Chicago Tribune looking for agate editors

I never even knew this was an option before I found this board.

 

I'm sure he's fun at parties.

 

If Mike thinks criticism of this job is bad, he should see some of the threads from Martinsville, Roswell and Trenton.

 

This thread is both one of the weirdest in SportsJournalists.com history -- and a microcosm of exactly what SportsJournalists.com is and has always been about. Odd that way.

 

There have been countless times where I have baited someone or posted something hoping for a huge response... This was definitely not one of those times...

 

Yeah, you do that a lot as Carlton Banks.

[/Tinfoilhats]

 

That's about the 10th time someone has accused me of being him.

 

I just saw this thread for the first time and gotta say, I'm thoroughly stunned and entertained at the same time. You all should bury the Exacto knife and combine on a book or screenplay - written in 5.5-point type.

 

And FTR, the agate job paid $15 hourly when I landed at a certain major daily in Northern California ... in 1986.

 

that equals $31,200 -- about what BANG would like to pay copy editors today.

 

Whenever I was a part-timer who had agate clerking as part of his duties, I'd always imagine Black Sabbath's Iron Man in my head with "Iron" changed to agate.

The humor got me through some otherwise monotonous nights. Or maybe it was a sign of delirium. I don't do well with thoughtless, repetitive tasks.

Other than that, all I have to say about this thread is ... My Goodness.

 

Actually, I find agate to be a fun job ... if one can afford it.

Strongly believe that there's a wide chasm between outstanding agate pages and weak agate pages. There's a lot you can do to make it lively and comprehensive. Of course, there's a faction of editors/journalists who roll their eyes at the genre and look upon it as a necessary evil you have to throw together.

It takes a certain amount of anal retentiveness to get the little stuff right, rather than blindly accept the way AP or your staff sends their agate. The all-star agate man would either know how to prepare macros themselves or have an IT guy on their good side who can do them. Any piece of tabular AP agate should be tab-stopped rather than relying on their own manual justification.