Seeking lessons for new editors

API would like your help for a seminar we are presenting in late March called the New Editors' Survival Guide. We are excited about the lineup of discussion leaders we will bring here to Reston for the seminar, which is designed for people in their first year in an editing job. We also want to share your advice with these new editors.

Please think back on your first year as a supervising editor. What was the most valuable lesson you learned? Can you boil the lesson into a simple sentence or two (a paragraph at the most)? Can you follow that summary with a story to tell that would illustrate the lesson (or how you learned it)? The story can run longer than the summary.

Share a couple lessons if you like. What were lessons you learned about time management? About covering big stories? About supervising enterprise stories? About connecting with readers? About editing stories? What surprised you the most about your new role?

We want to call on your experience to hasten the learning of these new editors. We will use your advice in two ways: We will compile the answers into a booklet, which the seminar members will receive. In addition, we will highlight some of the best advice in a discussion called "Lessons Learned, Lessons Shared." Tina May, senior editor/national affairs at the Arizona Republic, will lead that session. She may get in touch with you to flesh out your lesson some more for her presentation.

Here's what I would like you to do:

Send Tina (tina.may@arizonarepublic.com) and me your lesson by March 1. Please include your current title and newspaper (or other affiliation) and how long you've been an editor. Send a jpeg photo if you have one, too, so we can use it in the book. Please remember to send the lesson to both of us. I will be compiling the book and Tina will be planning the session, so we both need it. I will be undergoing surgery in late February, so I will be out of e-mail contact for a few days and I don't want Tina to have to wait for your lessons.

Thank you for sharing your experience with these new editors.

Steve Buttry
Director of Tailored Programs
American Press Institute