WHAT IT IS
W.E.D. is an acronym for Writing, Editing, and Design. It is a marriage of words and visuals. It is a practice that encourages teams of writers, editors, photographers, artists, and designers to tell stories in the most effective and vivid way. Here is how it works.
HOW IT WORKS
A team discusses a story to determine how to tell and display it. For example, if photographs will enhance the story, photographers are involved before a word is written to discuss with the writer the most compelling images and the best display possibilities. If graphics are needed, a graphic artist is present at the start talking over what information is needed to strengthen understanding. If a typographic treatment alone is the best way to convey the message of the story, a designer gets involved early to talk about the content and design of the headline and all other type elements. Then an editor, copy editor, and designer join the team to discuss space and overall packaging. In the end, W.E.D. pages work together like a well-directed symphony.
W.E.D. ORIGINS
Developed by Mario Garcia and Roy Peter Clark at The Poynter Institute in the late 1980s, W.E.D. was created to promote collaboration and, as a result, journalists began talking together about things like story angle, “color” and spirit, length, photo and graphic possibilities, typographic treatment, size and placement on the page — before and during the reporting process. W.E.D. team members listened to one another and were able to decide through discussion how to best tell a story.
STUDYING THE CRAFTS
W.E.D. assumes that everyone accepts and appreciates the various crafts. In some newsrooms, writers, artists, and photographers give lectures on their particular disciplines at lunch hours or in formal sessions. Others are attending seminars on topics other than their area of expertise. Some are changing places for a day — writers sitting with graphic artists in the art department or artists going out on stories with writers and photographers — in order Ýo see what their collaborators do. At Poynter seminars, such a process has been stimulated. Writers attending the W.E.D. seminar have been invited to draw from a live model so that they experience the process of visual creation. Similarly , artists and photographers in the seminar have been invited to engage in some reporting and to writer stories. At the conclusion of such exercises, the seminarians meet together to discuss and describe their experiences. They discover that the creative process in each domain is similar. They seem to discover as a result how to work in teams.
TEAMWORK
W.E.D. needs to be coordinated. Some papers have named W.E.D. team leaders in the newsroom. Sometimes presentation editors, these leaders are point people in the newsroom who attend news meetings, read budgets, and stay abreast of the news. At some papers there is no formal structure. Instead, a player invites himself or herself into conversations about stories and initiates the W.E.D. process. In most cases, the W.E.D. meetings are not formal. Typically, they last about five minutes with everyone standing and talking or gathering around a computer to sketch an approach. Everyone leaves the conversation with a task.
THE READER
Remember that the reader is first and foremost. Start W.E.D. conversations with the question, “How will we help the reader?” The W.E.D. Process helps us consider all the ways a story can be told.
