I'm much more pleased with Working Lunch (published in the May 24 edition) than I thought I would be and the response has been consistently positive.
If you're not sure what Working Lunch is, let me take a moment to explain it as it is intended. The direction that we're trying to take this thing in is simple. It's a light-hearted Q&A with people who have unique jobs and backgrounds.
When I sit down with someone for a Working Lunch interview, I want to produce an article that will allow the reader to walk away with an understanding of the person I am talking to - what they do for a living, where they come from and some of the things that have happened to them along the way. I also want the reader to smile, chuckle and perhaps laugh. So expect to get a little bit of who I am or who Don or Ed are when we do these, because a big piece of the puzzle - what drives a Working Lunch – is the personalities on both ends of the discussion.
In all honesty, I have to give credit to a staff writer at sister publication The News-Herald, located in Southgate. Bobby Ampezzan started this whole Working Lunch thing before my time, and over in the Downriver area it has become quite an attraction for our readers, because he has done a fantastic job with it and really set a high bar for us. It is my understanding that there are quite a few people who write in or call him directly to ask, "Who's next?"
I haven't quite gotten to that point with only one of these under my belt, and Mr. Ampezzan has already passed his bicentennial Working Lunch at The News-Herald, but I can see us getting there soon.
One important thing that I would like to point out is that you, the reader, have to help us out by either saying, "Hey! I'm a candidate!" or networking us with people that you think would, even if they might be too modest to admit that they have something special to share. We'll be the judge of that!
Speaking of judgment, I’m not sure if parts of this blog post will be frowned upon. I was advised not to mention where Working Lunch came from, either to avoid looking like I stole the idea (I ate Bobby Ampezzan’s lunch?) or to preserve the “new car smell” of this feature for the Dexter/Chelsea area reader.
I decided to go against that advice and be honest by sharing the tale of Working Lunch, and from whence it came.
Sean Dalton
The Dexter Leader
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3 comments:
Your "Working Lunch" stories should be entertaining and informative, Sean; sound promising and kudos to you for recognizing a good thing when you see (saw) it.
Even bigger props to you for resisting the incredibly misguided advice to not credit the originator. If the creep of slimy ethics is allowed to continue unabated into our fourth estate then we risk more than the embarrassment of claiming someone else's good idea.
I have a person or two that I will recommend under separate email.
Regards,
Alan
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Alan. I'm looking forward to more Working Lunch subjects, although next time I'm going to let Don Richter or Ed Freundl take a stab at it.
As for mentioning Working Lunch's origin, I don't think that advice was given to be misleading or anything like that. It was just a word of caution that made less and less sense as I wrote this week's blog post.
I actually called Terry Jacoby for a second opinion and he said to just be straight and play it off as a joke, which I did (unsuccessfully) in that parethetical statement at the end.
Edit - That deleted comment is mine, by the way. I'm still figuring out how Blogspot's interface works.
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