So what's your motivation?

Meranda Writes' blog caught my eye today. Hassled by her editor to submit some of her stories for national awards, she confesses that awards or "external praise," as she calls it, serve as no motivation for her when it comes to doing her job.

Motivation is actually something that I've given quite a bit of thought to lately, yet it's a topic that doesn't seem to come up much. Motivation just exists. It just "is," like breathing or walking. Everyone is motivated by something, but we don't often take time to think about what it is that continues to push us and drive us to achieve our highest potential.

In an attempt to coax more daily progress out of my newspaper-focused coworkers (aside: remember that I'm the only magazine rep, so I'm on a completely different schedule from them), my ad director initiated the Awesomeness Board. Posted right outside her door, the Awesomeness Board consists of a piece of posterboard with our names written down the left-hand side and plenty of empty space next to them. The idea: every time one of us does something awesome, we get a sticker. The sticker then goes next to our name on the Awesomeness Board for all the world to see.

Apparently, the Awesomeness Board works wonders for my coworkers. They all have so many stickers that we'll need to add another board soon. I think have four stickers total. I was honest with my boss.

"That doesn't motivate me."

"Well, it doesn't motivate me either," she said. "Money motivates me."

Ah, money. I can think of at least two more of my coworkers who are driven by cash. Offer a $150 spiff and they'll work and work and work until they meet their goals. However, at the moment, money doesn't motivate me either. Not that I don't need it. I just don't place as high a value on it as my married coworkers with two or three kids to support.

So what does motivate me?

Expectations. Goals. I want to be the best of the best. I want to surpass everyone's expectations and then some. I want to do better than my predecessor. I want people to be amazed at what I can do at my age. I want challenges, and I want obstacles. And I want to blow it out of the water.

I think my boss has figured it out already. Two weeks ago I met my goal on one of my magazines. While I was happily rejoicing, she looked at me and said, "I want you to get $1,000 more." At first, I looked at her in astonishment. There was no spiff involved, no bonus, no extra anything. There was just the challenge. A week later, it was done. $1,700 over my goal.

So yeah, money's nice. Being awesome is nice. Winning awards is nice. But ultimately, meeting challenges and being above average is what drives me to succeed.

What motivates you?

I ♥ Bluffton

And while we're on the topic of financial difficulties, I was troubled to see that Bluffton Today will no longer be free starting December 1 of this year. I know Morris (Communications) wanted to keep it running as a free circulation and a model for the new age of newspapers, but unfortunately, this is just not the ideal economy to experiment with right now. Good luck, guys.

A monolithic mess

Sorry I still haven't posted the news forum stuff. It's gonna be sort of a big project, so I need to do it right. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some of the results up.

First of all, my heart goes out to the KTRK-Houston pilot and photographer who were killed in a helicopter crash this afternoon. Keep their families in your thoughts.

And now to the main feature!



The other day while talking with my editor, we hit on a problem currently faced by newspapers within the company and apparently nationwide. What do we do with these giant news buildings now that we're having to cut back extensively on pretty much everything?

While walking around our own "monolith" (my editor's word, although I wish I could claim it), I couldn't help but notice that around 50 percent of the building is not in use. Yeah, it used to be. There were photography studios, a helicopter pad, meeting rooms, desks, and computers, all with signs of wear and tear. But now the halls are empty. It was a little creepy and apocalyptic, actually.

When I heard how much it costs to operate a building the size of ours each month, I almost had a heart attack. Newspapers can't afford to be paying for these monoliths when they've got bigger problems. So what can we do to monetize these buildings that aren't being used? I've heard of a few options.

1. Rent out part of the space. One of our papers in St. Augustine was throwing this idea around. If you can consolidate your newsroom, advertising and circulation to one floor (not really much of a problem if you look at all the cutbacks happening these days), then that leaves an entire floor in a beautiful, grandiose, brand spanking new building up for grabs. People would kill for that - small businesses, law firms, governmental bodies. As long as you establish a solid line between the newspaper operation and whatever business shares the space with you (so as to eliminate any room for accusations of bias), all that's left is to reap the benefits. And if your building isn't rental-ready, it might be worth it to install a few walls and some extra outside stairwells if it means saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in utilities.

2. Just flat out sell it. That's what The Columbian is thinking about doing. If you've built a gigantic freaking Parthenon, people are bound to place some value in it, especially since most news buildings also come with great locations that usually facilitate a quick dash over to the chamber of commerce or some other downtown political unit. Maybe right now isn't the perfect time to try to sell, but as soon as the economy starts turning around, businesses are going to be more willing to invest in a beautiful, convenient and spacious building.