A day in the life of Blizzard Watch editors

To continue our glimpses behind-the-scenes here at Blizzard Watch this week, we thought we’d offer a small rundown of a typical day for the people running the site in their own words — and a look at our workspaces.

Michael Gray

Hi, I’m Michael Gray. I’m the resident bus-dev and sales manager to Blizzard Watch. I’m responsible for ads, give-aways, and similar programs.

I wake in the morning, to the thunderous applause of several dozen elvish warriors. Or, more realistically, I crawl out of the bed and feed my infant daughter. I shower and shine, kiss my older daughter, and head out to the Appalachian Blizzard Watch ShedQuarters — a quaint cabin-style home office that lives a few dozen yards away from the home.

Then begins the invigorating process of getting caught up on the overnights. I check our ad numbers, traffic, and any email that might be relevant to our ad sales. I converse with the team as appropriate regarding affiliate deals, give aways, and whatever else might be happening. Then I start writing to new advertisers, as we seek good ways to future-proof our site. My job happens mostly in email. If someone spots an out-of-bounds ad, I ban them with Thor-like severity. If someone spots a pretty good deal, I rush out and target it with Black Widow-like accuracy. Like I said, most of what I do flies back and forth on email.

Elizabeth Harper

I’m Elizabeth Harper and I’m the Managing Editor at Blizzard Watch, which means I keep an eye on the site’s day to day operation and make sure things the higher ups (read: Adam and Alex) want to get done actually get done. A typical day starts by hopping into the CMS to see what’s on the schedule for the day, which will determine what needs to be done hunting for news or prodding people about turning in features. If (hopefully) there’s nothing urgent that needs doing, it’s time to play catch up: reading up on our chat room logs from the morning and night before, fielding emails, and checking Twitter and Facebook (partially for myself, but more to see if anyone’s talking to Blizzard Watch). I’ll respond to people talking to us on social channels when I have answers for them, and try to find answers when I don’t.

Once I’m up to speed, I spend a little time updating promotional spaces on the site, including the calendar in the sidebar and the rotating carousel at the top of the page. On Mondays, I also put together analytics reports so we can review what’s doing well on the site. Then it’s time to really get to work with writing and editing. Unless there’s breaking news or an urgent need for posts, I’ll start out by making sure my own writing — I write BlizzCrafts, WoW Rookie, Webcomic Wrapup, and one Queue each week — is finished before looking at anything writers have submitted for review. Alex, Anne, and myself share editing duties, and if it’s my shift there are probably submitted posts waiting for me to review and schedule them. If it’s a slow news day, the “scheduling” portion of my to-do list is often replaced by hunting for interesting things to post and then finding writers to post them (or writing it myself). Late in the evening, I tend to check in at least once to make sure there are posts scheduled for the morning — you would probably be disconcerted by how many Breakfast Topics are written after midnight when I just stopped to check in before going to bed.

Anne Stickney

I’m Anne Stickney, and I’m a Senior Editor at Blizzard Watch — which basically means if there’s something to do that involves reading or writing, I’ve usually got my hands in it somewhere! My typical day starts very much like Liz’s, with hopping into the CMS to see what has and hasn’t been scheduled, and what still needs to be edited. Then it’s into the newsroom to go back through the chat logs and see if there’s anything that needs to be addressed immediately, or any questions people have that need answering, that sort of thing. In between that I’m working on my weekly columns — I handle Know Your Lore on Fridays, the roleplaying column on Saturdays, and the Queue on both Saturdays and Sundays. And in between that, I’m keeping an eye on news feeds — Twitter, Reddit, forums, blue trackers and the like, to watch for any breaking news, hand out assignments to any staff that happen to be around and available, and flip things out in a hurry if we need something written immediately.

If it sounds kind of similar to what Liz is up to on a daily basis, that’s because it is, to a degree — our jobs overlap quite a bit on the writing and scheduling front! Generally speaking, I’m usually around in the evenings, while she and Alex are both earlier in the day. The other thing I’m usually up to is just being around in the newsroom to answer questions and offer feedback to our writers when needed, usually regarding style guides, formatting, or even just general back and forth about topic material. This is, of course, on an average day — days where we have a lot of news to cover are usually pretty hectic, and I’m occasionally asked to do little one-shot tasks that aren’t in my general scope of job duties, like making graphics for header images, the Youtube channel, and things along those lines.

Alex Ziebart

As the one compiling this post, I intentionally listed myself last. I’m Alex Ziebart, Editor-in-Chief of Blizzard Watch, and my job primarily consists of making sure everyone else is doing their job and have the resources they need to do it well. I’m not here to be front-and-center taking all of the credit. If I’m doing a really good job, I should be largely invisible. I consider my position collaborative; when something needs doing, I find someone who can do it, and make sure they’re doing it. At the same time, I do many of the things I feel no one else on staff should have to do — the daily tedium of spreadsheets and checkboxes that our audience will never see. I do the tedium so the majority of the staff can focus on creating awesome content. Tedium like maintaining a styleguide. That’s my business — nobody else should have to deal with that. If the staff has any questions or concerns, they can bring them to me.

The bulk of a typical day for me isn’t too different from what Liz and Anne do. The three of us are a team and we share a lot of the same responsibilities. My day usually starts somewhere around 9 or 10 a.m. and I spend my morning catching up on emails, messages from our supporters on Patreon, and Twitter. I read everything that gets published to the site to make sure tone and content is acceptable — not censoring, but making sure we’re publishing informative articles, and if it’s a matter of critique, we’re being constructive about it. I like to think we have a good crew here, though, so that’s rarely an issue. I manage our YouTube and Twitch channels, and generally handle any issues or crises that crop up. If it’s something outside of my wheelhouse — like tech issues — I’m generally the contact who can reach out to the right person.

What I feel needs to be emphasized is the reality that calling something a “typical” day is misleading. There are precious few days which can be described that way. Every day is different. Our work schedule, and what we do on a daily basis, depends on many factors. Our job, as a site, is to not only inform, but entertain. If we’re in a period of little to no new World of Warcraft content, or the same sort of situation for other Blizzard games, producing content — and finding content to produce — takes a lot longer. We have to dig deep and often spend more time finding something to talk about than we do talking about it. During those periods, the act of coming up with compelling content can take so much time that our other responsibilities suffer. When there’s a new PTR or beta, the situation flips. There’s a wealth of content we can be producing — so much, in fact, that other responsibilities get pushed aside so we can provide as much coverage as possible. It’s a tough balancing act.

Similarly, the fact that we’re scattered across the country (or world in some cases) means any group activities we do throws a wrench in stable scheduling. While theoretically my workday should be something akin to a 9 to 5, our live shows don’t work that way. On Mondays, I’m here first thing in the morning. I’m still here in the evening, sometimes until midnight, to record the podcast. Wednesdays are similar with the Diablo  stream. I’m here until midnight on Wednesdays. I write The Queue twice per week. The Queue relies heavily upon community participation and having good questions to answer. It’s published daily. My choices are either write it very late at night, or very early the next morning. It doesn’t fit neatly into a 9-5. Blizzard generally puts new builds on the PTR late in the evening — without warning. When that happens, an 8 hour day can quickly turn into a 12-16 hour day. It all depends on what the content looks like. Major? Minor? All determining factors. A “typical day” doesn’t exist. That doesn’t only apply to me — that applies to everyone included in this look behind-the-scenes.