Wednesday, February 22, 2006

A typical day at Utah Policy Daily


Many have asked how things happen at Utah Policy. So I thought I would share with the blog world a daily routine that has been nearly perfected in two years and 400 plus editions.

The production day for UPD actually starts the night before. Publisher LaVarr Webb after putting in a normal business day for the Exoro Group (10 hours), around 10pm starts writing the Daily Buzz column. Around 11 pm, LaVarr takes a break and grabs some sleep (about six hours). Golden Webb (LaVarr’s son) who is a web serfing guru starts reading national and local newspaper headlines as these papers publish electronically. Additionally he reads over 100+ blogs and creates the National, Local, and Blog report which must be finished by 4:30am. This is then transmitted to LaVarr for his final edits and the creation of the Messages section. LaVarr get’s up at 5am to put on his finishing touches, and then transmits to the editor Paul Hollingshead. Luci Hollingshead, Paul’s wife and Lavarr’s daughter must update the UPD calendar and candidate tracking, while Paul formats the entire newsletter and publishes to the Website by 6am. Then he must create a HTML and PDA version of the newsletter which is then transmitted to our nearly 10,000 subscribers by 7am. The website is hosted and maintained by Dave Webb, LaVarr’s Brother and programming assistance from another brother Gaylen. To say this is a “web” of Webb’s is an understatement. I’m the only non family member to be included in this Swiss watch operation.

The professionalism and integrity of this family project is most refreshing. I’m honored to be a small part in the success of Utah’s best source of political and policy reporting.

Cheers,

Mark E. Towner,
Business Development Director
Utah Policy Daily