The Editor’s Desk

HBO is airing (if that’s what cable channels do) an excellent documentary this month on a piece of New York history. “Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts Of Flatbush” is, of course, primarily concerned with baseball. The stories of the introduction of Jackie Robinson and the Dodger-Yankee rivalry are covered in depth. But the show also digs into Brooklyn as a place. The underdog Dodgers reflected the borough, just as the powerful Yankees reflected Manhattan (even if the Yanks did play in the Bronx).

The documentary makes prominent use of newspapers as source material, as such shows often do. Headlines tell stories conveniently, after all. But the newspaper itself becomes a part of the Dodgers story. Brooklyn fell on hard times in the 1950s, and “The Ghosts of Flatbush” makes some interesting mention of the influence of the local paper — or the lack of one. The demise of the Brooklyn Eagle in 1955 is portrayed as symptomatic of what was happening in Brooklyn at that time. The documentary also asserts that the lack of a daily newspaper in the area made it easier for the Dodgers to move to Los Angeles. No newspaper meant no community voice.

Baseball is not the only ghost in Brooklyn. The singular and prominent role of the newspaper may be just a memory as well.

Jobs ads (yes, some newspapers are hiring) are starting to include proficiency with alternative story forms as part of the job description. Here are two examples:

• We need a professional who is not afraid of alternative story forms or writing for the Web.

• The candidate takes responsibility for the whole package, including collaborating with other departments to ensure the best presentation, including online, print, alternative story forms, sidebars, photos graphics and other elements.

This shouldn’t be too scary for copy editors. We’ve already been working with any number of story forms in a single workday — a briefs column followed by a wire story followed by a centerpiece package.

Which one of these Texas papers flopped this photo of Lady Bird Johnson? Romenesko has the answer.

Ruth Sheehan’s column typically appears in the City & State section of The News & Observer. In today’s paper, however, her work is in the Outdoors section. Sheehan’s first-person piece recounts her recent trip to a gun range. It was her first time handling and firing a gun.

The column takes a curious turn toward the end. Sheehan mentions those who criticized her opinions on the Duke lacrosse case, and she suggests that she is ready to act in self-defense if need be:

I like the idea that bloggers — and editors — don’t know for sure whether I might be packing heat. I think I’ll keep it that way.

I hope this isn’t aimed at copy editors. Assigning editors, well…

Some “left-leaning” links:

• The liberal Talking Points Memo has undergone a significant redesign that makes the site a hybrid of blog and news source along the lines of The Huffington Post.

• The Chicago Sun-Times indicates that its editorial board will become more liberal.

• Liberal film maker Michael Moore and CNN reporter Sanjay Gupta battle over the “Sicko” facts.

Doug Marlette, who penned editorial cartoons for The Charlotte Observer and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has died in a car accident. Marlette was a visiting professor at the journalism school at UNC-Chapel Hill several years ago.

Take a moment to remember his work by visiting his Web site.

UPDATE: The Washington Post has a nice appreciation of Marlette.

Headlines are similar to song titles. Effective ones give us a peek at the content and tone of what’s to come. Some are more direct than others, and that’s OK. When you see “She Loves You,” “Dazed and Confused” or “Anarchy in the U.K.,” you have an idea what the song sounds like.

Some headlines and song titles indicate that a list is ahead. This is why “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” works so well — Paul Simon delivers what the title promises, even if he never gets around to describing all 50 methods. (Watch him perform the song here.)

This package of headline and story on CNN.com, however, fails this test. Here’s the headline:

Seven thoughts that can make you thin

The story that follows is a meandering mess. The reader is hard pressed to find the seven thoughts because the story never presents them that way. The easy solution is to rewrite the headline. The better, more time-consuming solution is to recast the story into a different form, starting with introductory text and then moving into the list.

(Tip of the hat to my keen-eyed wife for pointing this out.)

Here are some columns by public editors that are worthy of attention:

• Clark Hoyt of The New York Times, on the paper’s loose use of the “al-Qaeda” label.

• Kathy English of The Toronto Star, on alternative story forms.

• Manning Pynn of the Orlando Sentinel, on how newspaper readers are sometimes flat-out wrong in their accusations of bias and double standards.

The tenure process is mysterious to just about everyone. On campus, it’s spoken of in varying tones, from ominous to hushed to “don’t worry, it won’t be so bad.” The public at large doesn’t understand it, and radio talk show hosts rail against it because it means professors who anger them can’t be fired easily. And the media, try as they might, have a hard time describing it.

At least this story from The Boston Globe tries to define tenure, and it’s a decent effort. But the story’s definition goes off track:

Tenure, which requires professors to have the highest degree in their field, is a permanent job appointment designed to protect academic freedom.

The problem is in the “which” clause. Not all tenure-track professors (as opposed to lecturers and adjuncts, who are typically hired from semester to semester or year to year) have the highest degree in their field. I know because I am one of them. I have a master’s degree, but the highest degree in journalism and mass communication is a doctorate. I am one of several people in the journalism school at UNC-Chapel Hill whose highest degree is a master’s. It’s possible, but rare, to get a tenure-track job with just a bachelor’s degree.

I am part of the “practice track” faculty. I have a higher teaching load than “conceptual track” faculty. That means I am in the classroom about 18 hours a week, compared with about six hours a week for my Ph.D. colleagues. My classes are hands-on skills courses such as editing; their courses tend to be lecture courses. Both formats have their own challenges and rewards.

In another part of the job, faculty members with a Ph.D. have a higher expectation for research than I do: They need to publish frequently in peer-reviewed, academic journals. I can do that too, but for us “practice track” faculty, writing articles for trade publications and the like will satisfy this part of the tenure requirements. There’s a difference in what “counts.”

Any newspaper article about tenure should probably include a textbox that explains what tenure is and how a professor goes about getting it — that is, doing well in teaching, service and research/creative activity.

Fellow editing professor and blogger Doug Fisher has a good interview with Norm Goldstein, the man behind the AP Stylebook. Check out the short version or the complete Q&A, which even has audio. And yes, the 2007 edition of the stylebook is available.