being culture editor! It`s exhausting, and all I do these days is work, walk the dogs and sleep, I have no energy left when I get home from work. But I enjoy it so much! And I do think it is a good thing for my career in this paper (or somewhere else, it goes on my resume obviously!). There`s not that much feedback really (but that goes for all the sections in the paper I think, we don`t have evaluation meetings during summer, so noone gets much feedback.) But one of the permanent journalists said the other day that she thinks the culture pages are great, and the main editor has said a few times that I have made good priorities. Plus, the culture editor sent me an e-mail the other day saying I`m doing a really good job, that my culture pages have “character” and that I should keep doing what I`m doing. He also said that my pages are “unpredictable”, I`m not sure that is entirely positive, although he said it in a positive sentence.
Either way, I still don`t know how much longer I will have a job there, but this has to be a positive thing for my career there. Or so I hope. The weekend editor is also on vacation, but one of the permanent journalists on the section is is there. And the head editor asked if he would be responsible for the weekend pages, and he said “Well, I`ll be your consultant when you make the decisions about them”. He has worked there a lot longer than me, and still didn`t take the opportunity to step up and take the responsibility, so hopefully they like that I did.
Plus, I`m having fun!