Writing and Editing Jobs — 11/15/2009

Editor — Dimensional Fund Advisors – Austin, TX
Editor – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Evanston, IL
Editor – Prentis Cancer Research Ctr – Detroit, MI
Editor – Hoffman Media – Birmingham, AL
Editor – Nevada Public Radio – Las Vegas, NV
Proofreader – RR Donnelley – Elgin, IL
Proofreader – Reznick Group – Bethesda, MD
Proofreader – GA Communications – Minnetonka, MN
Proofreader – OfficeMax – Naperville, IL
Proofreader – Winter, Wyman & Co – Waltham, MA
Proofreader – Manpower – Norcross, GA
Copywriter – Digitas – New York, NY
Copywriter – Bond Group – Chicago, IL
Copywriter – Miami, FL
Copywriter – Peter Mayer Advertising – Lafayette Square, LA
Copywriter – Gaylord Hotels – Nashville, TN
Business/Finance Writer – National Association of Credit Management – Columbia, MD
Proposal Writer – PRA International – Charlottesville, VA
Proposal Writer – CSC – USA
Proposal Writer – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Rolling Meadows, IL
Specification Writer – Echota Technologies Corporation – North Las Vegas, NV
Medical Writer – Talon – Princeton, NJ
Marketing Coordinator / Proposal Writer – AECOM – New York, NY
Content Writer – CCCi – Atlanta, GA
Instructional Designer – Vulcan Materials Company – Birmingham, AL
Instructional Designer – Emmanuel College – Boston, MA
Instructional Designer – VistaPrint – Lexington, MA
Technical Writer – General Dynamics – IT – Panama City, FL
Technical Writer – PDSI Technical Services, Inc. – Cincinnati, OH
Technical Writer – STG, Inc. – Washington, DC
Technical Writer – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. – Los Angeles, CA
Technical Writer – Time Inc. – New York, NY
Technical Writer – McKesson – Cranberry Township, PA
Technical Writer – North Wind, Inc. – Los Alamos, NM
Technical Writer – Circle Technologies, Inc. – Atlanta, GA
Technical Writer – Fast Switch – Columbus, OH
Technical Writer – ATSC – Washington, DC
Technical Writer – V.L.S Systems Inc – Jacksonville, FL
Writer – SBR Global – Toronto, ON
Technical Writer / Data Editor – MSR/eCustoms – Toronto, ON
Technical Writer – Blue Coat – Waterloo, ON
Technical Writer – CareerWise Recruitment – County Limerick – Ireland
Senior Technical Writers – Stelfox – Galway, Ireland
Copy Editor – Automotive Exchange Pvt. Ltd. – Mumbai, MH, India
Content Writer – Piwania Technologies Pvt. Ltd. – Delhi, DL, India
Documentation Editor – Informatica – Bangalore, KA, India
Technology Writer / Reviewer – IOMX – Mumbai, MH, India

Is Demand Studios the new Associated Press?

I recently wrote an opinion piece defending Demand Studios after another blogger chose to label them as a scam based on the fact that their pay is somewhat low and they make frequent requests for rewrites of articles. I still side with Demand Studios on that issue, but I do want to point out a better (though not perfect) article about Demand Studios at ReadWriteWeb. This article doesn’t try to portray the writers as victims but rather tries to analyze the effect of such a large content mill on the Internet as a whole. The basic premise is that Demand Studios has a content creation system in place (using both automation and live reviewers) that results in an assembly-line style article that RWW compares to Henry Ford’s original automobile production line. The article takes issue with the quality of the content being produced, and that is a more legitimate criticism than the exploitation of writers.

4000 Articles a Day

According to the RWW piece, Demand Studios produces approximately 4000 articles a day through its combination of freelancers and editors. The one issue that I have with the article is that they use this as an indictment of the quality. They ask:

The bigger question is: there are surely many examples of good Demand Media content on the Web, but how many of the 4,000 articles it produces every day aren’t?

To me this is a poor argument. Yes, I’m sure that some of the 4000 articles aren’t great, but no one can judge what the percentage of this is so it is a specious question. I mainly read blogs by single authors. Mass produced blogs leave me a little cold. As a follower of individuals I can tell you that even the best bloggers put out lousy articles on occasion. Lord knows I do. No one is brilliant every day.

The better point the article makes is that the Demand Studios assembly line style and fast turnaround time creates a certain sameness to the articles being written, that there is a Demand Studios style, and it isn’t very interesting or incisive. I don’t read enough of their types of articles (like I said, I follow individual bloggers) to know if this is true, but it seems like a legitimate possibility.

In the Eighties the Definition of a Content Mill was “Associated Press”

Way back in the eighties, I served as the Associated Press Wire Editor for my college newspaper. Having an AP feed back then was as close as you could get to having Google News now. Article after article printed out on the dot matrix printer they provided, and I looked at them all (while dressed in my linen Miami Vice jacket) to see if they were relevant. I can tell you that AP’s style (they do have their own stylebook after all) was pretty bland even then. For most articles, you got the facts, and nothing but the facts. There was little room for color or individuality. A single article might get published in 500 different newspapers all over the world. Any sort of colorful writing had to be killed in case someone out there didn’t get it, or worse, was offended by it. Another interesting similarity between the Associated Press and Demand Studios is that AP has always used a number of low-paid writers (they call them stringers) to freelance for them. In the eighties, the saying was, “You can’t spell stupid without UPI and you can’t spell cheap without AP.”

Obviously Demand Studios is not identical to AP. The journalistic standards and the general level of talent at AP are considerably higher than at Demand Studios. AP is more selective about who they hire and more stringent about the sources for their articles. It is the similarities though, not the differences, that catch my eye. Both organizations tap a worldwide pool of writers. Both organizations exist to provide content to other organizations. Both organizations rely heavily on freelance work. Most importantly, both organizations have writing philosophies based on a universal cookie-cutter style.

I believe that sort of generic writing was the beginning of the end for newspapers, and I think that it can only have limited success on the Internet. A certain number of people will be satisfied with these articles, and search engines may never be able to tell good articles from bad articles, but there will always be plenty of room for individuals with distinctive voices to keep writing. A loyal audience that comes back again and again is in most cases preferable to a large number of casual readers who never return.

Demand Studios is a company that is filling a content niche quite successfully. The fact that they have enough writers and customers to be publishing 4000 articles a day shows that they are filling a need that exists on both sides. That said, if someone else comes up with a better way to do it, then the market will change again. I think Demand Studios does a lot of things well, but I also think there is plenty of room for improvement. If they can make a profit doing things their way, then surely someone who improves on the concept can do even better.

For Further Information:

• Is Demand Studios Worth Your Time?
• The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model
• About Hub Pages: An Interview with Ryan “Hup” Hupfer
• FakeAPStylebook on Twitter

How to Successfully Interview People

Interviewing people for an article can be a daunting task. Some people love to give interviews and get to have their say, but others can be more reticent for a number of reasons such as fear of being misrepresented or misquoted. They might also just be shy. Even someone who is happy to be interviewed isn’t necessarily easy to interview. Part of your job is to keep them on track without making them feel manipulated or ignored. You must work with your subject to put them at ease and get the interview rolling. When your finished and go to write your story, you must also be respectful of that person; whether you like what they said or not, you should always strive to portray them accurately. Here are ten things to know in order to make your interviews more successful.

Know Your Facts

If you research the subject of your interview properly, it will go a long way toward making your interview successful. Most subjects, especially those who are interviewed often, hate having to repeat the same information over and over again. Don’t ask your subject questions you can easily find the answer to elsewhere. Ask them questions that only they can answer.

Know Your Audience, Know Your Topic

Be sure you are getting the information your audience will want. An interview with a politician for an issues-oriented magazine will differ from interviewing the same person for a pop-culture oriented magazine or for a daily paper. In the same way, a profile piece will be far different than a day in the life piece or an article focused on a single issue.

Write Your Questions Down

If you are the type who can memorize all of your interview questions beforehand, feel free to do so, but for most people it is better to keep a list of questions you want to ask. You may not need to stick strictly to them, but it is better to have a question you don’t need to use than to forget a question you wanted to ask.

Be Interested, Listen

A good interviewer doesn’t just ask questions, they listen to the answers. If a person agrees to an interview with you, show them the respect of listening to their answers. Nothing can turn a good interview into a bad one more than asking a person a question they have already answered. While you might wish to do that for clarification, don’t do it out of inattention. Beyond that, it is the details of their answers that should guide your next question. If they seem to have completed that line of thought, then move on, otherwise press them for more information. Good follow up questions lead to good interviews. You can only think of those questions by paying close attention to what your subject is saying.

Clarify

Don’t be afraid to say that you don’t understand something. Don’t pretend to know more than you do. If your subject’s answer seems unclear or above your head, politely ask them to explain. It is better to ask up front than to look foolish later if they figure out that you have been faking it. Plus, if you don’t understand, then there is a good chance your audience won’t either.

Ask Precise Questions

Your questions should show your knowledge of the subject and should help you reach the goals you have set for your interview. Don’t ask vague, open-ended questions or standard questions that your subject has answered many times before. Stay away from questions that can simply be answered yes or no; look for questions that will challenge the subject in a good way. Make them think and let them talk.

Get Their Stories

At some point in an interview you want to get your subject to give you an anecdote or two. Let them talk a little bit, even if this particular article isn’t the place to tell the story. You may find information for another story, and you may get more than you’d hoped (or bargained) for.

Beware Unnecessary Confrontations

There are times when you will interview people who are evasive, untruthful, angry, distasteful or who simply have a reason to be cautious about your interview. Many interviewers move directly into a confrontational mode in these situations. They ask questions designed to antagonize or challenge the subject. Sometimes this works and they get an outburst or get the subject to become emotional. Another approach, however, is to work with the subject. Give them some questions that they can answer or feel more comfortable answering, and you may find that they will naturally drift toward what they don’t want to talk about. Whatever they want to avoid will continue to be on their mind, so it naturally comes up. If not, you can then ask more and more probing questions until you wither get what you want, get an outburst or the subject simply will not answer. Even if this happens, you will still have more to work with than if you confronted them at the beginning and they refused to talk.

Get the Name Right

Always get them to spell their name for you. Getting a name wrong is the most embarrassing thing a writer can do.

Interviewing people is often a difficult task, but it is an essential one in many different fields of writing. If you make the effort to do the job properly, it will pay dividends later. Pay attention to these suggestions. You may also want to practice with friends and family until you become comfortable with the interviewing process.

For further information:

• Ten Killer Interviewing Tips at Freelance Folder
• Uncooperative Subjects: A Comparison of Two Failed Interviews and How to Turn Them Around at I’d Rather be Writing
• The Art of the Interview, ESPN-Style at NPR

Writing and Editing Jobs 10/31/2009

• Freelance Writer – Washington, DC
• Freelance Financial Presentation Writer — HNW, Inc. — New York
• Freelance Writer – Tech Website – BrightHub.com
• Freelance Music Writers – Music Jobs USA – Miami, FL
• Freelance Writer Fashion and Travel – L-atitude
• Freelance Writers – The Daily Caller – Washington, DC
• Freelance Writers Wanted – Suite101.com
• Proofreader – Cabela’s Inc. – Sidney, NE
• Proofreader – Cadient – Conshohocken, PA
• Proofreader – Adlife Marketing – Norwood, MA
• Proofreader — Lakeshore Learning Materials – Carson, CA
• Proofreader – Detroit, MI
• Composition Specialist – Proofreader – RR Donnelley – New York, NY
• Copy Editor/Proofreader – New York State Bar Association – Albany, NY
• Legal Proofreader – Matura Farrington Staffing Services – Los Angeles, CA
• Public Affairs – Writer/Editor – SUNY Oswego – Oswego, NY
• Senior Editor/Writer – Colonial Williamsburg Foundation – Williamsburg, VA
• Sports Writer – Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun Newspaper – Mount Vernon, IA
• Editor, Yahoo! Sports – Yahoo! Inc. – Brentwood, NY
• Assistant Professor, British Romantic Poetry – Miami University – Oxford, OH
• Literature Adjunct Faculty Pool – Howard Community College – Columbia, MD
• Assistant Professor – Creative Writing – Nonfiction – The University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa, AL
• Reporter – Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. – Columbus, OH
• Reporter – The Hollister Free Lance – Hollister, CA
• Technical Writer – Intertek – Middleton, WI
• Technical Writer – General Dynamics – IT – Panama City, FL
• Technical Writer – Salesforce.com – San Francisco, CA
• Technical Writer – Applebee’s Services, Inc. – Overland Park, KS
• Technical Writer – Red Hat – Brisbane QLD
• Project Editor – Cumberland Newspapers – Sydney NSW
• Editor – SPE Canada Calgary
• Technical Writer/Editor – CGI Group – Ottawa, ON
• Writer – Toronto, ON
• Technical Writer – Stelfox – Ireland
• Senior Technical Writer – Computer People – Cork – Ireland
• English Content Writer /Editor – OPVM – Chennai, TN, India
• Content writer / Good English Editor – D R Intellects – Secunderabad, AP, India

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