Principles of conduct

The following is a portion of a presentation Bob Baker made at API's Compelling Storytelling seminar. He is the author of the book "Newsthinking: The Secret of Making Your Facts Fall into Place."

Here are 10 principles of conduct for editors and 10 for reporters based on the needs of each.

I should mention that I have violated all 20 many times, as simple and obvious as they sound, and hereby apologize once again to many reporters and my former editors.

I'll let the reporters go first. What reporters want from editors

1. I want you to listen to me. I want your full, undivided attention. I don't want you staring at your screen, or answering computer messages, or taking phone calls when we're talking about a story. I know you're busy, but when you have time for me, make it matter.

2. I want to be able to brainstorm with you. To bounce ideas off you without feeling like you automatically have to pass judgment. I want you to contribute, not dominate.

3. I want you to respect my syntax. I want to feel as though as long as I'm writing clearly and purposefully, the choice of words is up to me. I want to sound like me, not you.

4. I want you to help me improve the integrity of my story. Concentrate on structure, not picky copy-editing. Tell me what ideas or images don't work or can be improved. Develop a structural vocabulary that can articulate this. Help me bring more context, wisdom and perspective to my work.

5. Don't rewrite me unless you have to. If we're not on deadline, tell me what you want me to do differently, send the story back to me and let me try to do it myself.

6. As the reporting process unfolds, let me discover the story. Hold back on prejudging it, or dictating how I should pursue it. Let me explore the landscape and learn from it.

7. Tell me the truth. If a story has been targeted for a certain placement, length or tone by your bosses, tell me what politics are involved, what battles we'll have to fight, why the story is holding, or why it needs to be cut. Let me participate in the idiocy that sometimes colors our business.

8. Play the role of a reader for me. Make fewer pronouncements and ask more questions... questions that demonstrate your interest and help me understand how certain sentences or combinations trigger certain questions in a reader's mind.

9. Balance the way I'm used. Remember the proportion of stories I do at your suggestion versus the proportion that are my ideas. Give me opportunities not only to discover the best part of myself, but to use that part when you make assignments, or are talking to other editors about them. Talk to me, even if it's only once a year, about what my goals are, for next year and for five years from now.

10. Get off your butt and walk around. Feel the newsroom. Be a part of it, of us, the reporters. Don't be a bureaucrat. Be a leader.

What editors want from reporters

1. I want you to respond enthusiastically to each assignment, whether it's your idea or mine. I want to know that you will dive hard into it and give it your best.

2. I want you to trust me. I want you to see me as someone who cares as much, or more, as you do about what we're producing. Many things I ask you to do may not directly benefit you but will have indirect benefits down the line.

3. I want you to meet our agreed-upon length and time requirements.

4. I want you to be as appreciative of a good edit as I am of a good reporting and writing job. I want you to appreciate what two brains can do together.

5. I want you to remember that photos matter. I want you to work conscientiously with the Photo Desk and think visually.

6. I want you to put your heart into the story, to discover not only the factual truth but the emotional truth ... what really matters to the readers, to the characters in your story, to our society. I want that hunger every time.

7. I want you to take your job seriously but not personally. I want you to be able to lose without it breaking your heart, whether it's not getting a story on Page 1 or having it held a day, or having the lead changed by someone above us. I want you to understand that nobody wins 'em all, that tomorrow is another opportunity, that there are no "enemies" in the newsroom. I need you to believe this because ...

8. ... I want you to be aggressive, creative, resourceful, audacious, dramatic ... even if you tried being all those things yesterday and it didn't work. If The Times is only as good as the readers expect it to be, it's a failure. We have to transcend their expectations. We have to astonish and delight and amaze and surprise and dazzle them in our explanations of how the world works.

9. If I suggest a rewrite and you don't like it, I want you to articulate your position forcefully, but I also expect you to be able to come up with an alternative rather than simply digging in your heels. Be willing to give another version a try. I'm willing to listen; I may even learn something.

10. Realize that I respect and appreciate your need to share, but I am burdened by several other reporters and other administrative demands. Don't take it personally if I seem distracted sometimes.