To the point: joy and sorrow
The profession of journalism has a lot in common with an Advent calendar. Every day, you’re curious to see what’s in store for you after opening the little door or unwrapping the small package. Every day is different—just as a real Advent calendar should be. Sometimes it’s a bigger surprise; other times, a small delight.
In contrast to an Advent calendar, however, there are also minor or major annoyances in journalism. One of the daily occurrences is the nag who inquires - of course to the editor-in-chief personally - why the press release, which is so incredibly interesting, was not printed. And then adds the immensely intelligent sentence that the competition would have published the report in the case. Good for them! Or the charming PR lady who just wants to know - directly from the editor-in-chief, of course - whether the press release was received safely. You never know. Of course, it could have disappeared into Internet nirvana. Malicious remark: Maybe it was addressed incorrectly, because they were too lazy to look up the correct e-mail address of the editorial office. And because we know that it's always best to write directly to the editor-in-chief, it doesn't matter whether this is in line with the news workflow or not.
But there are also many pleasant moments that make up for it. Interesting background conversations with intelligent people, or interviews with people who have something to say, express themselves pointedly, and stand by their word even when they see it printed in black and white. Very often, it's much easier to discuss things with professional people than to deal with amateurs or - even worse - would-be professionals.
Here are two more current examples. Our "Head of the Week" column is very much appreciated by many of our readers. One of the reasons for this is that we try to portray people in a realistic way. It is not meant to be PR babble. But time and again, unfortunately, we find that there are people who see this publication as a kind of self-promotional space, an advertisement - but free of charge, of course. We don't go along with that. That's why there is no "head of the week" this week. We tipped it early Wednesday morning.
The counterexample to this is my interview with Urs Heller, head of magazines at Ringier Switzerland. An interesting conversation, pointed statements and professional authorization. That's how it should be, my dear wannabes!
To all I wish a joyful, relaxing Advent season.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
