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

Tue Feb 12 21:54:44 UTC 2019

I can attest to what Stephen said. I did a story on endpoint security for him last summer and one of the sources talked about how their security team dubbed suspect information on mobile devices "COW" for conditions of weirdness. Guess what the cover art was...a big, dancing cow--complete with sunglasses and a smartphone.

From: Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> On Behalf Of Stephen Lawton
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2019 3:42 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] A question for everyone, particularly Esther Schindler

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

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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<mailto: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 <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org><mailto:ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> on behalf of Mac McCarthy <mac.mccarthy at gmail.com><mailto:mac.mccarthy at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 7, 2019 7:04:16 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org<mailto: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<mailto:tom at tgeller.com>> wrote:
Oh, I have a good one about deleted ledes. (Getting deleded?)

For my 2013 Lynda.com<http://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!

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Tom Geller  *  Writer & Video/journalist  *  http://tomgeller.com
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            Oberlin, Ohio  *  +1-415-317-1805

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