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Whit one day, world the next
By Marie
Ranoia Alonso ’90
 s
I peer at my computer monitor, polishing my latest printing industry
perspective, I find myself wondering how did I get here? How did
I become a technology editor for a monthly trade journal? How did
I become a person who writes articles for people who make billboard
art, digital cameras and commercial printing presses? When did I
become the kind of person who attends conferences and trade shows?
How did I get these nifty business cards with the gold trim? When
did I grow up?
Looking for the answer to that heart-and soul question sends me
back to 1989 and 1990 and my days as a reporter and news editor
of The Whit. It all began there, working with my close, cozy
and crazy family of fellow journalism hopefuls.
Each Monday night we would have panic sessions (known outside the
profession as editorial planning meetings) to determine what our
big stories would be for the next edition. After editorial planning
was over—usually about the same time we finished off 12 greasy
pizzas and a few cases of soda while swapping sometimes tasteless
jokes—we would get down to the big task at hand: production
of The Whit for that week.
In the days before desktop publishing came to the College newspaper,
my fellow editors and I would work as a team throughout the night
to lay out The Whit section by section, with pencils, erasers
and rulers. We would edit articles slated for our honored pages,
making corrections in the margins. Our photographers would retreat
into their dark room and usually resurface about once every hour
to turn in freshly developed photos for layout.
Some Monday nights we would laugh for hours while we worked. Some
nights we were tired, stressed and grumpy. Midnight was the earliest
our job was ever done. The following morning, all of our hard work—approved
layout pages, folders of edited copy, black-and-white photos and
ads—went to a local printer for typesetting and page make-up
on boards, with the dreaded exacto knife inadvertently deleting
paragraphs. By Thursday morning, The Whit decorated campus.
One way or another, The Whit always, always got done. What
pressure! What responsibility! What teamwork! What devotion! What
fun!
Today, the pressure is greater. The responsibilities are somehow
more sobering. The fun comes more in the form of professional fulfillment
for a job well done. Today, I play on a different team, but a team
nonetheless. Editors still share leads and expertise to assist one
another in elevating the quality of an article. We’ve even
been known to tell jokes once in a while, yet always tasteful ones.
We hold editorial meetings—sometimes with pizza—to assess
the merit of future articles as well as advertising angles to add
revenue to the publication. Working on an advanced desktop publishing
system, a small, talented army of graphic artists and research editors
complement our team.
One major difference: I don’t have to do the layout. And deadlines?
They carry a greater punch, thanks to the alliance between big dollar
advertising and the release of each issue.
So how did I get here? I dove into a solid career in print journalism
at The Whit. I worked my way from reporting for a weekly,
and then for a major South Jersey daily newspaper to my current
position. Now I swim in a somewhat bigger pond—one in which
I could never stay afloat had I not learned to tread water at The
Whit. 
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Marie Ranoia Alonso is a technology editor for Printing Impressions
at North American Publishing Co. in Philadelphia.
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