[Ipg-smz] A question for everyone, particularly Esther Schindler

Tue Feb 12 20:41:32 UTC 2019

When I was at Cahners in the early 1990s, I wrote for a couple of titles
there. At one pub I wrote a cover story and used auto racing as a metaphor
for getting off to a fast start but not being able to finish the race. Not
sure who ultimately was responsible for the cover art but the cover was of a
speed boat. It was a pretty cover but made absolutely no sense when  you
read the copy. I too get some weird messages -- mostly postal mail with the
cover torn off and the first page of the story -- asking me why I didn't put
racing cars on the cover and questioning my sanity and parentage. I asked my
editor back then who was responsible for the cover art, to which he said
something like: "What's wrong - don't you like boats?" End of conversation.

When I ultimately became an EIC myself, I always was very careful to check
the cover art and the cover story to make sure that I didn't make that same
mistake myself.

Stephen

Stephen Lawton

Special Projects Editorial Director

SC Media, A Haymarket Media Publication

Office Phone Number: 503-747-5333

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From: Ipg-smz [mailto:ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org] On Behalf Of Gabe
Goldberg
Sent: Friday, February 8, 2019 2:39 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] A question for everyone, particularly Esther
Schindler

Related: I wrote for Washington Post for a while (Hi, Rob) including (back
when this was a thing) writing nugget website reviews. One was a
handyman/DIY site. Post usually ran graphics -- which of course I had
nothing to do with -- with these; this one showed slotted screwdriver
pointing at Phillip's head screw (or the reverse).

I GOT HATE MAIL. Dozens. Many dozens. "What kind of $%^^$# idiot are you to
DARE writing about tools?!". If they weren't insane, I had a canned
response: Don't blame me; I didn't see that until I bought the paper. That
often led to funny/polite exchanges. But some responded brutally to that and
some original notes were so bad I didn't engage. The Post made it worse by
publishing letter-to-editor mocking the article/piece. I asked (Hi, Rob)
Post to run correction/clarification/disclaimer that it was someone ELSE's
bad idea of a joke but my editor (guess who) didn't think that would happen.

Same problem as author being blamed for hed -- readers can't grasp so many
roles at work.

On 2/8/2019 10:46 AM, Joe Stanganelli wrote:

I can top that: On a pub that no longer exists, the copy desk removed a joke
of mine (which, if that was the only thing they did, fine) and replaced it
with a worse, shittier "joke" that made no sense.

It was so embarrassing that I never shared the piece on social, and
distanced myself from it.

I don't mind having my jokes removed; just please don't change or replace
them.

I've actually come to expect my editors to remove my jokes; these days, I'm
surprised when one gets through.

One of the inventors of CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing is named Jennifer Doudna.
In a piece I wrote a couple of years ago about patent rights surrounding
CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing, I used the subhed "Doudna, Where's My Cas?"

I was shocked and disappointed in my editor.

Joe

  _____  

From: Ipg-smz  <mailto:ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org>
<ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> on behalf of Mac McCarthy
<mailto:mac.mccarthy at gmail.com> <mac.mccarthy at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 7, 2019 7:04:16 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] A question for everyone, particularly Esther
Schindler 

We had a copy editor at Infoworld, "Jill," who edited for space by deleting
the last sentence in a product review. Unfortunately, that sentence was the
punchline for a joke. When I complained, she simply replied, "I didn't think
it was funny."

Editing can be maddening.

Mac

On Thu, Feb 7, 2019 at 3:58 PM Tom Geller <tom at tgeller.com> wrote:

Oh, I have a good one about deleted ledes. (Getting deleded?) 

For my 2013 Lynda.com video course "Writing Articles"
(https://www.linkedin.com/learning/writing-articles), I (of course) wrote a
dummy article to study. Then in a video that shows how to construct an
article, I say:

"Then after everything else is done, go back and revisit that first
paragraph to make it even stronger. One common trick is to simply delete
that first sentence and then see if it's reads any better. A lot of writers,
including me, need a sentence or two to get into the swing of things."

Sounds good, right? Except that the producers said, "O.K., do that. Delete
the first sentence." I... hadn't planned for that. Luckily, the piece still
worked without it. I schooled myself!

---
Tom Geller  *  Writer & Video/journalist  *  http://tomgeller.com
       Rotterdam, The Netherlands, +31 (0)6 87071468
            Oberlin, Ohio  *  +1-415-317-1805

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-- 
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