While I don’t completely recall my behavior in the fifth grade, I am nearly certain that my daily manners were nothing to be heralded from the top of buildings, or written about in the local town rag. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Hanlon’s fifth grade class at Hopi Elementary, and I have to tell you, dear reader, these kids were very classy youngsters whose parents should be very proud.

They were attentive, polite, patient, understanding, and simply put, a lot of fun to be around. A few days after our classroom meeting, I ran into one young student at the local auto repair shop. He trotted up to me anxiously and exclaimed, “Hey – you’re the newspaper guy who came to our class!” And I, just as excited to see him, said “Yes, yes, good to see you again!” There was a little bond created that day.

Our meeting was put together so we could introduce the students to what it’s like to run a newspaper. Mr. Hanlon had the class draw up some questions for me, so I had something to talk about after I finished my prepared material. There were plenty of good questions, for sure, written and verbal, and here are some of them:

How do you deliver all those papers each day?
Good question. My very first job was a newspaper boy for the Scottsdale Progress in 1980, and I delivered 125 papers every day on my BMX bike. The Arcadia News is a little different. We deliver 12,500 or more papers each month to the post office, and the good mail carriers in our neighborhoods deliver those for us. The remaining 7,500 or more are maintained in over 50 racks in and around the Arcadia area by our Delivery Manager, Mr. Forman. He is out in the field every week day, tending to those racks.

How much do you pay for stories?
This depends on the type of story, but the typical freelance writer earns $0.10 to $0.12 a word for a publication like the Arcadia News. In any given issue, we have about ten stories that are provided by freelance writers. We also rely on parents and other astute individuals in the Arcadia area, who provide us with photos and stories of what’s going on around town.

How much do you pay for a photograph?
Our cover photographer is Christine Johnson, and she sometimes helps us out with getting photos for our stories if someone in our office is unavailable for the duty. A community publication such as ours does not usually have the need to purchase outside photographs.

How do you check facts?
This is a great question. After we discussed the six Ws of reporting (Who, What, Where, When, Why, hoW), I explained that the best way to check facts is to call the “Who” in the story and run the rest of the Ws by that person to verify everything. I had just finished telling the class my encounter with President Bush at the Tee Pee in February 2004, and how I was fortunate enough to be able to take a picture of him with the good folks over there. Immediately, hands shot up and the inevitable question was asked in unison by several: “Did you call President Bush!?”
Uh, no. But, I was able to verify that he ordered cheese enchiladas by talking to his server at the Tee Pee. Not quite as cool as calling the White House and asking to speak to Dubya about his meal, but it was sufficient enough to go to press.

How do you do an interview with a sports star (Barry Bonds)?
We consider ourselves fortunate that the sports stars in this paper are the members of our community. We love to hear about how well the youths (and adults) have performed in sports, and what you all have accomplished. We’ll leave the interviews with guys like Barry Bonds to the seasoned writers who, like Barry, can weave great stories.

How do you pick the comics? Who draws the comics? How much do you pay for comics? Where are the comics???
The comic topic made its way into 30% of the questions. I didn’t know that fifth-graders were still interested in comics. As you might’ve noticed, we don’t have comics or crosswords in the Arcadia News. However, we will always consider all submissions, and I encourage those creative minds to bring us something that makes you laugh (comic) or something that puzzles you (crossword) and we’ll take a look at it.

To all the eager students in Mr. Hanlon’s class: I enjoyed meeting you and I learned a thing or two along with you that day. I look forward to seeing you again, either around town or in the classroom some time.