The Editor’s Desk

A speech by President Barack Obama to the nation’s schoolkids was scrutinized for a hidden agenda. Such “indoctrination” criticism prompted the Department of Education to edit a suggested lesson plan associated with the speech.

It turns out that the Obama’s address, delivered Tuesday, had nothing to do with health care, abortion or other hot-button issues. Instead, the president encouraged the students to take responsibility for their education and their lives. It was a message that even Newt Gingrich liked.

Obama also talked about careers, including journalism:

Maybe you could be a good writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class.

The president is right: Writing isn’t easy. Neither is editing. The earlier you get started trying them and the harder you work, the more likely you are to succeed.

Here are Obama’s other tips regarding writing and communication:

• “Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published.”

• “You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.”

• “Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.”

• “No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.”

Read more about Obama’s interest in writing and editing in this Time article from 2008.

Erica Beshears Perel, a former reporter at The Charlotte Observer, is newsroom adviser to The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at UNC-Chapel Hill. In this interview, conducted by e-mail, Perel talks about her job, the paper’s new Web site and the changing role of copy editors at the DTH.

Q. What does the newsroom adviser to The Daily Tar Heel do on a typical day?

A. A little bit of everything, although I do not make editorial decisions. I provide daily feedback of the product in the form of a written critique of each newspaper. I praise the stories, photos, designs, etc., that I like while offering ways to improve the rest.

When I’m not critiquing, I’m working with editors and staffers, listening and giving advice when needed. I organize and provide training and enrichment opportunities, and serve as a writing coach and editing coach. I spent plenty of time this summer monitoring the new Web site, and right now, I’m busy with our massive recruitment season.

Q. The paper just launched a major overhaul of its Web site. What’s the idea behind the redesign?

A. Sara Gregory, managing editor for online, did a great job explaining the philosophy behind the new site here. But basically, we need a Web site that can grow with us, one that’s flexible, one that allows us to interact more with our readers.

Our previous site, hosted by the College Media Network, served us well, but we needed more flexibility to grow in terms of content and ad revenue. This one, while developed by professionals, should allow our student journalists tremendous freedom for experimenting, both with content and technology.

I’m personally excited by plans to publish more news as soon as our reporters nail it down, and by the tagging and topic pages that should help keep our readers informed.

Q. How is the role of the copy editor changing at the DTH, both in print and online?

A. Copy editors still perform a traditional function at The Daily Tar Heel, saving us from embarrassing errors and writing good headlines. But this year, they will be taking a more active role in the online publishing process.

They also plan to start writing more online headlines that differ from the ones that run in the print edition. Print edition headlines, constrained by space and dependent on other visual elements to make their point, often are hard-to-understand online headlines. A special online headline can be clearer and help the story pop up faster on search engines.

Q. Every weekday, thousands of students pick up a print copy of the DTH. Do you see a time when the paper is exclusively online?

A. I certainly don’t see that time in the foreseeable future. We say here at The Daily Tar Heel that young people read newsprint as long as it’s free, easy to pick up and full of relevant, interesting content. We work hard to satisfy all three components.

The DTH is an independent newspaper that gets all its revenue from advertising. And right now, the vast, vast majority of that advertising comes in print form.

The DTH is very lucky to have potential for growth on our site without harming the print product because we have a large audience outside our print circulation area. Alumni, parents and UNC sports fans everywhere can’t get the print edition, but they can really drive traffic to our site.

Carolyn Pione, the former business editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer, is communications director at CincyTech, a public-private partnership that aims to attract high-tech jobs to that part of Ohio. In this interview, conducted by e-mail, Pione talks about her transition from the newsroom into public relations.

Q. Describe your job. What does the communications director at CincyTech USA do on a typical day?

A. The last six months have been a learning curve. The first week I was here, some folks suggested we should have a booth at a local trade show, and it didn’t occur to me for several hours that I was the one who had to set that up. Finally I thought, “Oh, that’s MY job!”

Since I’ve been here, I’ve redesigned the Web site and created an e-mail newsletter, begun to produce our first annual report, garnered significant media coverage for our first two years of activity investing in high-tech startups, and worked on numerous communications and committees with the state of Ohio, which is one of our key funders. I’ve also done some community outreach and speaking engagements and worked to raise CincyTech’s profile in the region as an economic development group with an emphasis on growing the tech jobs here.

Q. How has your experience as a business editor at a newspaper helped you in your current job?

A. Well, it’s definitely been a career change. But as business editor, I had regular interaction with business owners, executives and business and civic leaders. I wrote a column that increased my visibility in the community, so I got a lot of correspondence from readers and businesspeople. Those contacts have been a wonderful asset as I launched into this new field. It was already sort of community relations/good will building, perhaps an unusual experience for a journalist.

Also, having a business perspective and some sense of how businesses think has helped me to transition to this culture, which is a nonprofit but with a for-profit fund we invest in companies and so very oriented around financing and market development. And of course having spent a career in journalism, I think I’ve been able to create pitches that have relevance for the local reporters, and I know what not to waste their time pitching. That insight is helpful.

Q. Earlier in your career, you worked as a copy editor at the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. Do you still use those skills in this job? How?

A. Oh gosh, yes. On every level. I edit my boss’s correspondence, I edit my own copy (as best I can) before posting it on our Web site or sending it out to reporters. I have an eye for detail and an instinct for explaining things as simply as possible. I still rely on the news judgment and sense of urgency that every good copy editor carries with him or her. And on a deeper level — and I hope this never dulls — I have the copy editor’s tendency to question everything.

Q. Many journalists are looking to make a career move similar to yours. What advice do you have for them?

A. Yes, so many of my former colleagues at the Enquirer have been displaced in the last 12 months. Almost to a person, they were in a profession they loved with a passion because they felt it was crucial for the balance of a civil society. It’s hard to accept that you might have to find something else to do with your life.

So I guess my first advice would be to face the reality that you might be one who has to leave. Be proactive. Do you want to leave on their terms or your own?

Once you’re through anger and denial, I think the key is to figure out what you know and who you know. Start networking like crazy right now. Start getting the word out that you’re looking and make sure you have a good idea of what you want. Your contacts, neighbors, family, etc., won’t really understand your skills or what else you can do. You might not either. So figure that out and then get the word out.

Creating your own message, telling your own story, is the way to find a job.

WordPress has a powerful spam filter, which makes life a little easier for those of us who blog here. Not much junk gets through into the comments area.

I went through the spam filter earlier this week and found myself chuckling at some of the specimens. They share a flair for flattery, often expressed in unpolished English.

Here are some of my favorites, with links to assorted goods and services removed:

• Interesting material, where such topics do you find? I will often go.

• I just wanted to make a statement on the contribution of this community here. It’s simply great. I wanted to give a little something back myself. There is a site that has been extraordinary helpful to myself and some associates of mine…

• I found editdesk.wordpress.com very informative. The article is professionally written and I feel like the author knows the subject very well. editdesk.wordpress.com keep it that way.

• Thanks for all the good work webmaster.

You’re welcome.

This blog will be on hiatus for the next 10 days as I go on a family vacation. Thanks for visiting, and see you in July.

The News & Observer is shrinking its weather coverage.

For years, the Raleigh paper has devoted the top half of the back page of the local section to the weather. That has included color maps of North Carolina and the United States as well as the forecasts and data such as the ocean temperatures.

The paper wants reader feedback on the changes, posting a prototype of what the new weather package could look like. Here’s my reaction:

THE GOOD

• The previously cluttered U.S. map is cleaned up and attractively presented.

• The forecast is concise and easy to read.

• The old page’s redundancy has been eliminated. No longer are Newark and New York listed separately, or Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C.

THE NOT SO GOOD

• Orlando, Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach are major tourist destinations, but they don’t appear anywhere on this page. This is especially odd considering that El Paso and Billings made the cut.

• The map locates Charlotte but not Raleigh. Indeed, the weather package lists Charlotte in the list of national temperatures and in the list of state temperatures. Is this another example of Charlotte creep in the N&O?

The larger question, of course, is whether the weather in print makes sense anymore. Like the stock listings, weather information in print can suffer from staleness.

In Greensboro, the News & Record has reduced its weather package in a more dramatic way, eliminating the map and the list of temperatures from around the world. A few readers complained, but not many. Perhaps that’s indicative of a change in the way people get this type of news.

It’s easy to get weather information online or “on the 8s” on The Weather Channel. A weather page in print and the meterologist/personality on the 6 o’clock news seem like anachronisms.

It’s been more than three months since I started using Twitter. Overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised about how helpful the service is. Who knew you could learn so much in 140 characters or less?

I’ve also realized that I have some favorite Twitter people (or Tweeple, if you insist) on my “follow” list. Each of these people brings a mix of voice and information that I find interesting and amusing. With due respect to everyone I follow on Twitter, here are the four people (in no particular order) whose Tweets I especially appreciate and enjoy:

John Robinson, Greensboro News & Record. Robinson is candid about his job as editor of this newspaper, and that shows in his Tweets. He also has a droll sense of humor. Sample Tweet: “Some in our ad dept. wish we wouldn’t run stories about newspaper troubles. Some in our news dept. wish the ad dept. would sell more ads.” Follow Robinson at @johnrobinson.

Leslie Jean Thornton, Arizona State University. On editing topics, Thornton is like the Romenesko of Twitter. Nothing seems to get by her. Sample Tweet: “Just bookmarked JPROF, Jim Stovall’s blog for teaching journalism. http://bit.ly/3qUDxg Current post: Audio III.” Follow Thornton at @ljthornton.

Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times. This LAT editor specializes in Tweeting speeches by President Obama and other leaders as they happen. He has a knack for analysis and detail that’s often missing from  speech stories in the traditional media. Sample Tweet: “Political point: As he often does, Obama pushes common action to make political change. Such is the organizer heritage. #Obama.” Follow Muskal at @LATimesmuskal.

Veronique de Turenne, L.A. Observed. A blogger, playwright and critic, de Turenne offers a blend of news and personal observations, the latter about daily life in her beloved Malibu, Calif. Sample Tweet: “Early Sunday crowd at Trancas market evenly split between hardcore surfers and hardcore hangovers.” Follow de Turenne at @HereInMalibu.

Who do you like on Twitter? Please share your favorites in the comments section.

Michelle Moriarty Witt is a public information specialist in Mecklenburg County, N.C. Before going into public relations, she was a copy editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh, The Fayetteville Observer and The Duluth News Tribune in Minnesota. She is an active member of the American Copy Editors Society. In this Q&A, Witt discusses her transition from the copy desk to PR.

Q. Describe your job. What’s your typical day?

A. I arrive at work between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. — an unwelcome change from my copy editor hours. I turn on the TV to follow broadcast news and read the newspaper. I look for mentions of the county and the departments I serve in particular, and make sure that stories are accurate. I also look for bigger news that might have local implications. An example of this would be the recent Chinese drywall controversy, which raised questions about how Code Enforcement addresses quality of building materials.

From there, I’ll spend some time writing news releases or editing those of my co-workers. Usually, I have meetings a few times per week, where I trade updates with my “client” departments. These meetings give me the chance to ask questions about programs that have until this point only been described in bureaucratic lingo.

The rest of the time I work on projects such as brochures, fliers and Web site content. I write and edit stories for an employee magazine. I also help arrange news conferences by calling members of the media and assembling talking points.

Q. How has your editing background helped you in your current job?

A. It’s been enormously useful. Beyond the day-to-day writing and editing duties, I serve as an informal consultant for other PIOs on matters of grammar, style and taste. Many of my colleagues are former journalists, but few have an editing background.

I also devote a lot of time to wading through long mumbo-jumbo memos and translating them into plain English for various purposes. So I ask a lot of people with engineering backgrounds the same question I once asked reporters: “What do you mean by this?” Once they boil it down and I get the idea, I can begin to express government-ese in terms that residents can understand.

Q. You have a master’s degree in rhetoric and composition. How have you seen what you learned in graduate school play out in the workplace?

A. My graduate work gave me a greater comfort level and confidence in the use of language because I think more actively about the implications of a particular word. Whether I’m writing a short e-mail to a coworker or a news release on a touchy subject, I’m thinking about how my words might be interpreted.

More importantly, grad school taught me more about dealing with people. Pogoing between students and administrators gave me a greater awareness of how I had to adjust my approach based on my audience. Now I am accountable among my fellow PIOs, the media and the bureaucrats I serve. I have to communicate with each group differently in words, tone and medium to get what I need in order to do my job well. It’s a challenge I’d be less prepared for without a teaching and scholarly background.

Q. What advice do you have for copy editors seeking to move into public relations?

A. I think the biggest task is crafting a resume that isn’t written in newsroom terms for a newsroom audience. People outside newspapers don’t know, and don’t care, what a slot editor is. I’m not even sure they register page design and wire editing. They do care about deadlines, project management, training ability and — the big one — people skills. They also value speaking and writing ability, and they’ll want to know why you want the job. PR people know about the state of the newspaper industry and aren’t unsympathetic, but it helps to have another reason. Does the employer’s mission speak to you? Is the subject matter interesting?

It’s not so much about dismissing everything you’ve done. It’s more about taking what you’ve done and making it look instantly awesome to someone who isn’t familiar with what you do — and making you look instantly adaptable to a new field that, regardless, has many similarities to the old one.

Lauren Purcell is deputy editor at Self magazine. As one of two Purcell Sisters, she is also the co-author of “Cocktail Parties, Straight Up!” Although she learned her editing chops at UNC-Chapel Hill, Purcell is loyal to her undergraduate alma mater and always pulls for the Duke Blue Devils.

This Q&A, conducted by e-mail, takes a look at Purcell’s job and the tasks of editing at the magazine.

Q. Describe your job. What’s it like to be a deputy editor at Self?

This job is amazingly varied, which is part of what I love about it, but I’ll describe my main role. Magazines have what are loosely called assigning editors as well as top editors who provide another editing layer for the content the assigning eds produce. I act as the top editor for Self’s fitness, fashion and celebrity/entertainment coverage, as well as a front-of-book gazette-style section and various special sections and one-off projects. At various times in the past, I’ve overseen health, beauty and nutrition. (I’ve been here for quite a while, and switching things up every few years has helped me stay fresh.)

Q. You had some newspaper training and experience earlier in your career and in graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill. What are the differences between editing for newspapers and editing for magazines?

A. My newspaper experience was very brief and many years ago, and newspapers have, to my mind, increasingly employed what I think of as magazine-style strategies since then. But one major difference—and it’s one that makes editing magazines especially challenging and creative—is that the text and visuals are inextricably entwined on many magazine pages, as opposed to an image, drawing or chart serving simply as an illustration, as is more typical in newspapers. (For instance, at Self, we might conceive an entire story as a chart, rather than writing a story and then enhancing it with a chart.) The need for writer-editors to think visually, craft stories in an array of formats beyond straight narrative and collaborate with layout designers makes for a very rich editing experience.

Q. Many journalism students want to go into magazine editing. What advice do you have for someone trying to break into the business?

A. When I’m interviewing someone for an entry-level position, I want him or her to show me a passion for magazines. Apply for internships — sure, those at major national books are great, but having several gigs at smaller publications shows me just as much dedication. Write or edit for on-campus or local magazines. I want to know that you pursued every avenue to be involved with magazines on some level. And of course, read magazines voraciously and be able to talk about them with enthusiasm.

Q. The magazine industry, along with other segments of the media, has been hit with layoffs and cutbacks in recent months. What do you see as the future for magazines in print and online?

A. I’ve been hearing about the so-called “death of print” for years now, and yet, Self’s audience continues to grow both in print and online, and readers tell us they value both experiences. The increasing vitality of online efforts by magazines isn’t evidence that the print model isn’t working — to the contrary, it shows that we’re learning how much we can enrich both the pages in your hand and those on your computer screen by having them work together. I rarely edit a piece these days without making plans for what its presence online at Self.com can add for the reader — extra content, interactivity, mobile access, etc. Though the current climate feels very tough, from where I sit, magazines (not all, but many) have a bright future.

One of my favorite editing blogs, Watch Yer Language, has moved. Craig Lancaster, blogger and copy desk chief for the Billings Gazette in Montana, says the change is part of an effort to bring the newspaper’s online efforts under one roof of social media.

Lancaster says that the blog will continue to be, as he describes it, “a clearinghouse for style and usage tips that emanate from my workaday life.” He’s also the author of two books, including the novel “Six-Hundred Hours of a Life.”