Ten things editors want from their reporters / 12 октября 2007 г.
Ten things editors want from their reporters
1) I want you to respond enthusiastically to every assignment, whether it’s your idea or mine. I want to know that you will give it your best.
2) I want you to trust me. I want you to see me as someone who cares as much as you do about what we’re producing. Many things I ask you to do may not directly benefit you, but will have indirect benefits down the line.
3) I want you to meet our agreed-upon length and time requirements.
4) I want you to be as appreciative of a good edit as I am of a good reporting and writing job. I want you to appreciate what two brains can do together.
5) I want you to remember that photos matter. fwant you to work conscientiously with the photo desk and think visually.
6) 1 want you to put your heart into the story, to discover not only the factual truth but the emotional truth — what really matters to the readers, to the characters in your story, to our society. I want that hunger every time.
7) I want you to take your job seriously but not personally. I want you to be able to lose without it breaking your heart, whether it’s not getting a story on Page One or having it held a day, or having the lead changed by someone above us. I want you to understand that nobody wins them all, that tomorrow is another opportunity, that there are no “enemies” in the newsroom.
8) Realize that I respect and appreciate your need to share, but I am burdened by the needs of several other reporters as well as other administrative demands. Be patient with me when I seem distracted.
9) If I suggest a rewrite and you don’t like it, I want you to articulate your position forcefully, but I also expect you to be able to come up with an alternative rather than simply digging in your heels. Be willing to give another version a try. I’m willing to listen; I may even learn something.
10) I want you to be aggressive, creative, resourceful, audacious dramatic — even if you tried being all those things yesterday and it didn’t work
Source: Nuts & Bolts, a Los Angeles Times newsletter dedicated to the proposition that there are only two kinds of journalists: bad ones and those who are improving.
наверх
|
