Demanding More From Writers or Unfair Practice?
At some papers, writers are stripped of bylines if their articles do not meet the standards of the publication. The result, no pay and no clip. This is the ultimate insult to a reporter, really. It surely would get someone’s attention.
My question, is this a proper way to handle student journalists? How many of you work at papers that use this practice?
If you do something different, what is it?
About Steve Fox
Career newspaper journalist and full-time faculty member at Ferris State University. Also adviser to student newspaper, The Torch.
5 Responses
I would say that is a bit harsh. Being a student journalist, yeah, that would be insulting, but it is a way of saying one definitely needs to improve.
I can see where if a student journalist wasn’t working to the best of their ability and didn’t take the time and effort to improve, then yeah. But if it’s a writer’s first time and they don’t have enough experience, taking it easy on them wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Does the Torch use this practice? Just curious.
I’m against this kind of punishment because I don’t think it sends a productive message to the writer. If they fail, they fail and their name isn’t even attached to their failure and it’s just another bad story your paper printed. Remember readers don’t care what happened before your story hit press. They are only interested in seeing a good product on the back end.
Printing bad stories should always be avoided (duh). Have house ads ready to place where a story would have gone. Make it a “Join us!” one if you can. The readers don’t know a horrible story was almost there, or a writer blew an assignment. They just know you’re hiring and then they flip the page.
Mention it at the next staff meeting. I do every week.
“See how we only ran three stories on this page? This house ad was supposed to be a story, but a blown assignment/short story led us to run this in place.”
Try to inspire your staff to take ownership of the pages – to be proud or ashamed when it looks bad. I do a weekly critique where I tell my news staff exactly how stressed out I was the past week in hopes they’ll try harder in the future. The meetings are always on Sundays, so the failures of the past week aren’t fresh enough to hurt feelings, but they can spur writers to improve.
As far as how to handle a reporter that just handed in a bad story, here’s my take:
If a story is bad, have them rewrite it. If it has to run and there’s no time, rewrite it yourself, split the by line or add “[Editor’s name] contributed to this story,” at the end of the article.
If the writer is continuing to hand in sloppy articles, it’s time for some one-on-one training. Make sure they know what they’re doing wrong, but be specific.
Is it their reporting/interviewing skills that needs work or are they struggling with grammar/style? Don’t just tell them the article is bad. Tell them exactly what they need to improve.
If they’re a lost cause, or they aren’t improving, it’s time to let them go. We’re not here to teach every warm body that walks in how to write, we’re here to take teach journalism.
If a student is writing for a first time, should he/she even be in a situation to be paid?
I think this policy would be for a hired writer who is expected to do good work. Someone who is paid.
I also think there are some real standards that can be set: facts must be correct, names spelled correctly, etc.… If those things are wrong, then maybe bylines should be pulled off. Or, possibly just as effective, story pulled and the writer required to improve it before publication.
I think both these cases are options for showing writers they must meet professional expectations. Is this standard held up often enough at student papers?
Ty,
What about if the paper has higher standards than what you’re insinuating. I’m not talking about bad writing. I’m talking about very high standards — if there is a mis-spelled word, some Style Book errors, etc,.. How much acceptable to still get paid?
Even though these are student newspapers, I believe the higher standards should be in place. I agree with Fox that these standards should apply to paid staff who have been given adequate time to learn the process and the A.P. style rules.
As far as I know, this method is not used much at the Torch. As the Sports Editor, I know that I have not used it with our sports writers. This is also the first semester that either of them has written for a college newspaper. It is the editor’s responsibility to send it back and make the writer fix and learn from his or her mistakes.
If names are misspelled and facts are incorrect, the story should certainly be sent back to the writer. If there is no time to do so, that may be a situation where the writer’s name could be pulled off of the story.
I would be more inclined to use this only after this has happened a few times because everyone makes mistakes from time to time. As editors, it is our job to work with the writers and teach them the correct way to write and explain how to fix mistakes. If such mistakes are made continuously, then this action would be appropriate.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.