The Cherche-Midi mystery: a Julia Latour story

Julia

Paris, 2012

- Julia, aren't you done yet ?

-I just need two more minutes !

-It's the opening story of the 7 am news broadcast. You only have five minutes left. It better be ready very soon.

-I'm doing what I can.

-I give you one minute to record your voice-over. Hurry up !

As a growing ache was expanding through her stomach, Julia clicked on the Matek « record » tab. Matek was the editing software used by Civi. She had been freelancing for several months for this news channel, owned by the MJS corporation.

A minute : that was how much time she had to record her voice on a video news story she only had had an hour to work on.

« 69 billion dollars, this is what this man is worth," she started, with a shaky voice. "Meet Carlos Slim, the wealthiest man on earth. In 2012 , for the third year in a row, this telecom Mexican tycoon... », she started with a quivering voice.

-STILL NOT READY ???

-Sush I'm recording ! Please give me another minute so I can wrap it up !

-Oh sorry Julia. Go on.

Frédéric had just started as the morning show's editor in chief. Yet this young journalist (he had just turned thirty) had problems getting used to the amount of anxiety that came with his job. Not only that, but he was stressing out the whole newsroom, and more specifically the many newly-graduated willing to wake up in the middle of the night to work for the Civi morning show.

« 69 billion dollars, this is what this man is worth : meet Carlos Slim, the wealthiest man on earth. In 2012, for the third year in a row, this telecom Mexican tycoon is at the top of Forbes billionnaires' list. »

After having summarized in fifty-five seconds the fortunes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and their little friends, Julia managed to upload, as quickly as she could, her story in the Matek RTB tab (ready to broadcast). She then stood up immediately, ran through the open space to reach Frédéric :

-I finished my story. It's in the box.

-It better be: it's airing in ten seconds.

-Oh... So you're not going to check it then ?

-Well no... Hope everything you said is right !

Julia became extremely pale, almost transparent. She felt extremely tensed... A stroke was probably awaiting her. She had not had time to review her story before uploading it in the RTB tab : what if there was a typo in one of the graphs, a mishap in her pronunciation at some point or, even worse than that, a factual error, her ultimate nightmare ? After all, a mistake is only human, especially when one woke up at 2 :30 am.

-Don't give me that look, Frédéric smirked, quite destabilised by the state of advanced breakdown of his young colleague. Your story is probably really good. That being said, for the 8 :30 news broadcast, it would be great if you could build up a little G8 summary. And please, don't focus on Obama teasing Hollande on his tie. Ok ? Go.

-Yes Frédéric, sure.
Her throat was drying, her brain imploding... Yet Julia managed to return to her desk. As quickly as she could, she typed « G8 » in the Matek search engine, hoping to find all the Reuters articles related to the subject. Then, she wrote « G8 » in the video tab : this was the most efficient way to get hold of all the videos shot in the United-States in the last twenty-four hours. Civi received them regularly via satellite.