Tag Archives: Editorial

How to Pitch Lifestyle Editors

Posted on August 31, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Publicity Club of New York (PCNY) hosted a luncheon earlier this month, featuring a panel of five lifestyle editors who discussed how they like to be pitched. Check out comments about it on Twitter via #PCNY.

Peter Himler (@PeterHimler61), president of PCNY, kicked off the dialogue by telling the crowd that these days, “publicists outnumber journalists 3 to 1.” Sharpening your pitching technique is more important than ever if you’re looking to land press coverage.

Each panelist spoke for about 10 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of general Q&A, moderated by Edelman Worldwide’s Lisa Kovitz (@lisakovitz50):

New York Daily News: Life & Style Editor/Producer Lindsay Goldwert

  • Goldwert looks for stories with a “women’s magazine-type feel,” including topics like body positivity and food, as well as “feel good” themes.
  • She notes that article pitches must be as current as possible and relevant to “right now.” She needs subject-matter experts who can talk right away.
  • Stories on celebrities with health problems (and relevant experts) are especially pitch-worthy, e.g., when Paula Deen announced she had diabetes.
  • Pictures are great and the most important part of a pitch!
  • No time for desksides.
  • Contact: @lindsaygoldwert11or lgoldberg@nydailynews.com

WNYW-TV “Good Day New York”: Executive Producer Jason Hartelius

  • Hartelius receives hundreds of emails daily — sometimes even a thousand or more. Be concise, don’t overpitch (i.e., don’t send the same email every day) and don’t use bait-and-switch tactics.
  • Pitches can be as simple as: “Hey, I got this idea — what do you think?” Put relevant information at the top; don’t be longwinded.
  • Subject lines should be catchy. If you write “Attention Jason Hartelius: [Topic]” he will very likely read it.
  • Stories must be local. And no promotional material — the segment should be about the story, not selling. “Know the show!”
  • There is one slot per day for a fun or remote piece. Recent examples include local firemen washing circus elephants and an anchor taking a ride in a monster truck.
  • The show generally has no interest in featuring a guest who has recently appeared or will soon appear on a competitor’s show (no “same day” bookings). The only exception might be if it’s an extremely famous celebrity.
  • Contact: @jasonhartelius12 or desk@foxfiveny.com or GDNYpitches@gmail.com

The Huffington Post: Women’s Editor Margaret Wheeler Johnson

  • HuffPost Women typically features news items and original reporting, essays from “ordinary” women, body image, women’s health and compelling stories.
  • Do not pitch off-topic ideas about dieting and nutrition, parenting and fashion and style. Wheeler Johnson is not interested in any stories that include the words “your man.”
  • If you’re a woman, ask yourself: “Would you want to read this story?”
  • No product pitches.
  • Images are great! Nice images can be turned into a slideshow. This is a great option for book publicists in particular.
  • To know what types of topics to pitch, read the front page! And watch out for cross-posting (e.g., sometimes fashion stories are reposted from HuffPost Style).
  • She looks for fresh perspectives from subject-matter experts.
  • Experts must have links to back up their statements. Quotes from health experts in particular will be checked.
  • Wheeler Johnson doesn’t usually leave the office to cover events, since Huffington Post has a national audience.
  • She doesn’t understand the concept of a deskside; the pitch should be engaging and well-crafted enough that a deskside isn’t necessary. If she’s looking for a fresh quote, she’ll call you on the phone.
  • Typos in article submissions are a big no-no; the editorial department is busy enough already.
  • Contact: @mwjohnso14 or scoop@huffingtonpost.com

WPLJ-FM “The Big Show With Scott & Todd”: Producer Joe Pardavila

  • Radio in general has a large reach for suburbanites, particularly in the New York area, which has lots of commuters (i.e., “bridge and tunnel”).
  • This morning radio show targets women ages 25-54 in the New York area in particular. The crowd includes college-educated women, soccer-mom types and even teeny boppers (since they’re in the car with Mom). This audience might not want to listen to Justin Bieber, but they certainly know who he is.
  • Press releases and pitches don’t need to be longer than one paragraph. If Padavila isn’t interested in the idea, extra paragraphs won’t help.
  • Have fun with a pitch. Pardavila is not interested in anything morose, depressing, technical or “high brow.” Simple stories are best!
  • People say: “I want to wake up and laugh.” Keep that in mind.
  • Contact: @joepardavila or bigshow@plj.com

BuzzFeed Shift: Editor Amy Odell

  • BuzzFeed wants every single article they post to go viral. Most traffic on the site comes from Facebook. Think about what people want to click on.
  • Common topics cover style, beauty, health, fitness, food, grooming, powerful women, career, celebrities, relationships, hipsters. Anything funny!
  • Fashion pitches in particular must be funny or relatable; high-fashion pieces are not appropriate.
  • Odell says press releases are basically never funny, and she hardly ever finds story ideas from them. She might open a press release if the idea sounds really bizarre.
  • What does Odell want from PR pros? Exclusive access to experts or celebrities.
  • She can’t use content if it’s posted on other sites — original material is a must.
  • She prefers to use stories immediately; there’s not much lead time, unless it’s an interview a celebrity that has to be planned in advance, for example.
  • Odell typically doesn’t cover events, but she might send reporters to an interesting event so they can live tweet from it (to draw in new followers). But it most likely will never become an article.
  • No desksides.
  • Contact: @amyodell56 or amy.odell@buzzfeed.com

Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet, a service that helps journalists connect with expert sources. To read more from Grace, check out her blog on the free social networking site ProfNet Connect.

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Dear Gracie: How to Tactfully Edit Someone’s Writing

Posted on June 8, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Each week, Dear Gracie answers questions from ProfNet Connect readers with advice from our network of nearly 50,000 ProfNet experts. Has there been a question burning in your mind lately, something you’ve been wondering that none of your colleagues can answer? Please send it to grace.lavigne@prnewswire.com

Dear Gracie,

I’m an editor of a publication that accepts submissions from freelancers. It’s my job to approve or critique the freelancers’ work. Sometimes the submissions are bad (really bad). How do I let them know that without being unnecessarily cruel, while still getting my point across?

Etiquette Editor

**********

Dear Etiquette Editor,

Four ProfNet experts with editing experience provide some advice:

Editing Expectations

Writers always want to know if their writing is “good,” says Sandra Wendel, owner of Write On, Inc., and instructor of the “How to Write Your Book and Get It Published” course at Metropolitan Community College in Nebraska. “That’s not a fair question because everyone’s writing is good depending on who is judging. My 9-year-old’s book report is good to me and the teacher.”

If someone asks you to edit their work, the first thing you need to do is find out if this is a professional job or not, says Tina Tessina, psychotherapist and author of 13 books, including “Money, Sex and Kids: Stop Fighting About the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage.”

If the person is paying you, then he or she should be able to handle your critical opinion of their work, she says.

But if the person is a friend or family member and is not hiring you in a professional capacity, then tread lightly with your criticism, Tessina continues. Pick out some aspects of the work you can praise, and then recommend someone more objective for them to consult about the quality of their writing. It’s just not worth it to hurt your friend or family member’s feelings and jeopardize your relationship.

That’s also why you, as a writer, shouldn’t rely on friends or anyone related to you by marriage or DNA to edit your work, says Wendel. They are just not able to be brutally honest.

But if you’re still not sure if a writer wants honest editing or is just fishing for flattery, then it’s best to be upfront, says Joy Huber, Stage 4 cancer survivor, professional speaker and author of “Cancer With Joy.” Say something like: “Usually I don’t sugarcoat, and am rather blunt telling it like it is. I find writers appreciate that very honest assessment. Is that OK with you, or should I soften that a bit?”

Working With Professional Writers

“An editor is like a diamond cutter,” says Carol Meerschaert, director of marketing and communications at Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Editors take a diamond in the rough and polish it for maximum brilliance.

Writers need to understand that editors have the best interests of their publications at heart, continues Meerschaert. Articles on a website have a different tone than those in a magazine, which are in turn not the same as a business report or an article journal.

Editors know their readers, and can apply lessons learned to the articles they edit, explains Meerschaert. It’s their job to create and apply a consistent style for their medium. They must enforce editorial and style rules. For example, length guidelines are not random, but were developed by industry best practices and analytics.

Therefore, writers shouldn’t be offended or driven insane by any changes that editors make; they shouldn’t be married to each word they wrote, stresses Meerschaert.

Editors are allowed to say they’d prefer this style or that style, or that they’d like more of this or less of that, agrees Tessina. “If you are the editor, and the writer is working for you, there is a contractual understanding that you can edit their writing.”

Hopefully, if an editor has hired a professional and has seen samples of their work, then they know they are capable writers, says Tessina. That being the case, there’s no need for an editor to criticize a writer’s style — they should just have a businesslike discussion of how the writing does or does not meet the publication’s needs.

“Being mean would be to say negative things about the writer’s ability to write,” Tessina explains.

Warm Delivery: Criticize and Praise

If you want to motivate a writer, be sure to give praise and acknowledgement along with criticism, advises Tessina.

Before you edit someone’s writing, figure out what results you want, she says. Determine what the writer has done right and what they’ve done wrong. Then when you communicate with them, point out the good along with the bad.

Providing praise is important because you need to reinforce what you did like about their writing style in order to preserve it, adds Huber.

Try making suggestions instead of prescribing rules, says Wendel. If an author describes a character’s grandfather inadequately, try saying: “How tall was he? Did he smell like cigar smoke?” Don’t dictate.

Also, provide writers with examples to carefully guide them in restructuring, continues Wendel. For instance, you could say: “You might want to consider moving the material in Chapter 3 to become the opening chapter because this is where the fire occurred. Then take the readers back to life before the fire destroyed the farm house.”

“I always find it helpful when people give specifics,” agrees Huber. “Give a specific example of what you didn’t like, and maybe even model the behavior you’d like.” For instance: “I was hoping you’d go HERE next in your organization of the piece vs. going HERE.”

Warm Delivery: Word Choice, Tone and Body Language

Try using the “improve and praise” model vs. the “good BUT bad” model, so that the feedback ends on a good note, says Huber. If you note what’s good about the writing first, and then provide criticism, you’ll end on sour note.

And remember that words like “but” negate whatever you said before, so try to bridge thoughts by using words like “and” instead, Huber continues. For example: “I really like this part BUT you can strengthen this part by doing this instead.” vs. “I really like this part AND you can strength this part by doing this instead.”

But don’t agonize over your word choices when giving feedback as much as HOW you’re conveying that feedback, says Huber.

When communicating face-to-face, only 7 percent of the message is in our word choices, she explains. Voice tone is 38 percent of the message, and body language is over half of the message.

So when you provide a writer with constructive criticism, try to sound genuine, warm and friendly, she suggests. No one likes cold and monotonous!

With some gentle redirection and carefully considered editorial suggestions, most writers will graciously accept your advice, revise their work and thank you profusely afterwards, concludes Wendel.

Technical Note

Wendel also mentions that she places comments in book manuscripts using the “Track Changes” feature in Microsoft Word. This helps begin a dialogue between author and editor, with the end result being a finely tuned manuscript with minimal errors, she says.

Track Changes is the modern equivalent of the red pen, agrees Meerschaert.

Editors: What advice can you add?

Gracie

Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet, a service that helps journalists connect with expert sources. Dear Gracie is published weekly on ProfNet Connect, a free social networking site for communicators. To read more from Grace, check out her blog on ProfNet Connect.

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Capitol vs. Capital and Other Common Typos in Public Interest News

Posted on June 30, 2011 by | 1 Comment

 

Capital or capitol? (And do you capitalize it?)

This is the latest in Beyond PR’s monthly series Catching up with Editorial, where a member of PR Newswire’s Editorial department shares tips and tools you can use to catch typos in your own content.

In last month’s post (Mind Your S and Ds), we highlighted a catch made by Senior Editor Diana Dravis in our Washington D.C. bureau.   Although that particular catch (Eastern Standard Time should be Eastern Daylight Time) is a mistake that can occur in a variety of news releases, Diana and our other editors in Washington, D.C. have to keep their eyes open for some unique client error catches that don’t typically occur in other copy.

Across the world, PR Newswire’s editors work on all sorts of news – financial, fun, international, lifestyle – even in different languages as our Latin America and International departments can attest!

However, our Editorial bureau in Washington, D.C. is where the majority of PR Newswire’s government and public interest press releases are processed.  Because of this, they have to watch for typos that are more common to these topics.

If you find that you write content about nonprofit, government, advocacy or other public interest issues, read on for a few tips from our D.C. Editors on what to look out for.

One of the most common misspellings in the English language is capitol vs. capital.  You may remember being warned against this misspelling in grade school, and for our public interest editors, they watch for it every day!

When referring to the building in Washington, D.C. used by the United States Congress, it should be spelled “Capitol” (with an “o” and a capitalized “C”).  When referring to a building occupied by a state legislature, lowercased “capitol” (still with an “o”) is by definition the correct use (though some style guidelines may make an exception to the lowercase rule).

On the other hand, “Capital” with an “a” has many different meanings. For public interest news, the most common usage is when referring to the city or town that is the official seat of government in a country or state.  For instance, Washington, D.C. is the nation’s capital.

Other mistakes commonly caught by our Washington, D.C. editors in public interest news:

  • insure versus ensure
  • incorrect names of legislation (e.g., American Disabilities Act should be Americans with Disabilities Act)
  • Wallstreet and Mainstreet should be Wall Street and Main Street
  • misspelled acronyms for major organization names, legislation, and policy initiatives
  • misspellings in names of high profile political figures
  • incorrect positions or titles (e.g., Secretary of Education should be Secretary of Health and Human Services)

Diana shared that editors spend a lot of time reading and discussing politically-oriented news and if necessary turn to news outlets to check on legislation and titles.  Another reason for their familiarity is that if they are seeing one release on a particular piece of legislation, they’re usually seeing four or five more.

An advantage of having public interest releases handled by editors who live and work in D.C. is that they are surrounded by the news and legislation that your release might address!

That is exactly what happened when senior editor Wendy Minter was reviewing a recent news release and noticed that “Constituents” had been incorrectly spelled.

Last month, our editors found a total of 10,681 errors; year-to-date (as of June 1st), they have found 55,407.  In our Washington, D.C. bureau alone, editors caught 2,296 errors and mistakes last month.  Our catch rate (an internal metric that tracks the ratio of mistakes caught in press releases) is 661 catches per 1,000 releases.

Image courtesy of Flickr user keithreifsnyder.

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Mind Your S and Ds: Answering the EDT vs. EST Question

Posted on May 20, 2011 by | 5 Comments

This is the latest in Beyond PR’s monthly series Catching up with Editorial, where a member of PR Newswire’s Editorial department shares tips and tools you can use to catch typos in your own content.

When announcing an event, it helps to identify the time zone for any times you have listed. This is especially true if you want to reach a broad audience.

For instance, if your event is taking place in Chicago, but you are hosting a webcast of the event that will be readily available online, you may want to specify the event starts at 2pm Central Time. This way, potential audience members in New York know to tune in at 3pm Eastern Time.

If you do decide to include the time zone, be careful. There are a couple mistakes waiting to happen that you can easily prevent:

Convert between time zones correctly

On occasion you may need to include the time of an event in multiple time zones. For instance, your sentence could read: “Our chairman and chief executive officer will be presenting at the conference on May 17, 2011 at 12:45 p.m. ET / 2:45 p.m. PT.”

Did your eagle eyes notice the mistake in this sentence?  There were two.  First, there is a 3 – not 2 – hour difference between Pacific Time and Eastern Time.  Additionally, when converting Eastern to Pacific Time, the hours count backward not forward.

With these catches, the sentence should have read: “Our chairman and chief executive officer will be presenting at the conference on May 17, 2011 at 12:45 p.m. ET / 9:45 a.m. PT.”

Although these are both easy mistakes to make, they are also easy to prevent.  I always recommend using an online Time Zone Converter or World Clock, especially if you need to verify time zones in different countries.

Daylight Saving vs. Standard Time

When including time zones, many writers in theUnited Statesprefer to specify whether it is Daylight Saving or Standard Time (abbreviated EDT and EST, respectively, for the Eastern time zone).

Daylight Saving Time, which refers to when we “spring ahead” by one hour, begins in the U.S. in late Winter.  In 2011, for instance, we changed to Daylight Saving Time on March 13.

On November 6, 2011, we will switch to Standard Time when we “fall back” one hour.

When we spring ahead and fall back, it’s important to not just remember to change your clocks, but also keep an eye out for the correct usage of EDT and EST in your news releases.

A month after we changed over to Daylight Saving Time, Diana Dravis, an eagle-eyed editor in our Washington,D.C. bureau, was reading through a press release and noticed the client had used the EST abbreviation instead of EDT. After confirming the change with the client, Diana corrected the timing throughout the news release.

Although this mistake most commonly occurs around the months we make the switch, the rare EST vs. EDT typo does crop up on occasion throughout the year.

One way that this can happen is when someone copies the template of a press release they used earlier in the year.  If you do this, always doublecheck that you’ve updated any timing references — as well as years, months, dates and days of week – with the correct information.  Some individuals also shorten the abbreviation to ET to avoid any confusion.

Although Daylight Saving and Standard Time are common references in the United States, not all countries use it or they recognize it at different times of the year.  If you plan on targeting your announcement to a specific international audience, World Clocks can provide you with the correct local times if you want to include them in your announcement.

When promoting an event, it’s essential to provide accurate timing information to your potential attendees.  And by keeping global considerations in mind, your guests will know when to arrive on time – no matter where they’re coming from.

***

In April 2011, PR Newswire Editors like Diana caught 10,895 errors; year-to-date, our bureaus in DC, Cleveland and Albuquerque have made 44,726 “catches.”  Our April “catch rate” (an internal metric we track which measures the ratio of mistakes caught in press releases) was 667 catches per 1000 releases.

Author Amanda Hicken is a senior editor in PR Newswire’s Cleveland bureau.  In her free time, she pens the Clue Into Cleveland blog.

Image courtesy of Flickr user futureatlas.com

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Reading for Detail: Proofing Tips from our Editors

Posted on April 18, 2011 by | 9 Comments

PR Newswire senior editor Matt McCoy

The PR Newswire Editorial team frequently catches obvious mistakes in press releases submitted for distribution over the wire  – the missing quotation marks, the website that doesn’t end in .com (or .org, etc.).   But did you know we also read every release carefully, double checking minute details?    We find and correct a vast array of mistakes (more than 12,000 in March 2011 alone!).  Here are some examples of mistakes that can reflect poorly on an organization – and some tips for fixing them before you hit “send.”

Proper nouns:

A recent release highlighted a company’s efforts to begin a search for a new director.  One of the proposed directors?  Governor Charles “Christ.”  A fun spellcheck fact: if a word is incorrect but is also a commonly spelled word, spellcheck is not going to find it!  In this case, our editor Matt saw the incorrect word, confirmed that the governor’s name is Charles Crist and fixed it.

Addresses – email, and physical locations

Addresses are frequent pitfalls, virtual and otherwise. Matt noticed the media contact’s last name was spelled differently than his last name in his email address – an important detail, because if the email address is wrong, responses from media will be missed.  There were errors in the mailing address, too, with references to the written as “9 Floor,” as opposed to “9th Floor,” and “87 Avenue” instead of “87th Avenue.”

When Matt called the client to review these catches (our standard procedure), the client said, “That’s phenomenal – that’s why we use you guys.”

Tips to prevent proofreading lapses:

Matt is one of our senior editors, and has been with PR Newswire for seven years.  When I asked him for suggestions on how to find these kinds of mistakes, he told me:

  • Pay attention to proper nouns while using spell check. It’s easy to get lulled into mindlessly clicking “ignore all” while spell checking copy that contains multiple mentions of the names of people, companies, places or products. If you do this, you pass up a great opportunity to make catches in clients’ copy.  After clicking “ignore all” for a term, if something similar is flagged by spell check, you should investigate.
  • If the spelling of a person’s name looks “off” to you, Google it, but be sure to check it against a reliable information source such as a company website or a recognized news service. The names of celebrities, business leaders and political figures are often crucial to our clients’ press releases and we can save them undue embarrassment by catching these mistakes with a little extra effort.
  • Scan the news media regularly to stay current on the latest tricky words, terms and names related to current events. This way you can be sure to spot misspellings of “tsunami” or know most of the acceptable variants of “Moammar Gadhafi.”
  • Really read the release, don’t just scan for spelling and punctuation.  This can help the editor go beyond spotting simple typos and uncover grammatical and factual errors.

More than 12,000 mistakes caught in March

In March 2011, the Editorial teams in our Washington, DC, Cleveland and Albuquerque bureaus caught 12,215  errors; year-to-date, Editorial has 33,831 “catches.”  Our March “catch rate” (an internal metric we track which measures the ratio of mistakes caught in press releases) is 691 catches per 1000 releases.

Many thanks to the eagle-eyed grammar wizards that comprise our Editorial teams!  It goes to show that we are really reading your releases for everything.  Really, everything!

Author Kate Galo  is a senior member of PR Newswire’s editorial team.

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Press Release Pitfalls: Prevent Math Mix-Ups

Posted on March 3, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Last month, senior editor Amanda Hicken wrote “Avoid Common Press Release Pitfalls: Advice from our Eagle-Eyed Editors,” highlighting four of the most common types of mistakes PR Newswire editors have caught, and how to avoid them in your press release.

That blog post was the first in what is going to be a new series on Beyond PR, Catching Up with Editorial, where some of our editors will be highlighting a great catch that was made for a client during the course of that month, related mistakes or inconsistencies Editorial looks for in releases, and how you can make similar catches before the release is even submitted to PR Newswire’s Editorial department.

We will also be letting you know how many catches we make on your releases every month.  In January and February, the Editorial department made a total of 22,038 catches in approximately 25,108 releases.  This works out to be a catch on nearly every release!

This month we’re going to focus on the math that shows up in your release. You probably wouldn’t think that a group of editors would be the most math-savvy bunch since Editorial is mostly made up of journalism, public relations and English majors. However, there are many instances of math in a press release, and your editors are working hard to make sure we are adding, subtracting and multiplying for the right answers.

Below are some examples of possible math mix-ups that can occur in your release.

Inconsistencies in lists – exactly how many people won that award?

A lot of press releases talk about employees being honored, contracts being won, foundation efforts to local charities.  But you could trip up your best efforts by not listing the numbers you state.  If your headline states that the company has won four contracts for the coming year, you would be advised to make sure that you mention all four.  An easy way to check your own numbers is to use a bulleted list, and then all you would have to do is count your bullets!  Four contracts are claimed in the headline – four bullets, one describing each contract.

A recent release showcased this method, using the bulk of the release to talk about a recent event it had sponsored and mentioning that it had sponsored two more.  At the end of the release was a short bulleted list, describing the two other events.  Three events were named – three events were mentioned.

Those numbers don’t add up!

Another inconsistency that is a little easier for us to catch is when dollar amounts don’t match.  One of our editors, Heather Howard, made a great catch recently for a foundation when she noticed a difference in the amounts that were given.  The headline and first paragraph of the release gave the amount as “$88,700.”  Later in the release, the amount was broken into two separate amounts, one of $70,000 and one of $17,000.  That showed a $1,000 discrepancy in the total.  Heather reached out to the client, and they asked us to change the headline and first paragraph to reflect the correct amount, $87,700.

Not all of the numbers will be that easy for us to catch – in a lot of our clients’ earnings statements, Editorial may not know which column should add up exactly.  But, any time that an editor has a question or a situation arises that we don’t know which number amount is correct, we will always reach out to you for confirmation.

Finances, finances

With the first quarter earnings period just about over, Editorial is seeing fewer releases about the year’s progress and the long columns of numbers that go with them.  Every quarterly earnings period is a time of heightened concentration, with editors preparing themselves to look for some of the following mix-ups:

  • Day and date slips: Sometimes, templates are used in writing conference call or year end results releases.  Unfortunately, that also means that sometimes an outdated date is left in the release!  Our editors will try to check every date listed in a release – is the 6th really a Monday? – and many times will use the “Find” function in Microsoft Word to check if the year is listed correctly throughout the release.
  • Comparing text and tables: In the earlier example, when editor Heather Howard noticed a discrepancy between the amount in the headline and the amount later in the text, she did the math and called the client.  When our editors process financial tables, they will compare what is stated earlier in the release to what shows up in the financial tables.  When the release gives the amount of net income in the final quarter of 2010, the editor will compare it against the financial tables and check the heading of the table as well, to make sure that it is for the correct span of dates.
  • Footnotes: A lot of financial tables will need footnotes or references.  Editors will take a look at the release itself – taking into consideration how many there are and whether they’re listed as numbers or letters. Editorial will then compare this information with the end of the table and make sure that if the financial table lists four footnotes, that footnotes 1, 2, 3 and 4 appear.  And if the end of the financial table reference says “Please see Schedule X for the notes,” then Schedule X will get checked for the correct number of notes.

As Amanda wrote in the first Catching Up with Editorial post, every release really needs the second set of eyes that Editorial will give it, but we hope that these tips will help you catch these issues before the release leaves your desktop and comes to us.

Authored by PR Newswire Senior Editor Kate Galo.

Image courtesy of Flickr user re_birf

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