Inside
NCR
This paper goes to press on the eve
of Labor Day, an observance that has lost a lot of its political zip since it
was first conceived in the late 1800s. One account has workers in 1882, in what
is generally considered the first Labor Day Parade, marching up New Yorks
Broadway with signs that read: Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for
Rest, Eight Hours for Recreation! Such protests might seem quaint at this
distance, but the story on Page 7 shows only too clearly that the exploitation
of workers is not reserved to past centuries.
The story of the horrible working conditions in some of the
clothing manufacturing compounds on Saipan lends an uneasy twist to the Labor
Day sales that mark summers end. And the account of a growing
anti-immigrant movement on Page 3 raises new questions about how we treat the
people who are responsible for the first steps in delivering the food we
eat.
The number of pages in each issue of
NCR has been on a steady creep upward in recent years, thanks mainly to
the work of our advertising department. The good news is were able to
bring you more reporting and commentary and better graphics. The downside is
sometimes we get lost in the swim of copy and pages.
To remedy that, Teresa Malcolm, formerly opinion editor, has been
named news editor. In her new role, she works closely with Managing Editor
Pamela Schaeffer and oversees most of the gate-keeping chores in the newsroom:
tracking story ideas and stories from the idea stage to completion, keeping
track of graphics and overseeing the pages as they move along different stages
of editing and production. Shell also continue to contribute articles
from time to time.
Rich Heffern, meanwhile, has taken over the opinion editor duties.
Heffern is already well-known to the NCR audience for his pieces on
spirituality and on environmental matters. Hell continue to write while
overseeing weekly columns, as well as special issues and book reviews. Heffern
has already introduced some new faces to the back of the paper with a move to
include more guest columnists, and those efforts will continue in
the coming months. Well also be adding a few more new regular columnists
to those pages in the weeks ahead.
Id also like to introduce a
new NCR employee, Matt Stoulil, a recent graduate of Rockhurst
University in Kansas City, Mo., who has taken up duties as layout assistant.
Stoulil, a native of Tulsa, Okla., has a degree in business communication and
will be assisting our award-winning designer Toni-Ann Ortiz in the production
department. In addition to other duties, he will be in charge of overseeing
production of our special sections.
Lots of you have written gracious
notes commending John L. Allen Jr.s coverage of the Vatican. Beginning
this week, you can get an additional serving of Allens take on Vatican
goings-on (hes always got more to write than we have room to publish) by
checking into www.natcath.org and selecting The Word From Rome button,
which will be in the column to the left of the computer screen. Allens
column will appear weekly. Anyone interested in receiving an e-mail of the
column each week once it has been posted may register through our Web site. To
do so, go to The Word From Rome page and select Sign up for the weekly
e-mail, which appears in the upper right-hand corner.
-- Tom Roberts
My email address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, September 7,
2001
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