Editors Need to Work the Fry Station Too

Wonderful homage to editors by Greg Hadfield at TheMediaBrief.com -- with a bit of a tweak at the end. Hadfield praises the editors of past for being the "Manager of the football club," (if he were American, no doubt he would have likened them to the quarterback.) In any event -- the editors of lore inherently "got it" -- they knew the news that the audience wanted -- and getting the story and the edition right consumed them. They got it because they lived and breathed it.

But that isn't yet the editor of the digital age. Yes, they "get" the importance -- but they haven't yet gotten the medium as it relates to their audience. Hadfield chides them for not worrrying about the Home page -- as they did the Front page. And no wonder. Our top editors of today haven't yet come up through the ranks having worked the fry station.

Eighteen months ago I challenged CEOs and Publishers for exactly this same issue. Unlike editors, publishers and CEOs of past, today's top executives were well into their career when along came the Internet. They can wax poetic about waxing copy, remember their hands grimy with ink, but since they didn't spend their formative years clicking, tweeting and commenting -- they are merely fans -- and not the quarterback of today's media groups. And it shows.

It's why the bloggers are so far ahead in many ways than the traditional media. They have programmed their pages, figured out how to manipulate HTML, stay on top of new widgets and discovered how to get an audience -- and engage with that audience. They live and breath their blog -- they imbue passion.

I've said it before and I will say it again: McDonald's won't allow you to become a manager if you haven't worked the fry station. Today's editors, publishers & CEOs need to know that without these rudimentary skills -- they aren't fit for the job.