CAFME Recap for Jan. 18: Jennifer Abella of Washington Post Magazine

Welcome back, Cafme members! We hope you were able to make it out to the first meeting of the semester. We had a great Skype session with UNC alumna Jennifer Abella, who is a copy editor at Washington Post Magazine.

Miss the meeting? Need a refresher? Keep reading to see what she had to tell us!

Meet Jennifer

• Jennifer graduated from UNC in 2000 as a political science and journalism major.
• She knew that she wanted to be involved in copy editing after she started working at The Daily Tar Heel during her first year of college.
• Before landing her first job at The Washington Post, she interned at the Salisbury Post,The News & Observer, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post.
• Jennifer worked at The Washington Post from 2000 to 2010, when she began working at Washington Post Magazine. She's worked at Washington Post Magazine for a little over a year.
• At Washington Post Magazine, Jennifer is a copy editor, but she does much more than copy editing. She also helps with web production, is an assignment editor for front-of-book stories (articles that appear at the beginning of the magazine) and works with other assignment editors and writers to fact-check, perfect and assign pieces.

About Washington Post Magazine

• The magazine has a staff of nine, which includes designers, production chiefs, copy editors, assignment editors and the main editor.
• There are no staff writers on the magazine, but sometimes staff writers from The Washington Post will write stories for the magazine. Jennifer estimates that 80 percent of the staff is freelance.
  
• The magazine works really far in advance. For example, someone who is writing an article now may not see it published until December.

Q&A

Q: What is a copy editing test like?
A: A copy editing test largely tests grammar. The AP Stylebook is also good to know. The test will include common sense questions: identification and correction of small mistakes in stories, such as mislabeled maps or misspelled or inconsistently spelled names. It will also test on your ability to see the bigger picture: to be able to find holes in stories where the writer will need to better explain or answer a question.

Q: What is the difference between working at a newspaper and working at a magazine?
A: At a newspaper, you have an instant deadline, which makes the pace much faster. You only have time to quickly edit an article before you post it online, but you're able to go back over and change it in case you missed an error.

In contrast, at a magazine, you have much more time to work on an article. However, at the same time, you are balancing many tasks at once: assigning a story, editing a story, awaiting another story, approving another story for print. Magazine stories are also longer and more permanent than newspaper articles. Because you have more time to work on an article, and because it's harder to correct an error once it's out there, you have to focus on the smaller, finer details. It's fun working at a magazine, though, because you're able to go deeper when copy editing by focusing on these smaller details.

Q: What advice do you have in regard to the job and internship search?
A: Jennifer says you need to find a way to make yourself stand out. The best way to do this is to be innovative in your thinking and writing. She emphasizes the importance of trying nontraditional story forms and getting those out there. She also says that versatility is a strong selling point when looking for a job or internship. However, the basics (such as knowing how to report on and write a story), are still important. Overall, Jennifer says that you can do whatever you want to make yourself stand out — a publication will eventually take notice of you because it wants to stand out, too.

Thanks to all of you who came out and to Jennifer for speaking with us!