THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1967
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
.PAGE THREE
~UHURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1967 TUE MICHIGAN DAILY PA GE ThREI~
The
Daily:
From
The
Midst
of
Chaos
By MICHAEL HEFFER
City Editor
From the midst of chaos, 10,000
copies of The Michigan Daily roll
off the presses at 420 Maynard
Street six times a week during the
academic year.
To some people The Daily, or
any newspaper, is just a sheet of
headlines to glance at. While some
people read stories thoroughly,
many just skim newspapers and
a few actually see them as just
the proverbial fishwrap.
Yet each paper is carefully as-
sembled by a staff of people who
are convinced that what they are
doing is of the greatest import-
ance. They are ready to make
many sacrifices so that the world
may know what happened yes-
terday, is happening today and
may happen tomorrow.
Dedicated Efforts
There is actually quite a story
behind the efforts of those dedi-
cated to the principle that you
have a right to know what your
world is up to.
Despite the "chaotic appearance
of its busy city room (in answer
to those who send nasty notes
suggesting that The Daily adopt
style rules) The Daily is actually
a highly organized operation.
It has to be.
To run a daily newspaper one
has to solicit, receive and make up
advertisements, hunt up, dig out,
write, edit and print stories and
editorials, and then combine the
two with pictures in some attract-
tive form.
It isn't very difficult merely to
produce a newspaper, but putting
out a newspaper of consistently
high quality is quite a task.
Little Experience
The Daily, like any college
newspaper, starts off with several
strikes against it. Few people join
the staff with any relevant ex-
perience, and most stay on the
staff only a few months.
All staff members are doomed
to leave in at most four years, so
new people must be constantly
trained. Staff members are actu-
ally part-time workers, for they
carry full-time course loads.
The biggest untold story about
The Daily is why so many stu-
dents are willing, even anxious, to
come and work each week, for
very little pay.
The problem is that no one has
figured out why they persevere.
When questioned about their rea-
sons for staying, most staffers are
unable really to pinpoint them.
Apparently, some staffers are
there because they love to write.
Others want to create something,
or be active in doing something
meaningful. Some discover they,
can make friends easily at The
Daily, and are reluctant to have
merely the doubtful warmth of the
quad to go to each day. Many de-
velop the journalist's keen desire
to know everything, and to uncov-
er hidden truths.
0
Dal;
"sen
are
In
is a
n important occasions, the the 2 a.m deadline (latest dead-
ly senior editors may write a line in the state) with the night
nior" editorial. All editorials editor.
signed. Choices Open
n charge of the editorial page The amount of work a staffer
n editorial director and his two wants to put in is entirely up to
imi Al-t ,hzie zi n reFAnal of
An Editorial Gets the Routine Going Over
associates.
News copy for pages one, two,
three and eight comes under the
jurisdiction of the managing edi-
tor, a city editor and two asso-
ciate managing editors.
From the managing desk comes,
the key to the news operation, the
assignment sheet. On the assign-
ment sheet can be found most of
the stories that will appear in the
next day's paper, plus many long-
er range stories which will come
out in a few days.
New staff members, orstrainees,
do not get important storiesias
soon as they start work. At first,
they work in a training program
supervised by the personnel di-
rector, where they are taught the
basics of reporting and night desk
work. Initiative in digging up news
stories is encouraged.
Night Desk
The night desk is the busy end
of the city room where most of the
editing, layout and headline writ-
ing for each paper is done.
A student who joins The Daily
first works as a trainee on night
desk, learningall the style rules
and the tricks to writing head-
lines. After several weeks of this,
the trainee can be promoted to
assistant day editor.
Assistant day editors come in
the afternoon and begin editing
copy to be set in the Daily's pro-
fessional shop. The ADE works
under the supervision of a day
editor, usually a sophomore or
junior.
The day staff is primarily res-
ponsible for the inside pages,
which consist mostly of world and
nationaf news from the Associated
Press and reviews of local cul-
tural events. The Daily has a
national-international AP wire
from New York, a Michigan news
AP wire from Detroit, and a Mi-
chigan capitol news AP wire from
Lansing.
From ADE staffers are promo-
ted to assistant night editor. The
ANE works from about 7 p.m to
film. Also, he has a great deal of
choice about the areas he wants
to write about.
The Daily has a beat system
which divides the University into
a number of areas for news cov-
erage. Each beat is headed by one
or two beatheads who work close-
ly with the managing desk and
their reporters in making sure all
the news is covered.
The Daily encourages its staff-
ers to familiarize themselves with
all areas of the University. There-
fore, a reporter might spend one
semester covering student activ-
ism, and then start writing about
some phase of academic affairs,
such as coverage of one of the
schools or colleges.
The Daily also prints a monthly
magazine put out by the magazine
editor and his associates. Articles
range from special interviews with
leading figures, such as Secretary
of Defense Robert McNamara, to
a discussion of the chances for
Wolverine sports teams.
The Daily also contributes to
and distributes the Midwest Liter-
ary Review, a collection of book
reviews by students at several
midwest institutions.,
Doors Open
Many story ideas come from
The Daily's editor, the head of the
organization. The editor's position
opens many doors for h i m
throughout the University com-
munity.
The editor seeks to lead the
Daily by helping to provide the
staff with an overview of the Uni-
versity and The Daily's role in
the University. He is the Daily's
official liason with the commun-
ity. He frequently speaks to stu-
dent groups, explaining what the
Daily is trying to accomplish, and.
why it is important to read The
Daily and know what goes on
on campus.
The Daily, although highly or-
ganized, must always be prepared
to, and in fact has always been,
changing its ways. The seniors at-
tempt to lead the staff, the Uni-
versity and even the world in
seeking new solutions, new ideas.
Responding to the problems of
the world, The Daily challenges
itself and its readers to be aware
and active, and invites every.
member of the community to join
it in open discussion of all issues.
For most, The Daily becomes
more than just a newspaper. It is
an institution; a home, or at least
a place that's sure to have a
fourth at bridge anytime of day or
night.
Sometimes the Daily appears to
be like any institution, cold and
uninviting. Yet it doesn't take new
staff members long to discover
the strong "Daily spirit" that is
the secret of the Daily's 77 suc-
cessful years of publication.
It is this spirit which binds The
Daily staff together and produces
the dedication that drives them to
produce a high quality Daily.
It isn't easy.
The Daily is run by editorial,
business, sports and photography
staffs composed entirely of stu-
dents.
The Daily is owned by the
Board in Control of Student Pub-
lications, but the board members
have nothing to do with editing
copy, and do not know what goes
into each day's paper until it is
delivered to them in the morning.
The Board's basic function is to
oversee The Daily's business af-
fairs. The Daily has an annual
budget of about $250,000 and does
not receive any money from the
University. The Board also ap-
proves the appointment of senior
editors.
Four Staffs
The senior editors run each of
the four staffs. The staffs are
open to any student, regardless of
class year or school.
Most staff members join the
'Daily worried about being with a
group of journalism students who
would scoff at people with no
training.
Surprisingly, few of The Daily's
staff members are journalism ma-
jors, though a great many former
Daily staffers get so enthused
about the work that they remain
in the publishing field after gra-
duation.
In the past few years, staff
members have become more fami-
liar with the work of the profes-
sional journalist and have attemp-
ted to adopt some of the practices
and ideals of the professional
newspaper.
Staff members are more con-
cerned now with discovering 'ev-
erything that is going on and 'let-
ting the community know exactly
how decisions are made and events
occur than they were a few years
ago.
They are more convinced than
ever that the community must, for
its own benefit, be awareofwhat
is going on and be ready to
change unhealthy situations.
But there is no Daily policy on
issues. The Daily has an editorial
page open to all staff members,
who can express any reasonable
opinion on it. The Daily's editor-
ial page also features nationally
syndicated cartoonists and col-
umnists.
The Daily prints many "Letters
to the Editor" and opens its edi-
torial page to contributions from
the faculty and administration.
Locking Pages Goes Down to the Wire
1
1
}
i
s
i
t
Night Editors Keep Track of National News
'U' Directory
Spans Scope
Of Humanity:
The assertion that every student
is a number is no myth. In fatt,
over 200 pages of publication have
been devoted to exposing each stu-
dent in the University down to his
barest number.
The 1967-68 Student Directory,
published in October, bars noth-
ing except zip codes and zone
numbers in its contents.
The directory is published
through the facilities of the Board
in Control of Student Publications
and prepared by the campus chap-
ter of Alpha Phi Omega, the na-
tional service fraternity.
Complete Scope
In its own way, the directory
sweeps across the complete scope
of humanity -- a nearly random
sampling of the world, achieving
nearly complete ambiguity. Let
there be no doubt about it, the
directory is not an easy book to
read, but it is the book of life,
and nature does not, easily yield
up her secrets unto lazy students.
Deceptively purporting simply to
list its characters alphabetically,
N the directory embodies the most
perfect symmetry of human ex-
perience ever achieved.
And there is no dialogue, that
old distorter of experience - the
reader communicates directly with
the meaning.
Few Subtleties
I There are a few subtle guide-
lines for the novice readers of our
generaton, but with what ele-
gance and persuasion do they
operate! Notice, for instance, the
change in type size between Ron-
ald Davis and Samuel Davis; type
size indeed! And the book is not
without its private jokes either:
look at the pace of Lowrie ... Lu
.. Lubin . . . Lucarelli, or the
charming turn-about in late regis-
tration: Averbach . .. Baar . .
Acker ..,. Baehr.
Prepare yourself for the Student
Directory. Though it might not
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