Life after The Lima News

Making the transition from the paper has been a major mental adjustment. I spent much of Thursday, the first day of the post-Lima News era, sitting around thinking, “Well, I could go in for a few hours. I’m sure they could use my help with something.” Especially after I heard about Cristiano da Matta’s accident. I had half a column written in my head when it looked like he might not make it.

They are going to hire my replacement this week. I am not privy to the details, but it looks like they have narrowed it down to two candidates. One is one of our part-timers. He is a really nice guy and gets along well with the rest of the staff. He has been working his keister (notice I didn’t say “butt”) off the past two years knowing that my position was going to be open eventually. He has definitely paid his dues.

However, they also got a résumé from a really strong candidate from another paper. He has more overall experience and upper management seems to be keen on him. He may be more qualified, but I really feel like the part-timer deserves the shot after everything he has done. Unfortunately, they aren’t going to ask me, so my opinion doesn’t count.

Either way, the sports department is a ship taking on a lot of water right now, what with my departure on Wednesday and the sports editor’s departure on Saturday. In the span of three days they went from a staff of four full-timers to a staff of two. Plus, if they give my job to the other guy, they run the risk of losing one of their hardest working part-timers.

And all of this is happening during the busiest time of the year for the sports department, the lead-up to the high school football season. Our department has won awards for our high school football season preview special section several years in a row. There are still some very talented people there, so I think they can do it again. But I think the people in the newsroom who are helping to pick up the slack are in for a rude surprise when they discover just how much work goes into it.