About a month and a half ago, I stepped up into an assistant editor position at Boise State's student newspaper "The Arbiter". As any paper, but especially a student newspaper, we've had continuous ups and downs with our content and staff. Several fellow writers in our section have said they need to quit without giving much reason except class work load.
While as a fellow student and writer, I completely understand where they are coming from, but as an editor, I feel compelled to dig a little deeper into the issue. Could the way my section editor and I are running our section be a bit overwhelming for our writers?
I personally think so. We have high quality expectations, which usually motivates people to produce better work (and as a result better work is produced). However, we also have high expectations for quantity, which I think affects quality of work and motivation of our writers. Right now, it could be possible our quantity expectations are too high for our writers to continue, especially with the end of the term approaching. From my personal experience as a writer, burn out is what causes people suddenly say "I quit" (and in our particular case because of school).
Now, if I recall correctly, both my editor and myself have encouraged our writers to come to us if they are having problems with the work load they are assigned/take on and our management practices. In my opinion, this hasn't happened and I'm not sure why. I don't fully understand what is compelling some of these writers to up and quit. As mentioned above, I have my speculations, but I don't know the whole story (and as a journalist that is something I try to achieve).
At 3 a.m. yesterday morning, I came to an executive decision. Before we our writers to bow out (if they feel the need or desire to), my editor and I should sit down with each of them and try to get at what the real issue is and if there is anyway we could keep them as writers but alter their workload (since that seems to be the problem). If these writers are serious about journalism, and considering it a career, they have to understand that the work they do for our paper is invaluable experience for their future career. I think in addition to seeing about adjusting their workload, these writers need to be reminded of this.
Part of our job as student editors is to train writers. While we've been doing a good job with the technical training and experience, we haven't done much in the passing on of advice/wisdom. I think these writers that are considering withdrawing from the paper (even just temporarily) need to hear some career advice and overall wisdom before they decide if quitting really is the best option. I hope they see that it usually isn't.
