Inventing Reality: My Editing Experience
Iowa City Press-Citizen
n Position: Editorial Page Editor
n When: 2002-2005
n Where: Iowa City, Iowa
n Duties: I headed paper's seven-member editorial board, wrote daily editorials (typically seven a week), designed and paginated pages, solicited and edited op-ed columns, selected and edited letters to the editor, developed local editorial cartoons with our two cartoonists (one staff and one freelance), selected syndicate editorial cartoons and wrote a weekly column (Cornfield Soul, which appeared Sundays). In addition, I organized public forums (usually once a quarter) and regularly conducted public outreach meetings (usually three a month). During the Iowa caucuses, I helped connect out-of-state media with local residents and represented the Press-Citizen during interviews on the BBC and National Public Radio (a second NPR broadcast). As a staff editor, I headed the newsroom’s Diversity Committee. During one year, our All-American score, given by Gannett, rose nearly three points thanks to outreach, additional training, new hirings and improved tools that our committee developed for the newsroom.
n Awards:
s Editorial Writing - 1st place (2005), Iowa APME; award for three-day series on testing in our schools
s Editorial Writing - 1st place (2004), Iowa APME; Press-Citizen named Iowa newspaper of the year for our circulation class in same contest
s Commentary - 2nd place (July-Sept. 2003), quarterly Gannett Well Done, for in-depth columns about and interviews with candidates in the Iowa Caucus (John Kerry, Howard Dean, John Edwards)
s Editorial Pages - 3rd place (2004) for all dailies, Iowa Newspaper Association
s Commentary - Runner-up (April-June 2005), quarterly Gannett Well Done contest, for editorials about child sex offenders released from prison who repeat crimes
s Commentary - Runner-up (Jan.-March 2005), quarterly Gannett Well Done contest, for three-day editorial series about school test scores
s Commentary - Runner-up (Oct.-Dec. 2004), quarterly Gannett Well Done contest, for three designed editorial pages