.KEYWORD ceeditorial0200
.FLYINGHEAD FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
.TITLE Ode to our Senior Technical Editors
.DEPT
.SUMMARY Here at ZATZ, we’ve been fortunate enough to attract four wonderful Senior Technical Editors, Richard Echeandia, Claire Pieterek, Jason Perlow, and Dan Velasco. In this month’s editorial, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz explains the role of Senior Technical Editor and just how these four key people help to make the journal a success. Whether you’ve ever wondered what Senior Technical Editors do, or you’ve just been concerned with growing your own career, you owe it to yourself to read this article.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
With all the hoopla about Y2K and the millennium last month, I forgot to tell you something really important. Amazing, actually.
As of the December issue, we completed two full years of PalmPower Magazine. That’s two years of a profitable, viable, successful, fun magazine that lives entirely on the Internet. When we started it, back in January of 1998, not one person we talked to believed it would be possible to make a magazine work solely online.
But we did.
As we’ve been seeing (and AOL gobbling up Time-Warner is the best example), the Internet-based new media world is winning over old media. And publications like PalmPower, DominoPower, and Windows CE Power are proving it.
As of February 2000, we’ll have published 26 issues of PalmPower, 19 issues of DominoPower, and nearly a year of Windows CE Power.
When it comes to what’s actually in the magazine, there are a lot of people who help make us look good. We have a relatively small in-house editorial staff. My job as Editor-in-Chief is to keep the journal on vision, to grow the business, and to coach our writers and editors. Then there’s my co-founder, Managing Editor Denise Amrich. She’s responsible for managing the operation of our publications and has started taking on much of the Editor-in-Chief tasks (in particular, our edits) for the magazines. Next, there’s Heather McDaniel, our News Editor and Editorial Coordinator. She does our daily news, manages our weekly tips, and wrangles all our authors, getting articles in on time, edited, and ready for you to read.
But there’s another important group as well. We haven’t mentioned these people as much as I’d like and so I’m going to do so now. These are our Senior Technical Editors and they’re very special people.
For PalmPower, Claire Pieterek is our Senior Technical Editor and she’s amazing. If you’ve ever been on our PowerBoards, you’ll notice that she’s always there, always helping.
We’ve also been incredibly fortunate in DominoPower. Here we’ve got two Senior Technical Editors, Richard Echeandia and Dan Velasco. Dan’s our newest Senior Technical Editor and writes what are probably the most entertaining and easy to read articles for Notes and Domino anywhere. He really manages to make everything understandable and fun at the same time. Richard is our connection with the industry. He helps us understand what’s going on at Lotus and throughout the Notes and Domino world. He’s also incredibly technically astute. So, when he writes an article, there’s going to be some serious meat.
Finally, in Windows CE Power, we’ve got fellow DVD-fanatic Jason Perlow as our Senior Technical Editor. Jason somehow seems connected with virtually every manufacturer on the face of the planet and he also has managed to provide very impartial, objective, and professional coverage of both Palm devices and Windows CE-related happenings. We’re also working on a new publication that we hope to launch this spring, and Jason’s been very closely involved in that effort.
None of these Senior Technical Editors are ZATZ employees. They’re independent writers, thinkers, and professionals who love what they work with. They have a deep technical understanding of their subject matter, and the talent and ability to write about it with depth and clarity.
They’re the people we turn to when our readers ask questions we don’t have the answers for. They’re the people we turn to when we want to understand the industry at a deeper level. And they’re the people who are a big part of what makes our publications so special.
It’s interesting. We tried to identify what made someone suitable for the title Senior Technical Editor. Clearly, there’s the technical background. But that’s not enough. These are people who often represent ZATZ magazines at tradeshows and at industry events. Because they’re affiliated with the publications, they often get access to industry executives and information not otherwise available. For some, that helps them in their day jobs.
We found ourselves, one day, asking two key questions: Is this someone we’d feel comfortable bringing along to talk to the CEO at Lotus, a Palm founder, or a Microsoft executive as a representative of our magazine? Would we feel equally comfortable with this idea if we weren’t there to provide spin control?
What makes them suitable to be Senior Technical Editors, in addition to their knowledge, is their professionalism. There are a lot of knowledgeable people out there. But there are far less who are always professional, always trustworthy, always people you can count on. Fortunately, Claire, Dan, Richard, and Jason are those people.
A third criteria, frankly, is how helpful, fair, and fun they are to interact with. Are they helpful to us? Are they fun to call? Are they people we look forward to hanging with? This is important because we need to work with them each month. Also, we regularly turn to them for advice. We’ll ask whether we’re taking the right approach on an article, whether we’re meeting our mission for our readers, whether we’re pushing our luck on controversial topics just enough, or too far.
And not only that, they can write. That’s the fourth criteria for an incredible Senior Technical Editor: writing skill. Can they communicate their knowledge and do so in a fair, impartial, and understandable way? When you read one of Dan’s articles, odds are, you’re going to learn while you chuckle. When you read one of Richard’s articles, you’re going to know something in more depth and with deeper understanding – and, often, you’ll learn something that’ll go straight to the bottom line. When you read one of Claire’s articles, you’re going to learn how to get the most out of your Palm device. And when you read one of Jason’s articles, you’ll often be reading about something no one else has access to, and with insider information you won’t find anywhere else.
As of this month, we’ve published a total of 57 online issues across all three magazines. Most, if not all, have been enhanced greatly by the support of these four great people.
Of course, not everyone can be a Senior Technical Editor for a ZATZ publication. But if you work hard to hone your professional and technical skills; always act with dignity and professionalism; are helpful, fair, and fun to work with; and develop good writing skills; you’ll go far and earn the respect of those you work with, no matter what career you choose.
Let me close by asking Claire Pieterek, Richard Echeandia, Jason Perlow, and Dan Velasco to stand up and take a bow. You’ve done a great job!
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
If you’d like to read more PalmPower articles by Claire Pieterek, visit her ZATZ author page at http://www.zatz.com/authors/authorpages/clairepieterek.html.
If you’d like to read some great Lotus Notes and Domino stuff by Richard Echeandia, visit his ZATZ author page at http://www.zatz.com/authors/authorpages/richardecheandia.html.
To learn even more about Lotus Notes and Domino, read Dan Velasco’s articles by visiting his ZATZ author page at http://www.zatz.com/authors/authorpages/danvelasco.html.
And to read about both Windows CE and Palm devices, check out Jason Perlow’s ZATZ author page at http://www.zatz.com/authors/authorpages/jasonperlow.html.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
