Mr. Generous
By William M. Hartnett on Feb 16, 2007 in newspapers
Matt Waite’s post about contributing in ways not included in his formal job description, illustrating the point that the “not my job attitude” doesn’t cut it anymore in the newspaper biz, brought to mind one of my own selfless efforts to pitch in anywhere I can.
Specifically, I remembered the time I hand-delivered a bundle of papers to the paper-less local Veterans Administration hospital while working a cops shift. I asked for nothing in return from the heroic veterans apart from reimbursement for my fuel and considerable lunch expenses, to the tune of $3 per copy, which, it should be noted, was more than twice the cover price.
(I’m kidding, of course. I charged only the actual newsstand price, plus sales tax. [I'm kidding about that, too, of course. I didn't charge tax. {No, I'm only kidding again. It was purely charitable. But I did miss quite a lot of newsworthy scanner traffic while I was off playing paperboy. That bit's true.}])
