Two years later...

Well, seems this blog was an idea that never got off the ground. News Bulletin kept me busy enough that I didn't feel much like writing about the work when it was done.

That said, I learned a heckuva lot about being an editor (mostly from Carla Freed – Merry Christmas, Carla!) during the year and a half I was managing editor, although for the most part the job had a lot in common with pounding nails.

Even so, there were plenty of good times. More than anything else, it allowed me to get to know and work with some really talented folks all around at Michigan State (as well as a teeny handful who'd long-since hit their Peter Principle potential, but were blissfully oblivious) while I broadened my portfolio to include some skills I didn't have before and used some others that had been on the shelf for years.

Anyhow, last summer I traded MSU for ASU, where I'm back doing a jack-of-all-trades kind of communications job amid the palm trees and sunshine, working with yet another cohort of first-rate folks.

And as a result of my time editing News Bulletin, I'm probably driving some of my new colleagues crazy, pointing at the AP Style Guide and insisting on compliance. On the other hand, I'm probably making life a lot easier for the editor of ASU Insight when I send him submissions.

Anyway, that's a wrap for this site.

Check out my regular blog at: http://studio1050.blogspot.com/

And now for something completely different...

Okay, maybe not so different. There are a lot of other folks at Michigan State University—notably both the president and provost—who communicate via blogs. That looked to me as though it might be both fun and useful, and I've always been a believer that making one's avocation into one's vocation is a reasonably certain way of both doing a good job and having a good time. And it's hard to beat getting paid to have a good time.

Before I forget, my name is Mark Luebker, and I'm the incoming editor of the MSU News Bulletin. I'm hesitant to simply call myself "editor" yet, since we haven't actually produced an issue on my watch. That hypothetical issue is due out on January 11. But having met and talked to the various folks who have been producing News Bulletin before I arrived in this office, I have every confidence that it WILL be out on time, regardless of my presence or influence. From everything I've seen so far, this is a team effort and a very good team.

My main purpose in setting up this blog is to try to begin a two-way conversation with readers of the News Bulletin and the larger MSU community. If I'm going to do this job well, I need to know what our audience is thinking. And it's always been hard for me to resist the temptation to let others know what I'm thinking. A blog seems like a good place to take advantage of both of those opportunities.

We'll see whether this experiment is successful and whether I'm able to post here regularly remains to be seen. But as one of my colleagues reminded me the other day, the longest journey always begins with the first step. Let's see where this journey takes us.