Steve Conklin and David Ball wait for a meeting to be over. It was another one of those long ones that should have been finished hours ago.
BY: JIM EPPERSON III
And these are the competitors. Two of them. Well distinguished.
Sometimes I think we belong on the same team, or the Middle Keys trio is working for something bigger than scoops.
We have the same goals. Although it would seem like we should be more cutthroat about everything, we actually respect each other.
I'm sure we all have the same thoughts.
"Get this story out before the other guy. And if he publishes the same day, your stories sure as hell best be better. And your writing better be tight."
At least that is what you would expect a grumpy editor to yell every time you enter the office. But I've never heard it in a newsroom and I do not know if the competitors have either.
The closest I got to that mentality was when I worked for my college newspaper editor. He always told me, "Don't (explicit deleted) it up" and pointed his finger like he was Ben Bradlee. And I'm sure we were both entitled to think we worked for The Washington Post.
It is difficult not to be cutthroat with scoops when your job is to tell the public facts about events as accurately and quickly as possible. Scoops come natural.
It seems, the quicker the public is informed the quicker they can react in an educated manner. But I sure don't want to be educated by reading the other newspaper in town. But at times, I admit I am scooped.
The competition is the only way to tell if you are doing better. And the better your competition does the better you will do.
It is the rule of thumb: Survival of the fittest.
However, not everything leads back to social Darwinism. Some reporters just like a good story.
The Middle Keys reporter for the Key Noter, David Ball, (in picture with red shirt who looks like he is sleeping) said he doesn't care about the scoop or the competition. Instead great feature stories excite him -- like the time he wrote the story about a homeless man who won the lottery.
(And Ball is not sleeping in the picture -- just bored and blinking from the long city council meeting.)
Any reporter likes getting the scoop. But sometimes we get to share those rare stories that have meaning -- like the World War II Left Waist Gunman who flew in a bomber after nearly 60 years. Only this time he wasn't 25,000-feet high wearing an oxygen mask and electric-heated suit as Germans tried shooting him.
I now know why my professors stressed the feature so much.
I do not know what the other reporter would say.
As one of the reporters for the Marathon Weekly, Steve Conklin spends his time informing people up and down the Keys about everything. He is a copy producing machine.
The Weekly owns several papers. I forget the number. But he said sometimes he must write for all of them. And it seems he might be driven by the scoop.
Of course Conklin has a great source, a city council member is one of the paper's publishers. Actually John Bartus is the vice mayor of Marathon. But Conklin is a good sport and only says the boss helps explain difficult subjects and gives the editorial department full authority.
But even if Conklin really were controlled by the city and Ball really sleeps during meetings, it wouldn't matter. They still do a good job.
Their persistence to do so well helps me see where I can improve. But I am usually scooping them because I have access to the only daily in the Keys, which gives them plenty of time to develop a second day lead.
It gives me just the right amount of time to get a story together.
So for me, its about accuracy, accuracy, accuracy, because I do not have to worry about anything else, besides a feature milling my way or getting so lazy that a weekly and a biweekly scoops me.
But it happens. And when it happens, all I can do is practice, read and hope I progress. And pray.
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