Martha's comments (member since Jun 15, 2008)

Martha's comments from the American Society of Business Publication Editors group.

I've never read one of her books, but a few years ago read a short story of hers, "Secret Observations on the Goat Girl," and thought it was great. Can anyone suggest a book of hers that would be good to read as a first JCO book? (The story was in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes that kind of thing. It spans 1773-1991 and a few different continents, though most of the stories were originally written in English.)

Reading Pulitzer's Gold, a history of some of the winners of the Pulitzer gold medal for public service journalism, a few things struck me as particularly relevant to B2B journalism. One was in the story of two reporters from different papers (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Chicago Daily News) teaming up to cover an important story -- the presence of newspaper personnel on the Illinois State payroll -- that neither paper would likely have had the resources to do alone. Given that B2B publications often operate on tight budgets, maybe this is an approach B2Bs could use more often. Has anyone teamed up with reporters at a related publication, perhaps at the same company, to cover an issue that was too big for one publication to tackle?

For the same reason (tight budgets), I also found the chapter "Davids and Goliaths" interesting. It tells the stories of two very small papers that won the public service prize for journalism -- the Anchorage Daily News and the Lufkin (Texas) News, with an editorial staff of two. (Coincidentally, yesterday's ASBPE blog post also talks about how small publications can do good work and win awards.)

Another thing that struck me was how The New York Times won the award in 1918 specifically for the public service it rendered by publishing the full text of reports, speeches, and other documents relating to World War I. It reminded me of how people talked in the mid-1990s about the Internet would allow media to provide such a great public service to readers by publishing the full text of documents that there wouldn't be room for in print. Turns out it wasn't a new idea.

Becky,

How did you like "The Well-Fed Writer?" It sounds pretty interesting. I couldn't easily find your rating or review for it, though.

Martha

I've heard her on the radio, but never picked up her book.

Do you have any other favorites? I'm especially interested in books about journalism and books that help those of us with liberal arts degrees understand better how to cover business.

What are your favorite books on writing and why? I'll be unoriginal and say that mine is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, although the book I refer to most often is The Associated Press Stylebook. I'm looking forward to reading John Brady's newest book on interviewing, The Interviewer's Handbook, though. He's always got good advice on conducting interviews.

Thanks for joining the ASBPE GoodReads group. I hope you'll find this to be a good place to get recommendations on books about journalism, technology, and media.

To get started:

1. Click the "bookshelf" link on the group's home page.

2. Search for your favorite books on journalism, business, design, the web, or anything else you think will be of interest to members of the B2B media.

3. Click the green text in the book listing that says "add to group: American Society of Business Publication Editors" or "edit shelves: American Society of Business Publication Editors."

4. Rate the book and/or review it.

You can click links to see books members have added by category. The default is books they've already read, but you can also see what group members are currently reading, what they plan to read, or see books listed by topic. Just click the appropriate text link to the left of the bookshelf.

Happy reading.

Martha Spizziri
ASBPE web editor and Boston/New England chapter VP