One of the first times I spoke with today's interviewee, he was telling me about a snowstorm he was experiencing on the Eastern seaboard, which was forcing him to shovel out his driveway. Along to assist him was his tiny tot daughter, who arrived armed with a miniature beach shovel. "Adorable, but ineffective," was his verdict. What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, but it's one of the cutest anecdotes I've ever heard about somebody's kids. Anyway, I will use his professional bio to introduce him:

John J. Edwards III is the news editor in charge of production and news operations for The Wall Street Journal's Pursuits section, part of the paper's Weekend Edition. In that role he oversees the section's production process, coordinating story schedules, layouts and art and serving as a liaison with other sections and bureaus, in addition to assisting with general editorial direction and line editing. He was a news editor in the Journal's Media & Marketing bureau from April 2004 to June 2005 and joined the paper in October 2000 as an editor on the national news desk. He previously worked for 31/2 years at TheStreet.com, the online financial publication, successively as a reporter, senior writer, markets editor and assistant managing editor. He has also held reporting positions at the Times of Trenton, N.J.; Dow Jones News Service; and the Bureau of National Affairs, the Washington newsletter publisher. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1992. He lives with his wife,daughter and son in New Rochelle, N.Y.

You went to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. Based on your experiences there and your career, how important do you think it is for writers to go to J-school?
I would say it's generally helpful, especially if you're firmly set on a career in journalism, but it's certainly not a prerequisite for either success or effectiveness in the craft. I found it valuable to get a systematic grounding in the basics of news writing, and to delve more deeply into journalistic issues and challenges in classes like Law & Ethics of Journalism.

For my final project in one of my senior-year newspaper classes, I had to design and explain a newspaper of the future. I made mine a tabloid-size paper closely integrated with a computer-based news service (weren't calling it "online" back in '92!) that could offer more in-depth information. With The Wall Street Journal's European and Asian papers just having converted to compact size and having expanded their links to WSJ.com, I feel like my education helped me to be pretty prescient. Thanks, Buck Ryan!

The junior-year quarter I spent at the Times of Trenton, N.J., as part of Medill's Teaching Newspaper program was also a huge boon, since I was able to work as a full member of the reporting and copy-editing staffs and really hone my skills in a real-world setting. (Working for four years at the Daily Northwestern was also a great experience, albeit in more of a mock-world setting.)

Journalists in general, but especially those without formal journalism training, should be eager autodidacts in approaching the field. Read, watch or listen to journalism outlets voraciously and questioningly. How could this story have been better? Where are the holes? Was it fair to all sides, yet sharp in reaching a point? Journalism isn't a closed club, as many serious and fair-minded bloggers demonstrate daily, but just because anyone can do it doesn't mean it should ever be done in an unconsidered way.

A caveat is that I went only to undergraduate journalism school, so I'm not an expert on graduate programs. The Northwestern faculty might differ on this, but I found that the undergrad program made an additional graduate program unnecessary. For those who majored in another area (or journalism students who weren't lucky enough to be undergrad Medillians), or for people looking to make a career change, I'm sure my comments apply to grad programs as well.

How did you end up at the Pursuits section of the WSJ? How is it different from what you were working on previously?
Cathy Panagoulias, our assistant managing editor in charge of staffing, asked me last spring if I would be interested in talking with Tom Weber, the editor of Pursuits. I was interested, and it went from there. Previously I had been a news editor with the paper's Media & Marketing group, mainly handling advertising coverage. Moving to a weekly section has been an interesting adjustment. So far, the hours have been longer and some of the days have been even more intense than working on the daily paper, which partly comes from the usual startup kinks and partly from the large volume of material we're working on every week. Pursuits runs considerably more individual items than does the Weekend Journal section on Fridays, for example.

Amid all the work, there's been a lot of fun, which was one of my big reasons for making the switch; while I very much enjoyed working for Media & Marketing and miss my colleagues there (who are a whole two floors away now), it's great to be part of building a new section. It reminds me of my days at TheStreet.com, where I was the ninth reporter hired, back in 1997, and got a chance to grow along with the publication as we built a strong journalistic organization from scratch. At Pursuits, the budget is bigger but the spirit is similar.

What advice would you have for writers trying to break into business journalism?
One of the most important things, for business journalism and journalism in general, is to have a deep knowledge and understanding of the publications and outlets in the field. A cover letter that says something generic like "I want to work for Publication X because it is one of the finest newspapers in the world" is much less effective than one that refers to particular stories from Publication X or notes how you've enjoyed Publication X's expanded widgets coverage, and how your experience can make it better. As far as breaking in on the ground floor, don't turn your nose up at news assistant or clerk-type positions, which can be a great way for a smart, ambitious young journalist to get a foot in the door. Also, avoid employing as many clichés and mixed metaphors as I crammed into that last sentence. Your clips--always the most important part of your package--will stand out best with writing that's original, straightforward and pithy.

Certainly helpful in business journalism these days (though not something I bring to the party myself) is a particular area of deep expertise such as forensic accounting or advanced database skills. Experience on "the other side," as an analyst or broker, say, might be nice but would do nothing to compensate for subpar journalistic skills.

You have popped up on Gawker and McSweeney's. Do you work much on literary humor or any genre that we'd normally consider non-WSJ-style?
My work on literary humor (and pathos, for that matter) has been on hold for the last 13 years or so, after I realized how bad my high-school and college short stories were. They were fun to write, though, so I might give it a whirl again. Look for my rip-the-lid-off-the-Journal roman à clef, "The Devil Wears Jos. A. Bank." The Gawker interview was a hoot, but a word of advice to fellow journalists--try to let your editor know before you show up on Gawker, if at all possible (as indeed often it is not). At the moment, my main non-WSJ writing outlet is wrap-ups for the sudden-death football pool I run with a friend of mine. If you're interested in getting in on the action next season (which is all in good fun, as far as the IRS knows), drop me a line.

You were roommates with Neal Pollack in college. Did either or your writing styles rub off on each other?
Alas, while I have bested Neal since college in steadiness of gainful employment, he remains unequaled as a satirist. At least, unequaled by me. I like to think that his rigid adherence to AP style in all of his work stems from my influence, though.