Successful strategies for the assigning editor

When I joined 15 other assigning editors from newsrooms throughout the country at the Poynter Institute for a week of fine-tuning our skills, I hoped to learn a thing or two. I got a lot more knowledge than I bargained for. The Poynter seminar team was led by Distinguished Poynter Fellow Butch Ward and Leadership and Management Group Leader Jill Geisler. Here are the highlights of “The Complete Assigning Editor” seminar:

Session: Dances with Writers
Presenter: Jacqui Banaszynski, Pulitzer Prize winner and Poynter editing fellow
Goal: Coach writers to help them produce quality work. Consider this writing process made popular by Don Murray:
1. Conceive — having an idea, getting an assignment
2. Collect — doing reporting, research
3. Focus — what the story is about
4. Organize — the information collected
5. Draft — write the story
6. Revise — rewriting, editing
Problem: Newsrooms typically focus on steps 2 and 5 rather than the whole process. The needs of reporters vary and so editors need to work with them to see at which step they most need help.
Solution: This five-step approach to coaching …
1. Coach the idea (pre-reporting)
2. Coach the story (post-reporting/pre-writing)
3. Coach the structure (the first draft)
4. Coach the words (final draft)
5. Coach the process (post-publication)

Session: The Writer’s Toolbox
Presenter: Roy Peter Clark, Poynter vice president and senior scholar
What’s important: Looking at other ways of writing for newspapers in light of the changing media environment.
How to do it:

• Shorter forms of writing
• More investigative/enterprise pieces that use the encyclopedic or serialization approachTools:
• “Begin sentences with subjects and verbs. Make meaning early, then let weaker elements branch to the right.”
• “Order words for emphasis. Place strong words at the beginning and at the end.”

For more tools: Clark’s Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, or check out Writing Tools: The Blog at www.poynter.org.

Session: Writing Shorter for Online
Presenters: Jacqui Banaszynski and Tim Lott, Austin American-Statesman assistant managing editor
The four horsemen of Web-write:
1. Priority (focused)
2. Clarity (direct)
3. Efficiency (fast)
4. Brevity (short)
Plus: One main idea per sentence. Be specific. Use fewer quotes. No sentence without a fact.

Session: The Change Challenges
Presenter: Butch Ward
What newspapers need to do:

• Continue in their role as the originator of news stories.
• Embrace the newer role of sense maker.
• Tell readers what things mean, not just what happened and where.

Session: Our Values on Deadline
Presenter: Kenny Irby, Poynter visual journalism group leader and diversity program leader
How to value difference:

• Be honest
• Seek understanding
• Challenge with passion
• Be willing to change
• Stay in the conversation

Session: Forensic Editing: Taking the Long View
Presenter: Jacqui Banaszynski
Diagnostic tool: Highlighters.
Diagnostic goal: Help writers (and editors) understand signature writing patterns; then further develop the strengths, and face down the weaknesses.
Diagnostic process:
1. Get an unedited copy of a story, and highlighters in different colors.
2. Highlight writing components such as verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases.
3. Add to the highlighting list specific journalism components such as attribution, ledes and nut grafs.
4. As you get more sophisticated, move to the components of literary writing such as parallel construction, metaphor, simile and analogy, and descriptive phrases.
Frequency: Set aside an hour every two weeks or every month, to do this highlighting exercise. View the colors not as problems, but as information.

Session: Tough Conflicts, Tough Conversations
Presenter: Paul Pohlman, Poynter senior faculty/adviser to the president
Tips from Poynter faculty member Scott Libin for difficult conversations:

• Assess the situation — Can you be open-minded?
• Set objectives — To obtain information?
• Find your focus — It’s not about the individual; it’s about behavior/performance.
• Consider non-verbal factors — Pick an appropriate time and place.
• Avoid debate, distraction, interruption, provocation, presumption, circumlocution.

Session: First Things First — Setting Priorities
Presenter: Butch Ward
Do: Something the first hour of the day that makes you a more effective leader.
Important and urgent: Attend meetings, edit stories.
Successful strategies for the assigning editor Coach writers, evaluations, feedback.