Tools of my new trade

Taking a cue from my friend and co-worker Nick at Stories on the Run, I decided to present a completely self-serving snapshot of my workstation for the week while I fill in as Web editor.

Pictured: MacBook Pro (fast and loaded with software); PC for running our editorial software, CCI; Sony HDD video camera; pad (still have to take notes at meetings); headphones; Nalgene bottle (stay hydrated).

Absent: AP stylebook and dictionary (yes, I still need them); tripod.

Actually, the only thing different from my usual workstation is the PC. Normally I just dock my MacBook to a second monitor and keyboard and mouse, running CCI from a parallel server.

But I’m in the hot seat this week because of babies being born and vacations. I get to do everything my fellow producer and I usually do, plus act as de facto assistant city editor for the Web. This means I can tell our mojo reporter Tom to go cover stuff or make a call to the cops when I hear scanner traffic. So far, he’s pretty much done that on his own.

But mostly I’m just a gateway for information, determining what goes up, how it’s packaged and in what order. In addition, I’m editing my “Today in pictures” slideshows and blogging about our morning meetings. It’s a full plate, and it reminds me a little of being a wire editor with a bit more multitasking. And since processing, synthesizing, editing and analyzing are my favorite things to do with my brain, it’s a plate I hope stays loaded.