Commons Room
A single computer monitor casts a soft blue glow over the two faces examining its screen. It’s a Tuesday evening in The Pitt News production room on the forth floor of the William Pitt Union, and there’s a paper to finish in the next few hours. Huddled in front of the computer, junior Stephen Caruso and recent grad Alex Ryan closely study the front-page layout for errors. It’s typical for the pair to share a machine in the rush of deadline, when writers and editors wrap up work on the room’s other half-dozen screens. But tonight, Caruso and Ryan share out of habit rather than necessity. The production room is empty, except for them.
Summer has come to The Pitt News, the independent student-run paper founded in 1910. During the fall and spring semesters, the busy staff turns out a newspaper a day. Between April and August, when most students have left campus, production slows to one edition a week. But that doesn’t mean that the summer staff ever takes it easy. Instead, the crew uses the relative lull as an opportunity to get a lot of work done.
“As a newspaper, we’re trying to become more mature with this whole summer,” says Caruso, the assistant sports editor whose hard-working attitude makes him a jack-of-all-trades at the paper.
“In 2015, you can’t just be a newspaper, you have to be on all media platforms,” adds Ryan. A graphic designer, she is now a full-time Pitt News employee who served in the same position as an undergrad.
The Pitt News summer crew is working to create a new website. Led by summer editor-in-chief Harrison Kaminsky, they are also conducting a massive redesign of the print newspaper. Oh, and there’s also the production of the 100-page-plus “Welcome Back” issue that greets the Pitt community at the start of the fall semester. It takes both dedication and camaraderie to get all of the work done.
Over in the cluttered editorial room, Kaminsky puts the finishing touches on the issue headed to the printer tonight. Beside him, an empty desk holds a disheveled stack of papers, a bottle of Tabasco sauce, and discarded cardboard drink cups. On a cubicle shelf, a collection of energy drinks awaits a future late-night deadline frenzy. Tacked on the walls are memos but also photos and clippings that display the in-house humor of staffers over the years.
This is where friends are made—both during and between the school year. Typically, Pitt News staffers spend more time in the paper’s offices than they do anywhere else. “We leave to pick up food sometimes—and to go to class,” Kaminsky says, laughing. “But we come back here to do the actual eating.”
Clearly, The Pitt News is a labor of love, but it’s more than that, too. “I wouldn’t be here for the summer if it wasn’t fun,” says Caruso.