by Aimee Goodwin, '04
The night of the presidential election,
I frantically told any editor who would
listen, "The Electoral College vote
numbers don't add up to 538 in the
graphic!" Around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 4,
2008, that was my biggest concern as copy
chief of Express, The Washington Post's free
daily commuter newspaper in Washington,
D.C. As the publication's sole copy editor,
I was under intense pressure that night.
I had to make sure the newspaper was as
error-free as possible, since the issue we
were producing contained history-making
news and, therefore, might be saved for
years. (In fact, the day after the election,
Express was being sold on eBay for $10.)
Documenting history comes with a
price, though. I didn't get to sit back
and realize the magnitude of what had
happened on election night until I got
home from work the next morning,
exhausted and sick of red state-blue state
maps. Not until hours later did I learn
people had been dancing and shouting
in the streets near the White House and
in other D.C.-area neighborhoods after
Barack Obama was named President of the
United States.
I'm still amazed that I was working
for a D.C.-area newspaper that night,
considering the fact that just eight years
ago I was a freshman Pirate. I worked for
The Whitworthian as a
reporter my freshman and sophomore
years, as the news editor my junior year,
and as the copy editor my senior year.
Applying what I learned in my journalism
classes to my work for The Whitworthian
proved to prepare me well for what God
had in store for me after graduation.
I entered the journalism industry when
jobs were easier to find than they are now.
I spent the summer after graduating from
Whitworth working as a layout and design
intern on the news desk at The Washington
Times in Washington, D.C. I landed a fulltime
job as a copy editor at the paper and
moved to the D.C. area permanently. I've
been here almost five years.
I love living in D.C. I enjoy being
where the action is and the opportunities
D.C. presents. My faith, communication
skills and, of course, politics have been
challenged in a place where partisanship
and networking rule. I've been encouraged
by the Christians I've met who are
involved in government and the passion
they have for their work. There's
something thrilling to me about driving
by the Capitol at night and seeing the
lights on in the dome, knowing Congress
is still at work; seeing Marine One fly
overhead; hanging out with a reporter who
has traveled aboard Air Force One; and
witnessing the filming of the final episode
of The West Wing. In January 2009 I came
full circle in a way, when I met with
Whitworth's Media Impact Jan Term study
group in D.C., and shared with them my
journalism experiences and discussed how
the field is changing.
The current journalism industry does
not mirror the journalism industry
I grew up wanting to be a part of.
News that's in print today likely hit
the Internet yesterday, just minutes
after it happened. Newspapers have to
compete with bloggers, who can break
stories without facing accountability.
Many newspapers have implemented
hiring freezes, laid employees off or
trimmed content to make up for budget
shortfalls due to lack of subscribers and
advertising. Some newspapers - such as
the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer - have ceased hard-copy
production, making Denver and Seattle
one-newspaper (and, some might say,
one-viewpoint) towns. The industry
has realized that, in general, in this fastpaced,
web-driven world, the future (and
profitability) of newspapers is in online,
multimedia formats, not newsprint.
As I'm writing this, I am thankful to still
be employed; Express has a nontraditional,
quick-read format that targets the mass
transit commuters in the D.C. area, who
still need reading material. This is one
format in which hard-copy news could
survive and even thrive. Stopping all the
printing presses and going to an onlineonly
newspaper format would surely save a
lot of trees, but it would also limit readers
to only those with Internet access, and it
would deny journalists the thrill of having
their work appear on the front page, above
the fold and displayed in a street-corner
newspaper box for all to see.
Aimee Goodwin graduated from Whitworth
in 2004 with a B.A. in journalism and mass communication.
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