GOLDEN CHANCE
The first time I stepped into the office was in 2004. I was the sweaty, nervous college senior who took a jeepney ride from University of Santo Tomas (UST) to Taft Avenue and trekked Kalaw Avenue just to hand my resume to the sports editor, Aldrin Cardona.
To my surprise, he didn’t check my school, the seminars I attended or even my background.
All he asked were two questions: Do you know how to write and do you love sports? Of course, I said yes. Before I stepped out of office, he told me something: Sportswriting is not for everyone. This job doesn’t pay much. But if you have the love and passion in what you are doing, you will be rewarded with happiness and a unique sense of fulfillment. He was right. I didn’t earn much, but I got to cover almost everything ranging from the Southeast Asian Games to Asian Games, World Championships, World Cup, an NBA preseason game and Manny Pacquiao fights up to the smallest sports event you can imagine like the Children’s Games, Manila Youth Games and Batang Pinoy. Being a sportswriter also made me grow. I took my Masters, married the girl of my dreams, started a family, and worked my way up to become the sports editor. Still, the passion and hunger were there.
I still wake up very early in the morning to check the pages of other papers, map out the day’s coverage assignment and call the reporters for news advisories. After breakfast, I will close the foreign section and rewrite one or two local stories before driving to office to wait for late-breakers, proofread, check the layout before finally laying the pages to bed. I’m doing this for six days a week while still being on-call on Sundays. It isn’t easy, I’m telling you.
The job of an editor isn’t about nagging reporters and printing their stories as they are.
It involves sound planning, careful analysis, fact-checking, sharpening of the angle, coming up with tight headlines, putting flair, correcting the grammar and supplying additional details in the stories for readers to enjoy.
It’s about helping the reporters get the biggest story of the day and serving as their mentors as they fulfill their dream of becoming an editor someday.
It’s about managing, motivating, inspiring and pushing them to the best of their abilities. Being an editor is not just a career. This is a vocation that I have to uphold so that readers can enjoy great narratives, catchy headlines, perfectly written stories and accurate details about sports heroes and their biggest victories.
This is a mission that I have to fulfill so that young writers would be inspired and motivated to harness the craft. And one day, when they finally have my position, they will say: That old guy who is happily retired with the woman of his dreams used to be my mentor. He molded my career. He turned me into who I am. Thank you, Daily Tribune, for giving me the opportunity to provide readers with a good companion while they are sipping a cup of their favorite coffee in the morning.
Thank you for the chance to touch lives and mold young writers into resourceful, responsible journalists. But more importantly, thank you for hiring the sweaty, nervous student who took a jeepney ride from UST just to chase his dream of becoming a journalist.
Happy 20th Anniversary! Julius Manicad