Storytelling, etc.

If you and your staff still think mostly in terms of telling stories with ink on paper, I encourage you to explore "The Elements of Digital Storytelling" by Nora Paul and Christina Fiebich at the Institute for New Media Studies.

Nora was one of the discussion leaders last week at Compelling Storytelling Innovations. Seminar members joined me in telling the story of our week's work in this running account.

Check out Fernando Dovalina's advice on diversity issues, at the Institute for Mid-Career Copy Editors. He asks thought-provoking questions and provides helpful information. Even if you consider yourself pretty well-versed in diversity issues, as I do, you'll probably learn something about some minority in this piece.

I also want to call your attention to the next API seminar I'm planning. With apologies to David Letterman, here are the top 10 reasons why you should send the new editor(s) on your staff to API's New Editors' Survival Guide seminar or, if you are in your first year as an editor, why you should attend yourself (feel free to forward this to a new editor you know or to your boss):

10. The early-bird deadline for a 10 percent discount on tuition is this Friday, January 27.

9. You get the early-bird discount if an editor is named to his or her first supervisory editing position after the Jan. 26 deadline, as long as you register within a week of the announcement of the appointment.

8. Keith Woods, dean of the faculty at the Poynter Institute, will join API for this seminar in a faculty exchange.

7. Drew Davis, president of API, will tell you about our exciting Newspaper Next project.

6. Other discussion leaders include Peter Perl of the Washington Post, Roy Wenzl of the Wichita Eagle, Linda Grist Cunningham of the Rockford Register Star, Tamara O'Shaughnessy of the Times of Northwest Indiana, newsroom coach Rosalie Stemer and Tom Linthicum of the TDL group.

5. Editors will learn about coaching, developing personal power, basics of management, planning story packages, understanding your management style and much more.

4. Editors will have practice coaching a reporter on actual stories and story ideas, then hearing feedback from the reporter and your peers.

3. Editors will receive advice API is collecting from experienced editors throughout the newspaper industry, who will pass along the important lessons they remember from their first year as an editor.

2. Editors will make friends with peers who are learning these lessons along with them and can become a network of advice and support as they return to their newsrooms.

And the No. 1 reason to send your new editor(s) to API's New Editors' Survival Guide seminar: Assigning editors are too important to a newspaper to rely on training by immersion.

Register online for this seminar now. Please call or e-mail me if you have questions.

Steve Buttry
Director of Tailored Programs
American Press Institute
703-715-3300