I’ve noticed recently that not many people understand what I do as The News’ managing editor.

People being anyone from my friends and family to the community and even myself, sometimes, as the job description seemingly extends each day.

As managing editor, I have a lot to manage and I do some editing, but there’s so much more.

First of all, it’s not your average 9-to-5, seeing as I work from 2 to 11 p.m.

When I get in each afternoon, I start by sorting through emails, same as most people do each day. I go through my email, then I go through The News’ other accounts, including the email accounts for the newsroom, obits, and sports.

I respond where appropriate, flag emails of importance, forward those that need to be shared, and deal with the other varied ones as they arrive.

When needed, I go through obituaries next, putting them together to calculate the price and respond to those asking. Occasionally, I receive payment over the phone, which is never a fun task, knowing the other line is occupied by someone grieving their loss.

Next, I communicate with our reporters, going over their assignments and when they plan to have them completed. We talk about other needs for the next day’s paper — like briefs, wild art, or additional stories — and we, as the newsroom, take turns with said responsibilities.

I also reach out to our freelance reporters, seeing where they are with their stories or scheduling something new, including sports coverage, which is finally amping up again with high school sports returning.

Then, when time permits, I start laying out comics, the weather page, wire pages, and anything else that can be done before local pages, which have to wait for local stories to be filed.

With wire pages (those filled by stories from the Associated Press), I face a new struggle daily.

Sometimes, this issue is working around ads and creating an appealing-to-the-eye layout. On other days, there’s a lack of articles made available to me. But, every day, I work hard to put articles in the paper that meet the wants and needs of our readers and fulfill our responsibility to keep the public informed on the other goings-on.

When it comes to content, we prioritize in tiers.

First, we focus on breaking news. Then, we focus on what’s local, followed by Michigan news. National news is prioritized next, before, lastly, international news.

That system goes for each page in the paper.

Next, I meet with our publisher, discussing today’s procedures and tomorrow’s paper, as well as anything else we might need to talk about, including brainstorming, in-house operations, etc.

The newsroom meets in the evening each day to discuss what we are planning for the days ahead. From the following day’s assignment to projects down the road, we stay updated on each other’s work and continue to plan for papers to come while also keeping in mind that our days can change at the flip of a switch.

Next is usually when the editing portion of my job comes into play. I read through stories, doing the best I can to find any mistakes and talking to the writer about anything needing clarification.

Despite my experience or the number of times I read it over, mistakes fall through the cracks, however unfortunate it might be. I try not to beat myself up about it, but I still take it with me, hoping to never make the same mistake again.

Either way, when any mistakes do arise, we work hard to ensure that we correct them and inform our audience of the truth.

Once all the editing is done, I return to the pages and lay out the rest of them.

It’s not until after 8 p.m. that I can really start to finalize pages, since that’s our deadline for obituaries and other needs. Even later than that, I occasionally have to wait for late-night meetings to end or sporting events to commence. I also have to wait for those words to be written, too, followed by the repeat of editing and layout.

But, each night, there’s a cutoff period, because I have to complete everything by 11 p.m. at the latest so that our press guys can make the plates and print the paper, our mailroom guys can organize and label the printed papers, and we can get them to area post offices in time to arrive the next day at our readers’ homes.

We each meet our deadlines in hopes that our readers get their papers as soon as possible, to keep them updated and informed as soon as we can.

After the pages are sent, everything must be uploaded to the Web for our online readers to have access to everything, too.

I finish up any other assignments once the pages are sent, ensuring that we’re all ready for the next day.

With the occasional breaking news, last-minute adjustments, technology issues, managerial work, special projects, phone calls and meetings, and more sprinkled in, that’s the chaos of my day.

And, I show up the next day, happy to do it all again and even better, with another day of experience under my belt.

Torianna Marasco can be reached at 989-358-5686 or tmarasco@thealpenanews.com.