<p>What exactly are the time commitments at the varying levels (staff writer, copy editor, section editor, etc.)? And how does one advance to become an editor? I know that Harvard’s process is something called “comping” where you complete a set of requirements and you’re an editor. Anything like this for the DP? Or is it something completely different?</p>
<p>From my friends that work on the DP, it seems like any other job. They had to send in resumes, have interviews, etc. to get jobs. It seems this is how they would replace an outgoing editor as well.</p>
<p>i really want to work for the newspaper, is it difficult to get a job as a reporter or editorial writer?</p>
<p>to be a reporter / writer, you just sign up and are assigned topics... with experience you can be assigned a "beat", or area of specialty.</p>
<p>to be an editor, you must apply each year to be a member of the editorial board - an essay and interview are required, and then you will be voted on by the members of the preceding editorial board.</p>
<p>Being a columnist is more flexible, to say the least :D</p>
<p>I work for the DP on the editorial side of the paper, so I can tell you how the process works for that. On the business side, I don't know so much.</p>
<p>First, crashingwave... you're a little bit off.</p>
<p>For a freshman looking to work on the editorial (news/sports) side of the paper and not business (marketing/advertising/finance/etc.) there will be introductory meetings at the start of the year. Definitely attend this to see which positions you will like.</p>
<p>They are, </p>
<p>General Assignments Reporter
Design Assistant
Photography
Copy Assistant
Web Design
... and there are a few others that are minor. It's almost guaranteed that you won't be able to be an editor you're first semester.</p>
<hr>
<p>General Assignments Reporter is the most basic one. You become a reporter for the DP, technically a "Contributing Writer", but not really part of the staff. Anyone can be a General Assignments Reporter. Stories are listed online at a website <a href="http://lamp.dailypennsylvanian.com/ga%5B/url%5D">http://lamp.dailypennsylvanian.com/ga</a> for people to claim, first come first serve. These are typically simple events, speakers who come to campus and the like. There will be training and an editor assigned to teach you the basics, but it's very open.</p>
<p>The Design Department is responsible for laying out the newspaper using Adobe InDesign, so as a design assistant you will be assigned a night or two a week to come in, one of the design editors will teach you the basics, and you'll be given that weeks inside pages to layout. Afterwards you get a critique, and come back next week to try again and hopefully do better.</p>
<p>Photography I'm less clear about because I haven't worked in that department personally. But more or less it's open to anyone, no experience required because they'll train you in how to shoot and touch up the photos. After a certain number of assignments, you get promoted to be a staff photographer. In photography, you can also come in nights to Night Edit, which entails selecting, cropping, and touching up the photos that will run in the paper.</p>
<p>Copy Assistant works a lot like Design Assistant, come in a night or two a week and copy edit. The Copy Editors will help you out and watch over you to teach you and make sure you're doing a good job.</p>
<p>Web Design at the moment is less structured because the web team mostly works from outside the office. You'll meet with the web editor at the beginning of each semester and periodically throughout the semester and be assigned specific projects to work on. </p>
<hr>
<p>If you skipped all that because it was too long, start reading again. Basically, the process for becoming a part of the paper involves spending a semester trying it out, and doing the job. The drop out rate for freshman is usually very high, and if you can make it through a semester you're basically guaranteed a position in the department you were working in. For General Assignments reporters that will mean moving up to beat reporting, which is what I do now.</p>
<p><em>Editors</em>
The DP picks it's editors for each board based not on a typical September to May school year, but instead on a January to December year. The new editors take over each year at the start of spring semester. To apply for a position as an editor, you have to send in a letter of intent and be interviewed by the old board. The feel of these though, is that it's usually just a formality. Most positions not a whole lot of people run for, and generally the office seems to know who will be picked for the next board ahead of time based on their performance over the previous year.</p>
<p><em>Columnist</em>
Columnist is more flexible. Applications are out to be a columnist over the summer and over winter break. The application basically asks for a sample column and sample column ideas. Once in, you write once a week.</p>
<p><em>Time Commitment</em>
It's a big time commitment. Most editors work Sunday to Thursday from 5 until past midnight. Reporting, the time commitment is less, but it feels like it takes over your life, because it interrupts everything else. Taking ten minutes between class to call back a source, or skipping lunch to meet somebody for an interview... You get used to it though, and it's not all that bad.</p>
<p>Anything else? Feel free to post more questions.</p>
<p>Do you use InDesign CS1 or CS2? Or even CS3 by next year?</p>
<p>CS2 at the moment, along with InCopy and a K4 server.</p>
<p>I don't know much about it, but I do know that it can be very time consuming. Last term, one of my roommates, who works at the DP, fairly routinely came home around 2am during the week because of it. Luckily, he now has a job with a much better schedule.</p>