Want success in web editing? Be the web
Print and web editing are different. That's one of the things that came out loud and clear at an Ed2010 panel discussion in Toronto last night, with four web editors participating: Bryan Borzykowski from CanadianBusiness.com, Jen O'Brien from Chatelaine.com, Jennifer Villamere of CanadianLiving.com, and Sharon Donaldson from CottageLife.com and Explore-mag.com.
Here, thanks to Corinna van Gerwen's blog (she's the Canadian director of Ed2010) are some of the highlights of what the crowd heard:
Here, thanks to Corinna van Gerwen's blog (she's the Canadian director of Ed2010) are some of the highlights of what the crowd heard:
- Being a web editor is not the same thing as being a print editor. The type of writing and style of articles are different, and your duties as an editor will be different. Only a fraction of your time will be spent assigning stories and working with writers.
- If you're looking for a job as a web editor, you'd better be into the web. Have Facebook and Twitter accounts, post videos that you've shot and edited to YouTube, write a blog, purchase your own domain and build your own website. If you don't do all that — if you're not spending time online — the person doing the hiring is going to wonder why the hell you want to be a web editor.
- Don't look as web editing as a way into the print side. They are different departments and require different skills.
Labels: web and print
posted by D. B. Scott at
3:09 pm
4 Comments:
Just look at CanadianBusiness.com and you'll see how very different being a Web editor is from being a print editor. Print editors add value. Then Web editors screw it all up.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame the state of Canadian Business Online on the web editors themselves.
True, Anonymous number 2: Without speaking about CanadianBusiness.com specifically, staffing and budget have the biggest influence on web site quality right now. Many sites are run by one or two people, who have to generate many times the amount of content that their print counterparts do. I guess until they figure out how to make the web more profitable, that's the way it's going to stay.
"Staffing and budget have the biggest influence on website quality right now." So, with more budget, publishers would hire more online staff who:
* know the needs of their respective audiences
* can write
* can edit
I doubt that. Publishers are so intimidated by the Web and Web people that they cede control of good websites to anyone with a certificate in HTML programming.
It's like putting print editorial in the hands of the grunts that run the printing press.
By the way, Anonymous 2, who's running Canadian Business Online (or any other website) if not its Web editors? I'm glad I got out of there when I did.
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