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Editors Writing Badly—the Sandy Rowe EditionThe Oregonian inspires the first in a new series.

By Jack ShaferPosted Tuesday, March 20, 2007, at 5:31 PM ET

I take as an article of faith that every workaday journalist who blossoms into the supreme editor of a publication demonstrates at some point an ability to write effectively—if not artfully. Unless they can write, how can they judge and edit their staff's copy?

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But anecdotal evidence indicates that once enthroned, editors misplace whatever writing knack they once possessed. Maybe the excessive number of meetings they attend each day causes brain atrophy, or maybe they lose their fluency because the position inhibits them from speaking their minds. Perhaps they end up spending so much time with other executives that they end up adopting the ruling class's native tongue of bullshit.

Related in Slate

Jack Shafer captured an inspiring memo back in 2004.

The editor's personal showcase for bad writing is the office memo. Until the advent of the Web, editors could hide their hackwork from the general public, but no more. Romenesko bulges with dim reports from the top, which Jim Romenesko either posts or links to on other sites.

All this additional exposure should encourage editors to take extra care in crafting staff memos: It's one thing to be the laughing stock of your own newsroom and quite another to be an industrywide joke.

Yet the specter of memo republication hasn't deterred Sandy Rowe, who runs the Oregonian. Rowe's recent communiqué to the newsroom about staff changes and the newspaper's "future" was posted to the Web yesterday by Portland's Willamette Week. Written in the saddest bureaucratese, her 760-word note stops whatever conversation it was designed to start. Swap out a few journalism-specific words for computer lingo and Rowe's memo could be addressed from a software company president to his staff as he reorganizes the place. Rowe writes in her second paragraph:

As you know, we must transform The Oregonian into a news organization characterized by a reader-first culture across platforms, by agility, and by rigorous and shared standards of success. Our leadership jobs must align with and support our mission, and provide clarity of purpose for the rest of the organization.

Buzz words dot her memo like Everglades roadkill. Transform. Culture. Standards. Platforms. Rigorous. Leadership. Align. Mission. Purpose. Clear goals embedded in our mission. Build our value. Utilize. Maximize the talent. Prioritize. Transition. Challenge. Teams. Committed. Open access issues. Goals. Utility. Impact. Advocate. Evangelist. And this doozy: implementation of the principles of the community connections pillar.

If the editor can't crack a quip in a memo, if the editor can't turn an original phrase or mint a fresh idea, she can't expect her staff to perform such miracles in their copy. Running Rowe's copy through a word-frequency program illustrates her limited palette. I've read grocery lists that were more literate. Among the most frequently used words in her memo is must, which appears 10 times. Instead of conveying a sense of Oregonian destiny, the word signals Rowe's reliance on managementspeak. Far from rallying the Oregonian staff to help the new bosses remake the paper, Rowe's memo pours a round of Kool-Aid and invites the newsroom to do a Jonestown.

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Read a really bad memo from the editor to his staff? Send it to me via e-mail, , and maybe I'll post. (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

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Jack Shafer is Slate's editor at large.

COMMENTS

Remarks from the Fray Editor:

The Fray is feeling some love for jargon. –G.A.

Remarks from the Fray:

I doubt that Mr. Shafer has had the good fortune to work for Sandy Rowe at The Virginian-Pilot or The Oregonian. If he had, he would have found her to be one of the most dedicated and courageous newsroom leaders anywhere.

Sandy has led both of these papers to Pulitzer Prizes and hundreds of other high honors. Many of us, myself included, owe our success in this business to Sandy's mentorship, kindness and her willingness to take risks – a rare combination in the newspaper world.

Mr. Shafer was quick to criticize Sandy's memo, and by extension, her stewardship of The Oregonian. But Mr. Shafer misses a much more important point – it takes more than memo-writing to lead a newsroom. Personally, I prefer to follow those who lead by example, rather than memo.

--alanjacobson

(To reply, click here.)

I've been an editor for fricken ever, and I make it a policy to avoid editing my own emails/memos, or anyone else's, unless I am receiving some form of compensation.

Rowe's memo is pure marketing speak, what's the big surprise? I've worked at places where the directors and partners wrote emails at least as tragic as Rowe's, often worse, and believe me, they're getting better pay than anyone reading this or the memo.

The real story is that this paper is floundering, and she's reorganizing the deck chairs. The person I feel sorry for is whoever is going to be stuck proofreading Rowe's memos and editing for sense now that this story has become national news.

--Isonomist

(To reply, click here.)

An editor in a Newspaper is different than an editor of a novel. The Newspaper's editor has to manage all sorts of things that deal with the heart of the Newspaper itself and keeps it alive.

They are business people. Their job is to support the paper.

Do you go around to other corporations and look at the office memos? Does it make you feel big, strong and smart to giggle at how some people express their orders and views on how to run the company?

As a corporate person, the memo is concise and amazing.

Its to the point. It doesn't waste words, and conveys a lot.

--San

(To reply, click here.)

(3/27)

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