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Topic: transitioning to new field
| Author | Message |
| seditor | Posted – 11/14/2007 4:03:40 AM | show profile I am a full-time Sunday editor at a daily newspaper of about 50,000 circ. The newspaper industry has been in trouble the past few years and has hit my corporate company harder this year than ever. I am exploring many options in preparation for what could become a dire industry. I spoke with an editor who was with a magazine at a booth at a book/writer convention about opportunities at her magazine. She told me quite tersely that they typically don?t hire people from newspapers. I was stunned. My degree is in magazine writing and I have been editing for eight years. Some of the pieces I have worked with have gone from pedestrian pieces at best to winning national awards including a Blethens. (Should have seen the rough copy!) I was insulted, and had I been a subscriber I would have canceled delivery for her lack of tact and discouragement. For anyone who works full-time at a magazine is the general feeling that newspaper editors are somehow less qualified? |
| ManhattanMatt | Posted – 11/14/2007 4:57:43 AM | show profile Magazines aren't my field but ... ...I wouldn't take TOO much to heart a comment made by an "editor" manning a booth at a convention. How valuable could she be? |
| foodlit | Posted – 11/14/2007 7:46:00 AM | show profile Agree with Matt. That was just one nasty person's opinion in a booth! |
| seditor | Posted – 11/14/2007 2:23:48 PM | show profile "...I wouldn't take TOO much to heart a comment made by an "editor" manning a booth at a convention. How valuable could she be?" The same thought had crossed my mind, but it is nice to hear someone else say it! Thanks. |
| Jerose | Posted – 11/15/2007 12:29:35 AM | show profile | email poster Don't let the comment discourage you, but obviously writing newspapers and magazines are two different animals. You are not less qualified at all; you're simply used to a different pace and a different writing style. I hired my assistant from a daily newspaper and she left within five months because she was bored. She wanted to hunt down the news, but our mag was more about news coming to us and coddling the big names in our industry every month. Also, the deadlines are different. If you're used to a weekly or a daily deadline, a monthly deadline will scare the hell out of you. It takes more discipline NOT to work on pure adrenaline, except during deadline week. Don't get down by the comment, but make sure that you are fully prepared for the world of periodicals. BTW, I could NEVER do a daily or weekly newspaper. That's how I got my start and within one year it was so clear that that was not the place for me. I envy those who manage to produce beautiful pieces within a few hours. Good luck! |
| aoscruggs | Posted – 11/15/2007 12:34:41 AM | show profile transitioning I got my first freelance gig because a national magazine needed articles that were well-reported. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been considered because of the stereotype that newspaper reporters can't write. There is a difference in styles, but I'm sure you know about that already. Here's what I point out 1) Newspaper folks usually know how to make a deadline. For instance, the same magazine assigned me a story the weekend before Christmas, with a one-week deadline. I got the story in a day early, and found an error in the original version. 2)Newspaper folks usually know how to find sources. 3)Newspaper folks usually know how to turn in copy that doesn't need a ton of editing for facts. 4) Newspaper folks don't go ballistic when the final version differs substantially from the initial one. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 11/15/2007 4:15:44 AM | show profile | email poster Agree with all the posters, especially Rose and Scruggs. I worked at a 60k circ daily when I moved to a new area and found myself caught between a rock and hard decisions. THe local major daily was unimpressed to the point of ignoring my experience at the good little daily I'd been at (although I freelance for them now, some 12 years later...) Magazines gave little weight or credence to my resume as well. I ended up working at a smaller daily and then managing a weekly before a personal connection led to an EIC job at a brand new regional magazine group. I now freelance for some fairly impressive magazines -- but my break with a big mag came from being in the right place and time when Hurricane Katrina busted loose. as you know there's always a pecking order and people with more major experience/connections than I work at the top pubs. But I've expanded my ouevre (??) to include public radio work, a non-fiction book and two more on the way and enough graphic design to be dangerous ... Don't let the bastards grind you down! Also -- one thing that worked well for me was doing freelance editing from home for some regional and trade publications. My newspaperwoman attention to detail helped a lot there ... |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 11/15/2007 4:32:42 AM | show profile I know you were stunned, and caught offguard, but ideally in a situation like that you should be pleasant, businesslike, and as much as you can try to draw out what she really meant by her comment. We are all salesmen of ourselves, and even if a prospect is rude, we shouldn't be discouraged by that. In a situation like that, I would have said, "That's an interesting perspective. Can I ask why you believe a newspaper editor is not suited to magazines?" You might learn something, or find a misconception that you can turn around, and turn a brushoff into an opportunity. She wasn't rejecting you, after all. She was rejecting some notion she had in her mind about a newspaper editor. |
| seditor | Posted – 11/15/2007 4:40:31 PM | show profile Had I been thinking clearly and not feeling so deflated, I would have phrased my response to her differently and taken the opportunity to ask her why she had the stance she did rather than immediately trying to defend my trade. She wasn't the hiring editor, so I also should have taken that into consideration. But what I have taken from the responses here is that I do need to start developing a broader backup plan for what I consider to be an inevitable continuing downfall of the newspaper industry. Freelance editing is something I would like to start doing and I need to get a better grasp of what qualities the different kinds of publications are seeking. Freelance work isn?t something I?ve tried before because I felt so secure in my staff editing job I didn?t feel the need. There are definitely differences between magazines and newspapers. I interned for several before settling in with a small daily newspaper before moving on to the one I am with now. I need to take a closer look at what those are, including whether I would be bored with monthly deadlines. I hadn?t considered that point. Writes, thanks for the tip on editing for trade publications. I live in a large scientific community with the major employer being a closed nuclear reactor (it is in the long process of clean-up). I could tap into that as long as there are no conflicts of interests. Or other pubs outside my area as well. Thanks everyone! |
