Once we're fully paginated, we'll begin remote-site printing in England and Italy. Our peculiar situation requires all screening to be done over the phone. We interview references at length. The impending elimination of the copy desk means we are now hiring only recent J-school grads who are willing to live in a hotel for a year. Night wire editor works 4-midnight. 17.
Extra pages are okay.
The contract provided a housing allowance in addition to salary. However, the copy desk will be moved to Washington in 1998 under a congressionally forced merger with Pacific Stars and Stripes. The consolidation plan calls for a couple of editors to remain in Europe to polish local copy, and the Washington staff to do layout and wire editing only.