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Related Post Roulette

5 Responses

  1. Krogerfoot says:

    I’m not sure how much I could contribute, if at all, but this is an awesome idea and a generous offer. Knowing What You’re Talking About is a valuable thing, like clear writing, that can be taught and learned and improved with practice. I’d definitely read it.Report

  2. Rufus F. says:

    Cool! This would be very helpful.Report

  3. Tod Kelly says:

    I think this is a cool idea, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

    One possible suggestion, born out of person bias: If people here are really going to do this, don’t limit yourselves to what you can google. Talk to the publishers and to the people who purchase and use their their product and listen to what they have to say.

    Journalism should always be about both informing and understanding, and it’s hard to do the latter when you don’t talk to the people you’re writing about.Report

  4. zic says:

    I just wanted to update folks here. I’m defining ‘Christianist publisher’ as a ministry that publishes for a group with a serious focus in closed society; making that publisher a primary source of information, education, and life-style choices.

    I’ve picked a ministry to look at, not the biggest fish in the ocean of Christianist publishers, but a colorful one. I’ve identified the business mind behind the charming personalities that the ministry is built around; and I’ll probably call and see if I can interview him (not the charmers) later this week, talking to people matters. I suspect that this may be a pattern; public face(s) and behind-the-scenes manager; we’ll see if it holds true for other publishers.

    Since my intent here is to show how I get to a final story, I’ll probably write two posts; a finished piece, akin to what I’d submit to a magazine as a first draft for their in-house editing process, and a second piece on the process I went through to get that finished piece.

    Given my pay grade here, there are some things I won’t do that I might do otherwise, including a public-records search that pulls up police and court records, etc.; you’ve got to pay for those, and I seriously doubt I’d find a whole lot anyway.

    Since this is an act of journalism, I feel obliged to treat these people fairly and to present them honestly; so it will be an honest look at how they view their businesses, both profit and non-profit; I’m not much interested in gotcha journalism, and I think their views, contrasted with the controversies around them, do enough to reveal a slice of the publishing/life-style business that’s caught my eye.

    It’s been a decade since I interviewed anybody professionally, and it’s going to take a few days of prep before I feel ready. I’ll do my best to document that process for you. Of all of this, that’s the most difficult; getting someone to open up to you and present themselves fairly while being honest with them about your intent takes some skill, and I fear I’m out of practice, so I need much mental rehearsal.

    The gardens are mostly in, we’ve a few days of rain, so I think I’ll be able to pull it off, so long as my desired source will talk to me. Normally, I’d also find other sources, but given pay grade and time, I’ll keep this one simple (unless one of you happens to know a publishing expert or expert on helping people recover from growing up in religious cults, that is).Report

  5. James K says:

    This is a great idea @zic, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.Report