No. 01 · Content
Start with the words.
Every journal, newsletter, and website needs a purpose. Before I touch the layout, I ask four questions. Who reads it? What do they need from it? What do you most want them to know? What do you want them to do next?
An edit
The committee would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the many thanks the volunteers who so generously gave their time.
Twenty-one words in. Nine words out. Nothing lost.
What I do
- Plan each issue around one or two main stories.
- Edit pieces from staff and volunteers so the issue reads in one voice.
- Write headlines, decks, and captions.
- Cut stories to fit the page.
- Keep a style sheet so names, dates, and titles match from issue to issue.
- Edit longer articles and essays for journals, with care for each author's voice.
- Write and edit the words for websites: home pages, about pages, and the line that asks readers to act.
Where it comes from
I was features editor at the Paso Robles Daily News and a co-founder of the Cambria Independent, a community paper on the California coast. In a small town, every name in print belongs to someone who will read it.
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