Rose keeps things straight

Published 10:14 pm Friday, October 9, 2009

Editor’s Note: In recognition of National Newspaper Week, the Suffolk News-Herald is featuring a few of its behind-the-scenes employees to give readers an idea of who helps get the paper to their doorsteps each day.

Hope Rose loves her job, because she loves to help people.

“Deep down, I’m a social worker and I like to help people,” Rose said.

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Rose is the advertising designer for the Suffolk News-Herald. Her job involves designing advertisements sold by the sales staff, laying out the classified and business directory pages and designing the religion advertisement page and the A to Z Kids’ page.

She also decides each day how many pages the paper will be, based on the amount of advertising, and places the ads on each page before turning them over to the news department.

“It’s interesting, and it has something new to offer each day,” Rose said. “I get to deal with new people sometimes.”

Rose frequently works with business clients to help them design the advertisements they think will best promote their product. Many people still e-mail her just to say hello, even after they’ve moved to other companies or out of the area.

Rose also designs sample advertisements, in-house promotional materials and ads for special sections of the News-Herald.

Rose has worked for the News-Herald since 1991. She started at the paper doing paste-up, designing the pages by hand before the paper switched to a computerized system.

When page-layout software came along, Rose moved into the position where she works now. Everything she knows about her job is self-taught, she said.

“You know, you learn stuff by accidentally hitting a key,” she said.

Rose takes pride in keeping all the advertisements for the paper organized, she said.

“I really do like it,” she said. “I like keeping things straight. It makes my job easier.”