Charter chapter of the American Copy Editors Society

2009 Workshop Sessions


Digital Media

Click: Writing Headlines for the Web
Pam Nelson, The News & Observer

Your skills are more important to your organization than ever. Get practical tips for crafting headlines that can draw human eyes and attract search engines' attention.

Hot Topics in Digital Media Law
Edward Fenno, enno Law Firm

This presentation will include discussion of the legal ramifications of blogging, copyright and fair use, visitor postings and other user-generated content, Web site “terms of use” and privacy policies, vendor contracts, and other Internet publishing legal issues.

Maintaining the Last Line of Defense: Editing for Ethics and Accuracy Online
Melanie Balog, The Post & Courier

The push for first, faster and better takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to the 24-7 news cycle, but that doesn’t mean abandoning journalistic standards. Whether you’re part of a team charged with getting content online or you’re a Web staff of one (or less than one), you must be timely, ethical and accurate. Topics for discussion include posting breaking news, keeping ongoing stories fresh, letting reporters do the heavy lifting, calling for backup, making corrections transparent online, asking questions about user-submitted content, promoting from print to online and back, and more.

Monster Mashup: Online Tools
Ian O'Brant, The Post & Courier

Life After Newspapers

Finding A Niche
Andy Brack,  The Brack Group media specialists, Charleston
Flacks, Hacks and Maniacs: Coexisting with PR
Heather Woolwine, media relations director, MUSC
Mary Helen Yarborough, public relations coordinator, MUSC
Using Your Skills Outside the Newsroom
Moderator: Andy Bechtel, UNC-Chapel Hill
Panelists: Chuck Small, Margaret Cloud, Wendy Parker

Perhaps you are considering a new career path beyond the newsroom. How will your journalism background help you secure and thrive in a new job? Panel members will discuss what skills they took with them when they left the newsroom, what they left behind and what they needed to learn anew.

Traditional

Big-Picture Editing
Jon Wallace, The News & Observer

After an overview of the principles of big-picture editing and what to watch for, we'll break up into small groups to work on some real-life examples of stories that could use a little help getting the point across.

Graphics Editing
Maurreen Skowran, The News & Observer

Graphics can pack a lot of punch -- and facts -- into a small space. But they can also be extra challenging. You need to be attentive to three diverse aspects: words, data and appearance. We'll focus on how to show the data so readers can most easily understand it.

Handling Freelance Copy
Jerry Bellune, Lexington County Chronicle

This session will concentrate on how to deal with such copy in a world of increasingly fewer touches. It will also include some things about how to manage freelancers as well, since it's entirely possible in the new world that former copy editors might be thrown into having to do that at new operations.

Numeracy: Be Numerically Literate
Doug Fisher, University of South Carolina

Plenary Sessions

Lunch talk
Van King, Queens University of Charlotte
Monster Mashup: Online Tools
Ian O'Brant, The Post & Courier