Co-authoring a textbook with friend and colleague
In the late 1980s, I started working on a textbook with friend and Arizona State Journalism professor Bruce Itule. Bruce and I met at the Chicago Tribune. He spent a summer at the paper working as an editor. It was Bruce’s way staying aware of the changes in the journalism profession
al. It made him a very good teacher. We stayed in touch and when I landed in Arizona in 1987, I stayed at his house while Kate and I figured out where to live.
Bruce had already published a couple of textbooks and it got me thinking about what wasn’t being taught in journalism schools — visual editing.Traditional editing textbooks focused on copy editing. However, many newspapers wanted their copy editors to work with photos and graphics. We thought that we could equip students [and professionals] with a better understanding of the non-text side of editing.
So we wrote “Visual Editing, a Graphic Guide for Journalists.” The textbook was published in 1990 by Wadsworth Publishing.
I’m sure that we both had dreams of academic glory, as the textbook was unique and, I still believe, something special. It didn’t sell. The process, however, made me a better writer and helped me think about various aspects of journalism. We liked the idea of having voices of leading journalists add weight to our instruction. Personally, I also like the historical introductions to the sections of the book, such as the “History of Informational Graphics.” I’m such a history nerd.
Looking at the textbook in 2023, it seems still relevant in some places and very out of date in others. I believe the principles of good visual journalism are still relevant and, of course, we never dreamed of AI when it came to editing photos. Or Photoshop for that matter. However, there are some interesting examples of photo manipulation.
Get the textbook
I’ve uploaded a PDF of the textbook for those who want to stroll down newspaper graphics, photo and design history.
I was very thankful to receive the support of many leading journalists. These included Tony Majeri, Chicago Tribune, John Walston, USA Today, Robert Lockwood, design consultant, George Wedding, director of photography at Sacramento Bee, Pegie Stark, graphics editor, The Detroit News, Carolyn Lee, picture editor, The New York Times, Pete Leabo, news photo editor, Associated Press, San Francisco, and Lynn Stanley, editorial design director, The Boston Globe.
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Amazon has used copies of the book as does eBay.