The best quotes overheard in the newsroom
- #5458
Design editor on another design editor in our chain: “He likes me better now that I embrace his font.”
- #5457
Intern to Producer: “So have you ever wanted to do real journalism?”
- #5456
Reporter: “Is ‘eponymous’ too big a word to use?”
Intern: “It’s too big for me. I think it’s a small hippopotamus.”
- #5455
IT: “Are you guys moving in the building or out?”
Composing manager: “No, we’ve been in this building for over 100 years.”
IT: “You mean it always looks like this?”
- #5454
Reporter: “Everything is rising except my salary.”
- #5453
Editor taking dictation from reporter at a protest: “Nazi-zona? How do you spell that?”
- #5452
Rodeo reporter: “Covering rodeo is not like covering any other sport. I’ve filed from a whorehouse and I’ve filed from an outhouse.”
Sports reporter: “Were those the only places with wireless?”
- #5451
Copy editor at paper in Louisiana: “Did you see the thing about Louisiana being named the laziest state? We should get something in about that.”
Wire editor: “Eh, let’s publish it next week.”
- #5450
After hearing his news story read almost verbatim on a television report, reporter turns to his editors and says: “Am I in the wrong newsroom?”
- #5449
Chief photographer after a press conference: “Well that was a load of wank.”
- #5448
Slot editor: “My pen just ran out of ink. I’m going home.”
- #5447
Producer, watching audio op use board: “It’s like a space shuttle.”
- #5446
City editor on series of e-mails between himself and reader about the news site not having an hourly front-page weather update: “I mean, (readers) like that don’t really bother me anymore, but fuck you—I’m so sorry you have to click on the big sun to see the weather.”
- #5445
Intern 1: “Does this beard make me look older or younger? Be honest.”
Intern 2: “I don’t know, but it makes you look creepier.”
- #5444
Newsroom on deadline hears reporter rejecting a story pitch: “I don’t get what’s so hard about the letters N and O.”
Art desk with 4 late ads handed in by the publisher: “It’s because the main man has a problem with B.A.L.L.S.”
- #5443
Managing editor, hearing about a story on a natural gas plant near a town called White: “I’ve got the headline: ‘White Power’.”
- #5442
Intern to News Editor: “You have a really kick-ass nickname. Can you help me get one? Because right now, they all call me ‘Hey, Intern.’”
- #5441
Reporter: “This is the second religion story I’ve written where the final word count is 666. I feel like that’s a bad sign.”
- #5440
“That’s my job, to eat red gummi bears all night.”
- #5439
Copy editor to new entertainment reporter: “I don’t mean to be angry with you. You’re just being punished for the sins of your predecessor.”
