Editing, Leadership and Team Building
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I started my editing career as Arts section editor, and then school news editor, so my role was to give the first round of edits to writers. I pitched story ideas for my section and helped writers come up with their own pitches as well. When I edited a story, I made sure to give big-picture feedback, such as structure, angle, including various perspectives and style. I also gave edits on punctuation, grammar and AP style. However, as I was still relatively new to journalism, I wasn't as proficient in AP style as I am now, and let the higher ranked editors focus more on that. As I was in my school's journalism class, I was also a leader in the class. I edited stories of my classmates, gave them feedback and helped guide them through the publication process if they wanted to publish their stories on Dateline.
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In junior year, I was the Publications editor, so I was the second editor to look at stories. I focused more on refining the article, as the section editors did the initial big-picture edits. I also caught errors that the newer section editors did not catch. I also became more involved in the other aspects of leading the publication, such as working closely with the Managing Editors to lead meetings, plan print editions and keep the social media pages active.
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Now, I am Editor-In-Chief and I edit every story before it is published. I make sure to read each story very carefully, spending at least half an hour editing, as to ensure I do not miss anything. I always make sure to double check style with the AP Handbook and with the Dateline Student Handbook, as it is ultimately my responsibility to make sure we are holding up our standards and staying consistent, as to show we are journalistically careful and reliable. When there is no rule for a certain phrase or word, I consult with the Faculty Advisor and Managing Editors, and make a decision about what style we will use, and add it to the Handbook for future reference. I also check the Directory to double check all names referenced in the article to prevent misspelling.
I edit stories on Google Docs by leaving suggestions, as shown below:
The staff uses Trello to keep track of stories and pass stories to different editors. There is a column for each section, which section editors are responsible for keeping track of.
Then, stories go on to be fact checked and edited by Publications Editors, Managing Editors and, finally, me. I implemented the Fact Checking stage in teh process this year, as last school year we had some issues with writers publishing stories without verifying their facts and thus publishing wrong or incomplete information.
We also use a Shared Google Drive to organize and share Dateline resources and documents with the entire staff. There are resources to help write and format stories, as well as folders to upload pictures taken for the publication, etc.
As Editor-In-Chief, I run our weekly staff meetings. I always write out an agenda before the meetings, so we can stay on-task and so meetings run smoothly. I also always leave time for the staff to pitch stories or update me on what they are working on. Here are some of my agendas:
