write formula obituaries.

He would rather have stayed with the on-the-run copy-boy duties, and he delighted in turning up refreshments — proper and otherwise — for the crusty staff of news veterans.

But the dictation job paid $1.25 more a week; life marched on.

Life could get boring — just typing other staffers’ great prose or having to rush ahead for the three callers waiting.

One night a veteran copy editor stopped at the dictation desk and volunteered a bored-at-the-moment young man some advice.

"When you are sitting here like this waiting for a call, slip into the morgue (library) and look up the names of some of those folks you took obits on. Might be interesting."

He was right. Each night the restless dictation clerk checked the files, and he hit pay dirt two, three times a week. He turned up obits that earned bigger heads, even bylines.

One thing led to another, and along came a promotion offer: move up from dictation to apprentice on the news staff. That Guardian Angel was doing his/her job.

During his last night on dictation and his last feature obit, his copy editor/adviser friend walked by to wish him well.

"You did a good job tracking down those obits, kid, but all of us on the copy desk will miss your corpse du jour."

Lessons: Never turn down a learning opportunity, and always heed the advice of a veteran staffer.

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My First Job archive

Ronnie Agnew, executive editor, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.

Caesar Andrews, editor, Gannett News Service

George Benge, news executive, Gannett Co., Inc.

Peter Bhatia, executive editor, The Oregonian, Portland

Michael Chihak, publisher and editor, Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen

Bill Church, executive editor, Star-Gazette, Elmira, N.Y.

Don Flores, executive vice president and editor, El Paso (Texas) Times

Karla Garrett Harshaw, editor, Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun

Bennie Ivory, executive editor, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

Sherrie Marshall, executive editor, The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph

E.J. Mitchell, managing editor, The Detroit News

Ricardo Pimentel, columnist, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix

Africa Price, managing editor, The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun

Mark Russell, assistant managing editor, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland

John Quinn, senior advisory trustee, Freedom Forum