I got my first byline today on page 2 with a front cover picture lead-in! It was interesting to see how the story was cut to size and the headers chosen. My story was a little picture story. One of my sources was very pleased with the result too.

I have learnt this week that there are three types of stories at the QT: picture stories, panel stories and briefs. Picture stories have a nice colour photo and the copy is usually longer. Panels are generally four columns wide without a picture, rectangular in shape. Briefs run down the right columns of some pages and feature court and police stories. The copy is written very concisely without quotes. Pure factual reporting.

 Another interesting reveal in today’s edition was my problem yesterday with the vox pop question. It didn’t fit in the allocated space as a question. I wrote ‘what do you think of the High Court’s ruling on the Malaysian solution?’. The mock up window in CCI DB gave me a little red triangle to indicate it was too long for the allocated space. I can up with ‘your opinion of…’  and it did fit. I asked the CoS if it needs to be a question. She indicated yes and would fix it. So, I opened up page eight and she came up with ‘do you agree with the ban on sending asylum seekers to Malaysia?’ I was impressed and just shows a header can be shortened if you have the experience.

Today was uneventful, even my vox pop duty was delegated else where. So I spent time researching story leads by looking at the APN stable. They have a whiz bang intranet with access to all the mastheads over the last week. I proudly read Mitchell Crawley’s story in the Bundaberg NewsMail on Wednesday about exotic animals. I also liked former student, David Stuart’s story today on RSPCA micro-chipping. I read back issues of the QT and found a good follow up idea which I will present at Monday’s NC (already looking forward to it, what a cure to Mondayitis!)

I took lunch break and went into town to enjoy some Spring warmth. I had some banking to do and asked the teller if she had noticed anything unusual in town. She had and I noted it down for the NC on Monday. I also took note of a quaint little newsagent with an unusual name, that had no obvious connection to the premises. It has a friendly couple for proprietors and might be a good profile piece. 

So it’s back to Brisbane for the weekend of cab driving, laundry and socialising. Special thanks to my esteemed colleague Tash who put me up for the week in her very comfortable home. Her adorable puppy Cookie is everything she has spoken in class about. I’m looking forward to my second week and getting some more stories published.