The journalism staff visited the voice of the community on Sept. 24 and explored the inner workings of The Fresno Bee.

In a tour that normally lasts 45 minutes, the class spent double the time normally alloted talking to the editorial staff, a reporter, and learning how a newspaper is produced. Each day over 1000 employees participate in producing over 180,000 papers for The Bee. These papers are shipped from Merced to Bakersfield and everywhere in between.

The staff interviewed Gail Marshall, one of the editorial staff, who stressed the importance of the public’s right to share and read relevant issues. She also stressed the Bee’s responsibility to report and print both sides of the issue in a nonbiased manner.

Marshall, who has been on the Bee staff for 33 years, started as a student writer and worked her way up onto editorial staff.

“This is the most fun job in the world,” Marshall said. “You learn something new every day; no day is the same. You have the opportunity to work in whatever interests you.”

Throughout the morning tour, students were impressed with the details and job descriptions of reporters and editors.

“What really amazed me,” Daurissa Garcia, ’03, said, “was that after all the stressful days trying to meet a deadlines, the reporters still love their jobs.”

According to Greg Stobbe, The Feather’s staff adviser, the purpose of the trip was to give the class an idea of what it is like to work in the journalism profession.

“It was a great tour,” Stobbe said. “It gave my journalism students a worthwhile look into the world of professional journalism. It was great to see the bigger picture beyond a classroom reporter.”

Daryl Gutierres, the head of the Bee’s circulation department, guided the hour-long tour. He took the group throughout The Bee, describing many aspects of newspaper production including reporting, editor responsibilities, layout, printing and circulation. Editorial staff member Marshall and other Bee employees also gave insight into particular aspects as well.

“I think Daryl gave us an excellent tour,” Eric Witters, staff writer, said. “He was very informative and willing to answer our questions. Also, he seemed interested in our school.”

After searching the Internet for schools in the Fresno area, Gutierres said he located the Fresno Christian web site and was surprised to find The Feather online.

“I was impressed with The Feather,” Gutierres said. “The paper was very informative on what was happening in your school. I appreciated the paper’s layout and that there were so few grammatical errors.” He also appreciated the wide variety of articles and that most of them seemed well-written.

After the hour and a half tour, Gutierres commented to Stobbe on his part-time role as tour guide for the staff.

“I rarely lead a tour longer than 45 minutes but am impressed with your (FC) students,” Gutierres said. “They seem to be interested in journalism and am impressed on how well they are grasping information we are sharing. They are good listeners and I appreciate that.”