Re: How do newspapers do it? (Was: Volume to Internet)

[Heather Ramamurthy <hmorthy -at- BAAN -dot- COM>]

As a former journalist, I couldn't resist this one. Steve is right on.

Additionally, newspapers make it their sole raison d'etre to publish, and
they dedicate the necessary resources to make it happen. In other words,
they have large writing staffs *and* editing staffs...not to mention the
rest of production support. What technology company has ever dedicated so
many resources to printed matter?

On the downside, papers (and broadcasting) don't pay very well. I had a
friend living in NYC making $30K as an online editor at CNN. He quit to take
a job at a paper in NJ for $26K so that he'd have a byline.

Interestingly,  engineers aren't the only ones who think journalists are
ahead of tech writers. Many prospective employers in technical writing
wonder why I left the glamorous world of journalism. I tell them I would
make more in heating and air conditioning.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Jong [SMTP:SteveFJong -at- AOL -dot- COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 7:59 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      How do newspapers do it? (Was: Volume to Internet)
>
> This talk of how the newspapers managed to print the Starr report so
> quickly
> (450+ pages overnight) reminds me of an engineer who once asked me, "If
> our
> local paper can print 200 pages every day, why can't you finish this
> manual
> any faster?" (He was *not* joking 8^(
>
> Basically, what I told him was that a newspaper mainly consists of
> business
> ads, want ads, real-estate listings, personals, features written in
> advance,
> and wire-service copy, none of which the editorial staff has to
> touch--it's a
> matter of layout, not content. Most of the rest is news articles, which do
> have to be written fresh; but despite the one-day schedule, the newspaper
> reporter has an advantage over the technical writer: the subject-matter
> experts never get to review or comment on the story. (In the case of the
> Starr
> report, the subject-matter expert would have *loved* a review copy!)
>
>           -- Steve
>
> =========|=========|=========|=========|=========|=========|=
> Steven Jong, Documentation Team Manager ("Typo?  What tpyo?")
> Lightbridge, Inc, 67 S. Bedford St., Burlington, MA 01803 USA
> mailto:SJong -at- lightbridge -dot- com 781.359.4902[V], 781.359.4500[F]
> Home Sweet Homepage: http://members.aol.com/SteveFJong
>
>
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