For many col­lege news­pa­pers, the dead­line for get­ting pages to the printer is some­where around mid­night or just after.

When a suc­cess­fully tax­ing day of classes has come to a close, news sto­ries are com­ing in late because of less than coop­er­a­tive sources  and every­thing needs to be proofed, it can get a lit­tle hairy in the newsroom.

This is when lead­er­ship on the part of the edi­tor in chief, man­ag­ing edi­tor or sec­tion edi­tors is cru­cial. Main­tain­ing atti­tudes that reflect respon­si­ble con­cern and over­all aware­ness in the sense of the duck in the pond. (Very still above the water, but under­neath the duck’s legs are churn­ing to pro­pel the duck forward.)

Every news­room leader han­dles these sit­u­a­tions in their own way, but one com­mon­al­ity between many that I’ve spo­ken with has been “The Dead­line Song” and the eupho­ria it brings.

Sym­bol­iz­ing the end of an edi­tion, the dead­line song is played when the paper is finally put to bed. It’s a cel­e­bra­tion, a vic­tory dance and a chance for staff mem­bers to sit back, exhale and remind them­selves that the work they are doing is good.

This also gives the news­room lead­ers the chance to be bet­ter managers–by being human. Singing with their eyes closed, danc­ing badly and insist­ing on embar­rass­ing them­selves are endear­ing traits. Maybe tak­ing it to the extreme every night isn’t nec­es­sary, but the pos­i­tive Pavlov­ian result can be impor­tant to staff morale.

Exam­ples of Dead­line Songs:

\“Rox­anne\” — The Police

\“Jump\” — Van Halen

\“All Night Long\” — Lionel Richie

\“Conga\” — Glo­ria Estefan

What’s your dead­line song? What SHOULD it be?