commitment

Sports was writing a story about a minor league ball player near Raleigh and wanted us to get a picture of him. Now, like every newspaper going through financial issues, we don't hire freelancers for every request that comes our way. So, I spoke to sports on numerous occasions about where the story was going to be played. They assured me it would run on the cover of the section each time. With no other pictures of this particular player available, and after going through all the channels, we decided to hire a freelancer in North Carolina.

The freelancer did a fantastic job. The pictures were all really great and could run anywhere we needed them.

Jump to the budget meeting and they wanted to put the story inside only, apparently the story wasn't worthy enough. But after some tough negotiating, and frankly the best pictures of the day, the story started on the cover and jumped inside. The most important point I took away from this was giving and taking. Sports gave a little bit for the best photo to run well---and there are many times when the situation is reversed. It all comes down to cooperation.