January 2005: The Romance of Editing on the Bleeding Edge

Insights, Gripes and Conjecture

Many of you might think that I and my editorial colleagues in the technical trade press have the greatest job in the world. Truth be told, we do. Most of the time.

For example, we get to see and play with all sorts of cool stuff way before it’s available to the public. We hobnob with people who really know what’s going down in manufacturing and technology. And we get tons of free pens—a wordweenie’s paradise.

Of course, we also enjoy 10-hour delays at O’Hare and missed school plays. More than once I picked up the local newspaper in a hotel gift shop only to realize that I was in a different city than I had thought. But that’s typical of any frequent business traveler.

Another problem we encounter is irate marketing people. Sometimes I get e-mails flaming me for covering their competitors. Other times, I get calls and e-mails because we dared mention that their baby had a wart.

“Well, look, are your help screens in Serbo-Croatian or not?”

“Uh, yeah, but you didn’t have to write about it.”

“Who’d I be fooling? DE’s readers are engineers, not language teachers.”

Full disclosure: Sometimes I get flamed because we muffed up something. The most irksome thing about that—beside the error—is that I often cannot convince the complainer that mistakes are inherently unintentional.

But the most agonizing part of this job is the struggle between self-interest and ethics. Not unlike politics, the hunting and gathering of money has so beclouded minds that what once was wrong is no longer recognized as wrong. It’s normal; just the way things get done. Going against this new normal means being labeled an oddball.

Let me give you some examples. At least once an issue, I’ll get a call from somebody pitching a press release. At some point, they drop something like, “and if it runs, we may buy an ad.”

Sometimes, it’s a blunter message: “Give me ink, and I’ll buy ad.”

So, why am I telling you this? Well, you have the right to know that your media are pressured continually to cover certain stuff and often that pressure comes from their boss. Ask them how they cope. Demand honesty.

January begins DE’s 10th celebration year of publication. From the first issue to the one you’re reading now, our mission has been to provide you the news you need to do your job without selling out our ethics—boss included. Our commitment for the next 10 years is more of the same, only more so.

We have an obligation to you to honestly provide the news you need. When a company has real news, we’ll report it. When someone wants to buy good press—and DE is the best—they need to go elsewhere. Our editorial is not for sale. Unfortunately, that’s not how the trade press always operates.

Call me an oddball or old school or whatever. But honesty remains the best policy. Don’t you think? Thanks, Pal.

Lockwood [email protected]