There is a huge cleanup effort under way here in the office. I have never understood newsroom cleanup efforts. This one is being approached in especially strident fashion. A managing editor personally brought in, on her day off, a couple cases of paper towels and a dozen or so bottles of some headache-inducing "spray cleaner."<p>During the excavation efforts on the copy desk, someone uncovered an astonishing document called The Maestro Concept, created by "consultant" Buck Ryan of Northwestern.<p>It trumpets itself, quite modestly, as "A New Approach to Writing and Editing the Newspaper of the Future," and features a shitty clip-art rendering of a maestro, tails and all, presumably waving his baton to the strains of grunting, cursing copy editors.<p>The main thrust: "Maximizing ROI With a New Newsroom Organization." As we all know, "Maximizing ROI" is never a good deal for our side. A few choice excerpts:<p>---Accounting for gains and losses in talent and creativity is difficult because the newspaper industry soars or flutters on the wings of imagination.<p>---Outside of ego, the greatest force in the newspaper business is inertia.<p>---Having a "display desk" mixes the displeasure of tedious jobs with the most pleasurable editing jobs.<p>And my FAVORITE:<p>--To begin setting up a Display Desk, first take a copy desk and absolve it of responsibility for editing copy.<p>Genuine frontier gibberish, you say? Hey, the future is now. I wish I could "share" this entire amazing document with you. I now understand how blanp gets obsessed with the horseshit on the Poynter site.

Journalism legend Buck Ryan is now at the University of Kentucky. "Maestro" has been thoroughly rejected but somehow he endures.
Alex Cruden of the Detroit Free Press faced Ryan a few years ago at an ACES conference, and took him apart. I wish I had a tape of it.

Thank you, Phil. Buck may be a great guy in some regards, but this thing is beyond belief.<p>I wish I could "share" the entire content with everyone. Especially the THINK LIKE A READER form to fill out with every story, and other such bumf.

Some "Principles of the Planning System"...<p>-- Everyone has ownership of the package.<p>---Story planning starts with the readers' questions and ends with asking if there is a "reader action element."<p>---The Maestro (cap M CQ) is the facilitator of the sessions and the referee, if necessary, to bring the group to closure.<p>(the only time I recall hearing "closure" was whenever I was getting divorced)<p>---Planning sessions should be held only when there has been enoough preliminary reporting to determine that a legitimate story exists.<p>------------------------------<p>And on and on. Beautiful.

My managing editor used to quote Buck Ryan to us, especially his admonition to "Work smarter, not harder." Which for this ME translated into, "I'm going home now; please stay on the job for the next 10 hours and don't file for overtime."

The best advice, of course, is to watch out for anyone who talks in slogans.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr> ---Planning sessions should be held only when there has been enoough preliminary reporting to determine that a legitimate story exists.<hr></blockquote><p>Someone at Poynter fine-tuned that, saying planning should start when 65 percent of the reporting is completed. Wonder how it's measured.<p>Clean up any newsroom in the country and you're likely to find "Maestro Concept" booklets from the mid-1990s -- and photocopies of those "Think Like a Reader" story planning forms.<p>Like the man said, beware anyone who talks in slogans.

I would sign up to "maestro" a story only if I would be provided a baton to poke out the eye of anyone who used "impact" as a verb.

Hideous...yet I can't look away...<p>http://www.copydesk.org/2002conference/maestro.htm

"MAESTROPALOOZA"????<p>Oh, please, make it stop.

The maestro idea horrified me when I first came upon it because I knew of situations where the layout and assigning editors and the reporter simply overwhelmed any attempt to accomplish good detail editing. <p>Then I had an AME tell me about the joys of the team process, but when I followed up by talking to a senior production editor, I found out that in the real world, a copy desk manager was actually the one who attended meetings -- since the editors who actually read copy work nights. That sounded like common sense. <p>Since then I've seen some common-sense meetings between assigning editors, reporters and designers that lead to good graphics -- and then the whole process is copy-edited as it always has been. All that high-concept stuff tends to get in the way of fixing grammar and plugging holes.<p>The ancients had a saying: "Too many cooks spoil the broth."

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.<p>Who here has ever participated in a maestro, in any form?<p>And slogans and jargon aside, is there anyone here who doesn't edit for the reader?

WARNING: THIS IS LONG<p>
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Pam:

......<p>Who here has ever participated in a maestro, in any form?<p>And slogans and jargon aside, is there anyone here who doesn't edit for the reader?<hr></blockquote><p>Here's how it works in the newsroom, not in academia: <p>1. Newsroom proclamation: "This time" and for evermore the copy desk will be included in big-story planning. (The year's training budget was spent to send an ambitious middle manager to a seminar and he/she returned with notes about The Maestro Concept.)<p>2. Next year's training budget is spent in advance to buy The Maestro Concept video and manuals (which could have been had free).<p>3. Copy editor is told by boss to work on the project. <p>4. The planning meetings are scheduled for 10 a.m. -- nine hours after copy editor's shift ends and seven hours before the next one begins -- because "This is the only time that works for everyone." (Of course, I've been told this without The M Concept being involved, too.)<p>5. Copy editor objects, is told "the majority rules." <p>6. Copy editor speaks with boss, who says, "Well, I'll make it up to you." How? "I don't know, we'll think of something." If copy editor is lucky, that turns out to be paid overtime, because copy desk is understaffed and copy editor can't be spared from working as scheduled, too.<p>7. One meeting is held at 11:30 a.m. "to show [copy editor] that we appreciate his/her/its work." All but weary copy editor and the "Maestro" arrive 15 minutes late in unstated protest.<p>8. Copy editor finds out that "majority rules" is the way the "Maestro" decides all things. The "Maestro" accedes on all important matters to the group's most powerful bloc, to which the copy editor does not belong. <p>9. What comes out of this is identical to what would have without copy editor's "participation."<p>10. But because copy editor was dragged along, any problems raised by copy desk as publication nears are brushed aside with "Hey, if there was a problem with this, then [copy editor] should have said so. Everyone else thinks it's great."<p>11. Copy editor's boss, if brave or foolish, takes the matter to a higher editor who says, "The process was followed and must not be undermined."<p>12. So, even if the copy desk wishes to "edit for the reader," those who think they know better will work as they usually do and have "the process" on their side.<p>Worst-case scenario: The Maestro Concept is attempted with breaking news. <p>How would it work if a newspaper had taken the professor's advice to "blow up the copy desk"? Staffers branded as "former copy editors" would not be listened to, and much of what a copy desk might have done to salvage the mess goes undone.<p>"Maestroing" can be seen as a way to sneak a form of copy editing into the process earlier, but if copy editors (or their post-blowup equivalents) aren't respected in the newsroom, then nothing is gained and more can be lost.<p>[ November 27, 2003: Message edited by: Wayne Countryman ]</p>

That all sounds like a problem with your newsroom, not with the maestro concept.<p>I agree that the maestro concept is not adaptable to breaking news.
But a customized version can -- and in my shop, does -- work very well for planned-in-advance enterprise pieces, analysis, packages. It's an effective tool for time, space and resource management.<p>But it's a tool, not a miracle. It won't solve your staff shortages or lack of respect.

How well the long post described Maestro is, of course, open to debate and interpretation. One thing the post did do for me, however, is remind me of how precious my union card is. "We'll make it up to you..." I think not.<p>Oh, and the disenfranchisement through morning meetings is great, too. We are about to embark on our annual business report section, a mammoth project that involves a huge effort on the night copy desk's part.<p>The kickoff meeting is coming up soon, and a memo let us know that "in appreciation" there will be some kind of catered brunch at the meeting...at 10 a.m.<p>The night desk chief went to one of our MEs and reminded her that this ensures that everyone who will have nothing to do with the project will be well-fed. So, as a result, we get pizza that night. It's a start.

I don't want to be involved with story planning as a copy editor. I want to read the story when it's finished. If someone wants my opinion early on, I'm happy to help, but that ain't copy editing.<p>I'm so old-fashioned.

I'm 1,000 percent with Phil on this. I'm not interested in the planning aspect of stories. Been there, done that. I am a copy editor by choice. Let those other people do their jobs. I am happy to stay out of their way, and expect them to stay out of mine.

Here's a true story from a distant past.
On the insistence of a managing editor of a weekly we had news conferences each morning at 9am on a Friday.
This was cruel and unusual punishment as I would generally leave the office at a few minutes before midnight on Thursday.
One day the editor and myself (the only copy editor that week) went out for coffee and read foreign papers in blissful silence.
He asked if I had encouraged or knocked back any of the story ideas, explaining he had fallen asleep in the meeting.
I said I hadn't, because I too had been asleep.
The scary thing: no one had noticed.
The paper in question has since reformed its ways, my successors tell me.<p>[ November 24, 2003: Message edited by: Paul Wiggins ]</p>

Paul, that story is like an amalgam of Bartleby the Scrivener, Gift of the Magi and Metamorphosis.

The Maestro concept was tried out here, and died a merciful death within a year because it was stupid and didn't work as well as what we had before: Reporters, photographers and editors who thoroughly knew their jobs and resented being part of a "pod". <p>The only time, in my opinion, it was at all useful was when it replicated the old way of doing things on major features and so on -- an editor in charge, seeking ways into the stories, taking and giving advice during planning sessions. It never needed to be formalized and jargonized -- it just worked.<p>As for spot news, without spending too much time in the Wayback Machine here, prior to this alleged system, we had a huge breaking story involving a gas explosion, a devastated town 20 miles away and injured people. All at 2 a.m. Within an hour, we'd mobilized a dozen reporters and photographers, all but one or two veterans of many spot news incidents and thoroughly capable of working on such a story with minimal supervision. The paper that day was an award-winner. If we'd had to work with the Maestro concept, we'd still be trying to figure out who should be in charge. A complete waste of time for a paper with competent staff.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
Paul, that story is like an amalgam of Bartleby the Scrivener, Gift of the Magi and Metamorphosis.<hr></blockquote>
I'm in your debt. Just looked up the first two and am looking forward to having leisurely read of Melville and O Henry tonight. Me thinks i shall be dipping into more of the gentlemen's works.

My pleasure, man. I'm opting for tiresome local copy with a sprinking of overlong wire turds.<p>Let me know what you think of Bartleby. Every copy editor should be required to read it.<p>[ November 25, 2003: Message edited by: Bumfketeer ]</p>

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
[QB]
Let me know what you think of Bartleby. Every copy editor should be required to read it.<p>[QB]<hr></blockquote><p>I reread "Bartleby," and "The Dead" by Joyce , periodically for perspective.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Pam:
That all sounds like a problem with your newsroom, not with the maestro concept.<p>I agree that the maestro concept is not adaptable to breaking news.
But a customized version can -- and in my shop, does -- work very well for planned-in-advance enterprise pieces, analysis, packages. It's an effective tool for time, space and resource management.<p>But it's a tool, not a miracle. It won't solve your staff shortages or lack of respect.<hr></blockquote><p>Yes, that newsroom's problems included understaffing and a lack of respect for its copy editors. I fled it years ago. <p>But these problems have existed at all five dailies at which I've toiled; four of those papers had circulations of 100,000 or more. From what friends say, these conditions are endemic at papers of all sizes across the U.S., if not the world. <p>If the concept, in a form even scarcely recognizable to its creator, works in more than a few newsrooms I'd be as surprised.<p>Others have raised the issue of whether copy editors should ever get involved in planning. Well, I haven't always been a copy editor and don't even know if such a job will exist for the decades until I retire; under the right circumstances I wouldn't mind taking part in planning if it improved the result.
But if this meant the story didn't get the full care a copy desk should provide at the end, then I'm opposed. With the staffing, OT rules, newsroom routines and production problems most of us face, I have trouble seeing how this could work for many of us.

I think maestro was created for two reasons:
1, to give editors a chance to mold the story before a draft was written (make it shorter?, more breakout elements)
2, to give designers and layout folks time to think about how the package will work visually.
I believe maestro is still used in Tacoma WA. I attended a conference where they talked about it and mentioned how they had A1 centerpieces in the can weeks ahead. Someone from a rival paper commented how that often competes with "breaking news".

I believe it was created to<p>3. Try to save money.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:

Let me know what you think of Bartleby. Every copy editor should be required to read it.<p><hr></blockquote>
I loved it and agree with your observation. I also enjoyed rereading The Gift of the Magi but don't tell She Who Must Be Obeyed..

I would prefer not to.