Editor

Being the senior editor for the OU yearbooks, Crimson Traditions and Sooner, I like to think I could be considered a reliable source for someone considering such a position.

As a senior editor I am responsible for six writers, all but one of who are virtually inexperienced. Our process requires me to assign stories at a Monday evening desk meeting. I meet with each writer individually on Tuesday to front-end coach on the stories, which basically involves me telling them several people to interview and a general theme for their story.

By Wednesday at 5p.m. writers should have met with their respective photographer and designer to maestro. The process involves them choosing a theme for the story, listing possible sources, basic information about the content of the story, dominant photo and secondary photos, and alternate design elements such as a sidebar, timeline, or map. The writers have the next four days to write the first draft of their stories.

By midnight Sunday night, every writer should have emailed their story to the editor - me - unless for special circumstances they have been given an extension, which in all honestly happens more often than not.

Monday the cycle starts over again, yet the story from the week before is not done. On top of dealing with my staff, I have to also meet with the photo editor and design editor, which incidentally happen to be the same person. Photos for each spread are due by the second Monday and the designed spread is due by the second Friday.

The second Tuesday of the two-week process involves back-end coaching with each writer along with front-end coaching for the new story they were assigned the night before. Problems range from the story being in present tense rather than past to the story not containing any quotes. During this coaching, I give the writers instructions on how to improve their story and then ask them to return the edited versions to me by the following day. For writers with serious problems on their stories, the edits never come in on time, which in turn pushes back the designers.

If spreads are not completed the second Friday of the process, the editorial staff unfortunately must take over the process and fix everything that went wrong. Sometimes stories have to be re-written, photos have to be retaken, and design sometimes never even exists.

It would be much more simple if I could coerce my staff to complete their work on time or not quit at the most inopportune times, but they're interns. They receive no pay for their work and therefore I have no incentives to keep them there. It would also be much more simple if I could just pass the blame onto them, but unfortunately I answer to an advisor. So when the staff misses deadline, the editors are the ones on the line.

It is a stressful position and overly time-consuming for what I get paid. I seriously recommend that anyone considering an editorial position take into account the time commitment and the stress level.