Name: Bill Reed
Job: Travel Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer
What are your responsibilities? Choose and edit stories from staff and freelance submissions and wire services. Track down photos to illustrate the stories. Assign maps and write and/or edit information boxes. Design and lay out the cover and inside pages.
What's a typical workday? 9:40 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. Edit a few stories and reader-information boxes, which includes fact checking; line up photos, which entails calls and e-mails to tourism bureaus, chambers of commerce and individual attractions or resorts; keeping up with about 100 e-mails a day, answering those that need a reply; some page layout, depending on the day; reading mail.
What do you like/dislike about the job? Like: learn something every day, and read or write about interesting places. Dislike: with staff cutbacks, I don't have enough time -- I put in about 10 extra hours a week (my time).
Background: B.A. Journalism, St. Bonaventure University, 1975. 1974 Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Copy Editing Internship.
What are the skills young journalists need today? Inquisitiveness, drive, strong writing and self-editing skills, versatility (proficient in basic news writing, feature writing, and writing for the Web), computer skills, including researching.
Any advice to aspiring journalists? Take advantage of every opportunity to get published and to work in the field, even for free. Keep reading (can be the Web, but newspapers, magazines and books, too) and learning. Pay attention to details, to include in stories and to avoid mistakes and inconsistencies. Always ask yourself -- "what's the most important piece of information I have to convey?" and "Did I answer every question the reader might have."
Any additional comments? Accuracy and honesty are a journalist's most important goals.
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