FAQ: Experienced Editor & Journalist
What does an editor bring to the table that a client’s in-house staff can’t handle?
Being too close to a project can limit how the words reach the targeted audience and fulfill the intended function of the medium. An outside editor who has worked with clients over two decades in the region can bring clarity and a broader context to the descriptions of your products or services.
What are some “special” projects that you have been the lead editor?
Getting a new publication off the ground requires documents that convince key advertisers and distributors to financially support what has no proven record yet. It was my responsibility to “listen” to management, and bring words to the page that would fulfill all the required information.
What advertorial work defines your experience and capabilities in editing a “successful” publication?
Studying existing collateral (printed or online), creating copywriting for a new product or service, developing a special “feature” based on interviewing key officers of a company, or adapting past speeches and/or press releases to an advertorial. The key has been working within a very limited, intense turnaround time, and making the “article” fit the “style” of the publication.
With so much information out there, how do you make the material stand out?
Consistency, especially with detailed and/or longer publications such as handbooks or guidebooks, is crucial when it comes to word choice, syntax, and structure of a chapter or tab. The strategic use of headlines, decks, subheads and side bars also must come into play in “designing” the text.
How does one select the right photojournalist for an assignment?
First and foremost, the person must be easy to work with throughout the process. Secondly, knowledge of the field being covered must be up-to-date. Thirdly, accessibility (even if primarily by email) throughout the process is essential. Fourthly, the submission is not gospel and can be “adapted.” Fifthly, the submission and drafts stand on their own and are not reliant on email “footnotes” to be interpreted and applied by the editor.
Not living in a perfect world, what is “tolerable” are needing an extension of a deadline to get that valuable nugget of information, loving to chat a bit about things not relevant to the present project, going over word count, having direct quotes more than descriptive passages, and not having a strong ending and/or opening.