Newspaper holiday parties thread

Probably the same people who were usually out the door by 4:59 p.m.

 

I almost banged one of our copy editors after one of our parties.

Now that I think about it, we never had another one.

 

Went to a few big ones. They did it right, held at a bar with private space, catering, free booze. Nothing tawdry that involved me, but some good stories.

And the days of that type of party are long, long gone. Though, there were several after the 2008-09 recession. So that's something.

 

The Rocky Mount Telegram gave out $25 Christmas "bonuses" (in the little cut-out envelopes your grandparents might use) when it was owned by Thomson. Sports rarely got invited since we were putting out three issues -- 24th, 25th and 26th -- in the same press run.

I won the "free turkey from Food Lion" raffle one time and the publisher decided "a manager" shouldn't be eligible.

 

I want to see THIS story.

Only after the Mrs. goes to bed.

 

We didn't need no stinkin' newsroom parties. Everyone knew that the composing room, back when we had composing rooms, always threw the best parties. Didn't even need a holiday!

Off-site, of course. Usually at someone's apartment. And sometimes they would go all night. And I mean ALL night: We'd stumble out to our cars and see kids climbing onto the school bus as daylight was breaking. ... "Holy shit," we'd say. "We really did it this time."

Best of times, they were. All the really great times of newspaper production faded hard when the composing rooms went away.

 

One of my papers had a really close staff and there were Third Thursday parties every month. One or two of the guys were in a band and occasionally they’d play a set. Fun times.

Also, the pressroom guys in many places are a bunch of degenerates. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

 

Of all places, my first paper, a Boone weekly in Podunk that paid me like a fast food cashier, threw the best official party. No booze and no one I’d have wanted to trash my wedding vows for, but we got a full dinner at a steakhouse just over the county line and a genuine, no shit Christmas bonus check. Imagine my surprise when I worked my way up the ladder and discovered it was downhill from there.

 

I would be remiss if I didn't note that my wife was a producer for a local news station in the '80s and that it had AMAZING parties for both Christmas and some summer occasion that included guys trying to get laid by offering rides on the news copter who were not in any way shape or form helicopter pilots.

 

Nakatomi Plaza? I think I saw the video.

 

Newspapers: The director of advertising and the publisher were having a fling and at the holiday party the director's husband tried punching the publisher. That same night I turned down an invite back to the home of a co-worker who instead hooked up with one of the high school coaches who happened to be at the bar at the time. Also that night? The Tuck Rule game. Quite an evening.

When I worked for a group of entertainment magazines, Teresa and Joe Giudice bumped into me on the dance floor.