Note: This blog post also ran in the Society of Professional Journalism’s “Journalism and the World” blog. Click here to see the original post (and comments).
Last week, we had so many story assignments coming in that we ran out of writers (including our freelancers). Thus no postings from me for a while.
We’ve been running ads for more writers and copyeditors, but it will take time to train people and get them to the point where they actually save us work, not create more work for us to do.
For a new writer, we have to hold their hand through the entire reporting process, help them organize their stories, and then rewrite everything from scratch after they hand them in.
For a new copyeditor, we have to hold their hand through the copyediting process, then re-edit everything they hand in.
We don’t have a choice, of course — there aren’t many experienced business writers out where we are, so training is essential.
I had much the same experienced when I worked in Russia in the early 90s, though back then I was training news reporters, not business writers.
Meanwhile, if anyone wants to get involved and help us out, just drop me a line.
Signing off in Shanghai,
Maria
