Listen to this articleI realized while driving in to put this issue to bed that we have been doing so for seven years as of this Friday. I also realized that I have never lasted seven years at a job before. Huh.
We had nothing else to do at the office but figure out a bunch of trivial information about the paper:
• We have distributed over 57 million printed pages since our debut.
• That would cover the floors of over 42 million average bird cages.
• Since we average about 1,000 words per page, that’s 57 billion printed words.
• If we were paid about $250 per printed word, we could cover the national debt.
• We doubt anyone would pay $250 per printed word. Damn; we thought we had a solution.
Since I am thinking more strategically now that we have an editor focused on the news of the paper, I sought advice about what we should expect, now that we are seven.
I was told we should have better hand-eye coordination. Check. We should have good balance. I feel we are very balanced; check. We can execute simple gymnastic movements, like somersaults. Huh? I think I’m lost. But I guess we should work on that some more.
We should have a vocabulary of several thousand words. I think we may need to work on that some more as well. Longer attention span. Hmmm… Begin to grasp that letters represent the sounds that form words.
It was at this point I realized that I had hired the wrong consultant. That’s the last time I use Bing.com.
Seriously, though, I wondered what it is about this job that has me staying so long with it. It’s not the most lucrative position I’ve held, by a long shot. It’s not the easiest. It is, however, the most rewarding and, in many ways, the most challenging.
We have been plugging away at bringing Utah this publication for this long because we feel we are making a difference. When we get a call, card, letter, email or Facebook message from someone with a simple “thanks” or “love ya,” our hearts swell and we make it through another issue. When we find ourselves face-to-face with a mother of a gay child who says she reads the paper religiously to better understand him or her, we know we are on the right track. When we are in a meeting and someone mentions an article they read that changed them in some way, we remember once again why we all converge on Sugar House five days a week or more.
I bring you our mission statement here because I realize we’ve never actually published it before. Perhaps it will help you get a sense of what we feel our purpose is:
Our mission: to inform, educate and entertain our community with integrity, accuracy and gaiety
We love this job. We love this community. We love even more what we can envision ourselves growing to be.
So, while we can now execute simple gymnastic movements, we know that soon we will be flying over the moon. Don’t let anyone say we can’t.
