When I hired my managing editor for the summer, he had this idea of making the content on the Nation & World page come from IDS writers. I didn’t think he’d be able to pull it off, but he did.

In Monday’s paper (May 18, 2009), the Nation & World section is filled with local writers in far away places. One one side, we have a column from IU senior Bryce Wininger. Bryce is studying abroad in Italy. We started a Writers Abroad column for the summer that we hope stays with the IDS into the fall. The main package on the page came as a surprise to me. We had planned to run Associated Press stories in that space, but early Sunday, I got a message from IDS reporter Sarah Brubeck, who is currently in London interning through the Summer London Program that the Journalism School sponsors.

Sarah told me that she had an extended caption of sorts to go along with IDS photographer Alex Farris’ photos of a protest in front of the Houses of Parliament. The protesters were supporting the Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka. On Sunday, the 25-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka ended with the Tamil Tigers conceding.

It was news and we loved it. We hope this is a trend we can keep up throughout the summer, whether it be hard news from Hartford, Conn., or London. I hope you stay tuned.

Tonight was an unusual one. Typically as the clock ticks towards midnight, we are scrambling to check P1 and any other page still out. But tonight by 11 p.m. we were basically done and had plenty of time to double, triple and quadruple check our work.

This brings me to our deadlines and how we work with them. Every section has a different deadline in which they are supposed to be done by, for example Opinion is supposed to be done at 7 p.m., while Sports should be done at 11 p.m. because of late scores and finally Page One is to be out by midnight. When we hit each of these staggered deadlines, things usually go smoothly. But when we have a late event cover or get a story in later than it should be for any one section of the paper, it drags back the time of everything.

Some nights it’s 11 p.m. and we still have 8 or more pages that are still out, needing to be checked and worked on. While other times, such as tonight, everything goes according to plan and we get out a little early. Every day is different and each day presents its own challenges, and that is what makes journalism so exciting.