Sometimes it's not nice to be nice, and other lessons for editors

Five more veteran editors pass along their advice to members of API's New Editors' Survival Guide.

Deborah Gump, Knight Professor of News Editing, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University

The most important lesson I learned as a manager was that, sometimes, it's not nice to be nice. Put another way, employees depend on their supervisors for honest, supportive, constructive guidance. The first time I did an evaluation of a marginal employee, I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I looked for adjectives that would cushion the blow of a less-than-sterling evaluation. I stressed the few things he did well, smoothed over the trouble spots and pretty much ignored the fact that he needed near-constant supervision.

Then I realized three things:

1. The reader wasn't getting our best effort until all of us were working at full power.
2. I couldn't do that - and my life wasn't going to get easier - until all staffers were getting better every day, and that included the marginal employee.
3. I wasn't doing the marginal employee any favor by letting him stew in mediocrity. He wanted to get better, but he just didn't know how. And he wasn't going to know how until I was honest with him and showed him a path to improvement.

At that moment, evaluations became a joy instead of a chore. A thorough evaluation, marked by clear records of work examples - the bad along with the good - and joined by specific strategies for improvement is one of the greatest gifts a manager can give an employee. We know that journalists want more training, and that's because all of us want to do a better job tomorrow than we did today. Managers must nurture that thirst for professional development, and that starts with realizing that, sometimes, it's not nice to be nice.

Tom Fogarty, Assignment editor-Money, USA Today

I became an editor two years ago (February 2004) after more than 25 years of reporting. The picture of confidence as a reporter, I was a wreck for my first months as an editor - sleepless nights, loss of appetite and a pervasive sense of careening toward inevitable failure in the new job. I credit the patient counsel of three of my bosses for finally settling me down. (They had seen this before.) Now, I sleep, I eat and I understand that even the best editors fail at least a couple of times on their best days.

Here's my biggest lesson: Tailor your dealings with your reporters to their weaknesses.

Before becoming an editor, I simplistically believed the job of newspaper reporter comprised just two basic skills - reporting and writing. When I began supervising five reporters, I found them as different as any five of God's children could be. It made me realize that the job of reporter entails a dozen or more basic skills. Some of those skills: Time management, story idea generation, source development and maintenance, news judgment, logical thinking, imagination, visual thinking, numeracy, and meeting deadlines. The writing part alone involves many skills: organization, distillation, liveliness, pacing, and - to quote Bob Seger in "Against the Wind" - knowing "what to leave in, what to leave out."

To the degree that a reporter is deficient on any of these many basic skills - and even very good reporters fall short on a few of them - it becomes the editor's job to compensate. The worst way for an editor to compensate is to actually do the work for the reporter. Unless a pressing deadline demands it, never rewrite a disorganized, flabby, boring story. Send it back to the reporter for a rewrite.

Deal with shortcomings by organizing your work life around them. An example: I have a reporter who is wonderfully imaginative, has terrific story ideas and is unusually savvy with numbers. But this reporter's copy nearly always comes in flatly written with holes in the narrative, breathtaking internal contradictions and lapses of logic. As a result, I never bother to initiate a conversation about story ideas. I know the good stories pitches will come my way without my asking. I zero in of the writing deficiencies, always making time to discuss organization of the story in the early stage of development. I set deadlines that build in time for the near inevitability of a rewrite by the reporter.

Some reporting skills are "infrastructure" skills unrelated to a specific story - time management or source development, for example. Without being antagonistic, you should find a time to discuss these shortcomings with the reporter. Annual job reviews present a good opportunity to open the discussion. Commit to working with the reporter to improve performance on whatever the shortcoming. Make an improvement plan, and stick with it.

Mike Hall, Business Journal editor, Laredo Morning Times, Laredo, Texas

One lesson I would pass on is that if you are allowed to make changes, then go ahead and do something different, in style, graphics or content.

I was hired to make changes to an established publication, and I have turned into what most people consider a more professional publication. The changes I made were at first subtle. Page two is the contents page. When I first got here, two of the five columns were used to list college and university departments. It had been that way for at least two years.

I replaced it with a column called "Up Front," a short review of stories inside. It wasn't original, but it was simple to do. Tax preparation stories were accompanied by a half-column photo of a hand working on a tax form. Now the second page is called Up Front, and has two small stand alone photos, the table of contents for selected stories, a reduced staff box, and an "On the Cover" feature that describes what the cover photo is and how it applies to the center spread. Any corrections also go on this page. The page also has a continuation of a column I started called "Coffee Talk," which begins on the cover.

The most important change was to get rid of the state and national sections and replace them with local news. This meant developing sources and meeting new people, especially the right people who could work with me and my reporter to cover the second-fastest growing city in the country at the time, Laredo, Texas. Business cards are cheap and use them as they ought to be used.

Guy Lasnier, former deputy national/foreign editor, The San Jose Mercury News

I learned three things as a novice editor:
* Let your reporters work on their ideas when they are good ones.
* Pre-edit big time, it will save lots of strife at the end.
* Keep your word.

1. The best ideas come from reporters who know their beats, but not all their ideas are good ones. Reporters who have been on a beat for a while often get caught up in inside stuff, writing for sources and writing for other reporters who cover the same territory. We don't care. That said, I prefer letting reporters write about what they want ... with guidance. They know the subject/territory, we editors do not. Sometimes we have to assign stories because they need to get done. When that happens it's nice to have a track record of having been open to someone's ideas. As for inside stuff, sometimes stories have to be written for sourcing purposes but the tendency to get caught up in courthouse or statehouse intrigue is a tough one to break. Keep asking about the readers. Will they care? Usually not.

2. Pre-edit, talk about what the story might or might not be before and as it is being reported. Then, most importantly, before she starts to write, ask the reporter what the story is, where it is going. Sometimes this can come from a budget line. The front end edit will save lots of time at the end.

3. Be firm, clear and keep your word. Do what you say you'll do. That holds for deadlines, training promises, a chance to work on a favored story, anything. Be clear on expectations. 20 inches by 5 p.m. If it is 25 inches at 5:30 p.m. there needs to be consequences.

4. OK, I thought of another one: Try to maintain regular formal communication - something outside of the day-to-day. At least once a month, a formal 30 minutes minimum of how's it going, what's working/not working, frustrations etc. Instead of waiting until the annual review, regular formal touch-base time is very important to maintain the relationship.

Antionette Taylor-Thomas, managing editor, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette Lancaster, Ohio

I have two lessons, and they are equally important to surviving the early years.

1. Trust your instincts, take risks and don't be afraid to voice your opinions or challenge the way things always have been done. The industry needs innovative thinkers more than anything now, and leaders can't be afraid to change or try new things. A new editor usually is bubbling with ideas; oftentimes, they're afraid to share them because they think they have to "earn" the right to put an idea/solution/suggestion on the table. My advice: Don't let others dampen your energy. Trust your instincts.

2. Don't forget about you. Your role as an editor will include grooming and coaching journalists. Remember you need grooming and coaching along the way so don't be afraid to ask for training, coaching and mentoring that will make you a stronger, well-rounded leader. Don't be afraid to seek out free opportunities to help you grow. Nurture yourself and your career.