After starting my writing / journalism / communications career as a freelance writer/photographer for two major Maine newspapers (Lewiston Sun Journal and Bangor Daily News), when I was promoted to managing editor of special sections at the Sun Journal, I felt that I was in a great position to understand what freelancers needed to know regarding assignments.
For 13 years, I recruited, contracted with, budgeted, trained, managed, and edited assignments for a team of 20+ freelancers whose assignments included writing, photography, and videos. Their work was published in themed special newspaper inserts and at one time there were 92 published sections in my busiest year. (My former boss and direct supervisor are two of my references.)
FREELANCER AGREEMENT
I mentored and trained freelancers about AP Style writing and the newspaper’s in-house style guide. I also recruited and trained freelance news page designers (paginators).
ASSIGNMENT LETTER
Each freelancer had writing strengths so I selected one for a specific article and if he/she wasn’t interested or available, I checked with another freelancer. Each freelancer assignment query was accompanied by an emailed letter with basic information about the assignment. If the freelancer was interested/available, further communication provided additional information and I was always available to help with any problems that arose. At times, I could have 8 to 10 assignments in various stages of progress.
ROUTING SHEET (INTERNAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL)
A routing sheet was used to manage deadlines for each special section; at one point there were 92 sections a year. Multiple departments used this sheet for a smooth workflow, from the marketing coordinator who met with the printing department and others to sales staff who needed to sell and acquire or design the ad to me, the editor, who needed to curate the content for each section.
SPECIAL SECTIONS PLANNING CALENDAR
This calendar planning tool benefited our advertisers as well as staff. All could look ahead and be able to schedule their time and budget accordingly. As editor, I could curate content ahead of schedule for these sections as well as any unplanned sections (an advertiser who wanted to promote their business, event, new building, open house, etc.) so as to consider vacations and holidays.
EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT
At Turner Publishing, my duties included operational management and so I learned the tasks of each employee so that I could better engage with them and ensure their needs were met. Although I was not sales manager, I created, prepared, and managed onboarding packages for all employees (we had 10 employees). This included database training. The company used an old custom-built database similar to SalesForce.
I routinely emailed tidbits of information from the company policy handbook to all employees and included the CEO/owner so that everyone had the knowledge they needed as they went about representing the company. I found a time-saving feature in the database that the owner had forgotten about.
I created a style guide handbook for the production team (they created the 16 monthly community newspapers we direct mailed each month). This style guide introduced some InDesign features that staff weren’t using, but which increased their efficiency (libraries). When I see one of their newspapers today, I see that they are (mostly) using the styles discussed in 2016. It was a long process to get them to buy into the change from the way they were doing things, but occasionally I would design one of the newspapers and the efficiency of using the libraries feature and style guide became evident. The design/pagination standards took a lot of the burden of decision making off the table (headline font and size; font size in body copy; placement of photos, etc.) and left more time to be creative, which BTW, is what page designers want to do. ;-}
We had staff meetings at which we discussed issues (time crunches, the importance of deadlines). I was also available for one-on-one discussions, in addition to employee reviews (of production staff, not sales). As most good managers, I started the employee reviews by asking “What do you need me to know about your job and performance?” and ended with “What can I do to help you reach your performance goals?”
OUTSIDE VENDORS
I worked with outside vendors including an IT company, HR payroll company, and the printer of our newspapers. I worked with the IT company to install a new server and a backup system. I worked with the HR payroll company to install a new program in which production staff needed to “clock in” and “clock out” in the employee portal via a browser. The program included digital storage of employee hours, requests for time off, etc. I was able to print reports to let employees know how much remaining paid time off they had (very important to them).
I recruited, trained, and managed two remote copy editors for TPI. I created a workflow structure for them to use email in a browser and with a series of folders (Waiting for more info, Done, Sent to sales, etc.). They were able to remotely organize their work in sync with each other’s schedules.
TRAINING OTHERS
In a volunteer capacity, I created a docent training guide which was well received. Attendees thought I should write a book based on the knowledge I shared with them about the historic house and the people who had lived there.
