Speakers: Jacqui Banaszynski and Jim Collins
Session: Editing Narrative for Newspapers and Magazines
Dec. 1, 2001, 3:30-4:45 p.m.

By Bode Opeseitan

Very few experts could have talked with such mastery and eloquence on the reporter/editor relationship.

It is a delicate relationship that has thrown many newsrooms across the world into confusion and made the cold war between the United States of America and the Soviet Union look like child's play.

The distrust is mutual. Except in few exceptional cases, reporters hate their editors with a passion. Many editors also see their reporters as the necessary devil.

Jacqui Banaszynski and Jim Collins, who have been both editors and writers, dissected the delicate relationship and gave the participants tips that can turn the love-hate relationship into a blissful union.

Having distinguished herself as a world-class journalist, Jacqui proved she was eminently qualified to sermonize on the issue.

The depth of her profundity extends beyond her tall, elegant frame. She talks and walks with a confident gait that will inspire even the most disillusioned journalist and humble the most arrogant editor.

Her worldview is broad and diverse. From news to features and sports, Jacqui has been a jack of various journalistic trades and a master of all.

Nothing confirms her erudition more than the numerous laurels she has garnered in the course of her career. Her awards include the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, the national Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and the AP Sports Editors deadline writing award.

Jacqui has traversed the six continents of the world, investigating and writing emotional stories on the plight of the Kurdish refugees in Iraq and hunger-ravaged children in Somalia. She also told the story of how AIDS devastated a gay farm couple in the United States.

The near-perfect approach to eliminate all hostilities, Jacqui advised, is for both parties to realize that neither the editor nor the reporter is perfect.

It will do the editors a lot of good if they stop deluding themselves that their reporters can be everything to them just as it will help reporters if they know the kind of editor they are dealing with.

As Jacqui put it, there are three types of editors.

"Some are good at telling reporters what's wrong with the copy. Some will tell the reporter where he missed the point while some will tell the reporter specifically what he/she can do to improve on his copy," she said.

Jacqui added that some editors combine these qualities but warned that the best route to a meaningful editor/reporter relationship is for editors to be open and honest and the reporters to be amenable to correction.

Editors, she further advised, should realize that their reporters cannot become superstars overnight and should therefore be patient in nurturing the cub reporter paragraph by paragraph. "Do it piece by piece. Don't take it all out at once," she said.

"If you have a reporter who is not good at an assignment, stop sending him to such assignments", she admonished. She said the best approach to develop a talent is to reinforce his strength and take time to build on his weakness.

To Jim Collins, who became the third editor in Yankee magazine's 65-year-history, an editor should see the worldview of reporters and the two should strive to merge.

An editor, he advised, should "communicate with the reporter in a most productive way. An editor should give the reporter as many tools to work with as possible. But don't put him in a box. Let him also use his own imagination".

Jim listed deadline, word-line and price as issues that can cause friction between an editor and a reporter.

In handling such issues, he advised editors to be firm when necessary, flexible as the occasion might demand but be humble at all times.

Even if a piece is a total wreck, Jim advised editors to refrain from telling the reporter so bluntly.

The Jacqui/Jim lecture has sensitized me to the best way to handle my reporters. I also intend to share the tips I have learned with editors and reporters back home in Nigeria to make our various publications richer and stress-free.

Bode Opeseitan is an editor at the Nigerian Tribune.

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