Behind The Scenes: Ditmas Park Corner Editor, Carly Miller
We at Ditmas Park Corner depend on your support and the support of our advertisers to tell the stories nobody else tells about our neighborhood. We thought you’d like a look behind the scenes at what it takes to bring daily neighborhood news to our community.
A day in the life of Ditmas Park Corner (DPC) editor Carly Miller can take her from a house fire to a cultural event to a community meeting on education policy to reviewing a local food spot. Carly is the main voice behind DPC. We <3 Carly!
For all you news lovers, we’ve documented one of Carly’s days this week, so you can see what it is actually like to produce one day’s worth of stories — work that usually begins at least the evening before. To be able to publish throughout the day, she must work on several stories at any one time.
Monday, 5:55pm: Carly completes a working draft of a profile on Ditmas Park playwright Christine Miller and a review of her new play. Our newsletter goes out at 6pm so that’s the cutoff for stories for the day. Carly makes the decision to sleep on the story and do another round of edits in the morning.
(On Friday evening, Carly went to TheaterLab in Manhattan to see Miller perform her one-woman show.)
Monday, 6:15pm: After publishing an article earlier in the day on the rezoning of public school district 22, Carly bikes to East 23rd Street for the final public meeting before the CEC votes on the proposal. She live-streams video coverage of the meeting with a small tripod, attempting to capture everyone’s comments.
Arrives home at 8:45pm.
Tuesday, 8:05am: The day begins. Responds to emails and tipsters. Creates preliminary story schedule for the day.
9:30 to 11am: After final edits, publishes profile on playwright Christine Miller.
11:10am: After getting a question from a reader, goes on a fact-finding mission with another reporter to look into water main construction near Cortelyou Road, along with checking out a Sukkah and some local “pizza” street art.
Carly talks to different crew members to see if she can get more information. “When was the last time water mains in our area were replaced?”
The clock is ticking. Now on to the story about the Sukkah…
And the street art project…
12 to 1pm: Back to the office and time for a quick snack — half a muffin.
After reviewing, she publishes a story at 12:51pm about resources for victims of domestic violence, written by a colleague Sean Egan of Sheepshead Bites.
1:10pm: On to other stories. Puts two stories in development — a food post and a profile of a local writer — aside for the moment to investigate the story about water main construction. Emails the City’s Department of Design & Construction with questions.
1:30pm: Takes a quick break and chats with colleagues Donny (Park Slope Stoop), Hannah (Bensonhurst Bean) and Sean (Sheepshead Bites) about their stories.
2:11pm: Publishes a public service announcement about an 86-year-old Flatbush man who has gone missing. Keeps trying to get information from the City about the water main construction project.
2:30 — 4:40: Makes calls to Community Board 14, the Parks department and the Department of Design and Construction for three separate stories, including an update on construction work on Ocean Parkway.
4:45: Breaks for lunch. Takes more photos of water main construction — this time the pipes themselves! Final deadline for any stories today is one hour and fifteen minutes away.
5:55pm: Publishes story about tomorrow’s public meeting, hosted by the Parks Department, regarding improvements to the Cortelyou Road Tot Lot.
6:15pm: Posts on Facebook, seeking information from local bars as to whether they will be showing the presidential debate tomorrow night.
6:25pm: After reviewing plans with a colleague about some of tomorrow’s stories, the work day has ended.
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Unless otherwise mentioned, all photos by Sarah Crean/Ditmas Park Corner.