A majority of the articles you read on the front page of yesterday’s Hatchet were articles written “on deadline,” a skill journalists can only learn to cultivate by repeatedly performing the task. For a green journalist, the idea of writing on deadline often seems daunting, the pressure of having a matter of hours, or even a matter of minutes to report, write and edit an article just, too much. But for journalists with a bit more experience, writing on deadline can easily become addictive – knowing you were the first person to report on an important story is satisfying. Writing on deadline is a skill you simply cannot learn without practice, and any Hatchet reporter who has written for us on deadline is more prepared for a career in journalism, or even an internship, because of his or her experience. I know I am. Though the average reader likely would not realize, many Hatchet front pages include articles written on deadline as these are the significant, timely newsworthy stories that necessitate being written and published immediately.
Last Wednesday afternoon, Assistant News Editor Alexa Millinger wrote a story on deadline about a life-saver. Law student Jason Coates rescued Washington Post columnist Mike Wise from an icy Georgetown canal after Wise jumped in the canal to save his dog, but could not get out of the water himself. For those of you that picked up the paper on your way to a morning class, not 24 hours had passed from when Alexa made her first call to start reporting on that story to when you ready it in print. As the paper’s metro news editor, Eric Roper writes on deadline often. He wrote not one, but two articles on deadline for yesterday’s front page. Eric’s story on the D.C. Council and its decision regarding a bill that would require all District businesses to offer paid sick leave to part time employees was actually re-written on deadline. By Wednesday afternoon, the facts of the story had changed from the initial reporting Eric did the previous day. The fourth front page story written on deadline for Thursday’s front page was on student celebrations of Super Tuesday events. Since Super Tuesday became super really early Wednesday morning after midnight, Hatchet Staff Writer Danielle Meister could not help but write her article on deadline on Wednesday, also. When you pick up Monday’s paper, see if you can tell which articles necessitated last-minute write-ups.
