The newspaper needs more people than just its journalists to ensure that it serves the community.
As displayed in the group photo of the Record, the newspaper is not just two people typing away at stories. As part of the Laclede County Record’s observance of National Newspaper Week, we are covering jobs at the Laclede County Record that readers may not see much of but are vital to the operations of our paper.
We spoke with members of the composition department, our circulation manager, and our office manager.
The paper’s composition department consists of Courtney Bishton, lead graphic designer, and Danielle Brown, composer and designer. Their role is to design and lay out the various publications at the Lebanon Publishing Company, two of which are the Laclede County Record and the Weekly Trader.
With one person managing the Weekly Trader and the other the Record, Bishton said their jobs were about making publications pleasing to the eye and easily readable. She stressed the importance of understanding how publications will look once printed.
Brown said she manages design of the Weekly Trader. She took the Record through the process of incorporating line-item advertisements, her part in which begins once the deadlines hit for salespeople to submit advertisements. Ensuring the advertisements are the right kind and fit correctly into the Trader are important.
Downstairs near the front entrance of the Record, Dawn Slavens works as both the receptionist and the circulation manager for all the different publications of the Lebanon Publishing Company, which includes the Record.
In her work, she said she takes payments for subscriptions as well as classified advertisements, serves customers and helps office manager Kaitlyn Smith with accounts payable.
Slavens said she helps determine how many papers to print and she also tries to bring a smile while working as a receptionist, where she takes calls and greets those who enter the office.
Smith is the office manager who also handles accounts payable. She described her role as having three parts: accounts payable (billing), tackling classified ads with Slavens, and working on legal notices collected from lawyers or the courts that the paper publishes.
Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMO Section 493.050 notes in part, “All public advertisements and orders of publication required by law to be made and all legal publications affecting the title to real estate shall be published in some daily, triweekly, semiweekly or weekly newspaper of general circulation in the county where located and which shall have been admitted to the post office as periodicals class matter in the city of publication” – the statute then continues.
Smith’s favorite part of her job is working with the legals, as she likes working with the lawyers’ offices.
She thought local news was important for making people informed on what goes on in their community as opposed to reading it on the internet.
The Record’s staff is small but handles many tasks throughout the day.
