10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Thursday

Working Together: Alternative Story Forms, Designers and the Desk

Andy Bechtel, University of North Carolina
Josh Crutchmer, Omaha World-Herald
Sara Quinn, Poynter Institue
Katie Schwing, (Colorado Springs) Gazette

Part of the conference's Design Series

How is the rise of timelines, Q&A material and other nontraditional storytelling affecting the copy and design desks? This panel discussion will examine what ASFs mean for collaboration and work flow, and how readers notice and learn from these forms. Come ready to talk about what works at your publication and what needs help.

Andy Bechtel teaches editing and writing at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has nearly 12 years of experience in newspapers, most recently at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., where he was nation and world editor. Bechtel has written articles and reviews for publications such as Quill, SND Update and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. He is the instructor for a course on alternative story forms for NewsU, the e-learning site of The Poynter Institute. He blogs at editdesk.blogspot.com.

Josh Crutchmer has been deputy presentation editor at the World-Herald since January 2007. He is also one of two contributors to the industry blog sportsdesigner.com. Since joining the paper in 2006 as sports design director, he has received four awards of excellence from the Society for News Design and was part of a sports section that received top 10 honors for special sections and Sunday sections from the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2007. Before joining the World-Herald, he was a projects designer at the Arizona Republic and assistant sports editor at The Oklahoman. In 2007, he spoke about alternative story forms to copy editors and designers at the Mid-America Press Institute’s fall workshop and to sports editors at the Associated Press Sports Editors Great Plains workshop.

Sara Quinn teaches design, illustration, photojournalism and leadership at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. She directed Poynter’s EyeTrack07 study for print and online and speaks in newsrooms and workshops around the country. A longtime visual editor and consultant in newsrooms, Quinn has also worked as magazine editor, illustrator and book designer, winning numerous awards for her work. Vice President of American Institute of Graphic Arts Tampa Bay chapter and former SND board member, Quinn has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and graphic design from Wichita State University and a master’s in illustration from Syracuse University.

Katie Schwing graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Along the way, she picked up internships at the New York Times News Service (via the inimitable Dow Jones Newspaper Fund) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel before landing in Colorado Springs, where she has been tied to the nightside news desk for the past year and a half or so.

Comments will be allowed after the conference is completed. If you have a response to this post, e-mail the ACES Web desk.

QUICK LINKS

ALSO DURING
THIS TIME

GATHERINGS

8 a.m. Thursday
 | Registration
9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Thursday
 | Opening general session: Welcome, headline contest winners and scholarship awards
6:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday
 | Opening reception
6:30-7:30 p.m. Friday
 | Reception and silent auction
7:30-9 p.m. Friday
 | Banquet and Robinson Prize presentation
4-5 p.m. Saturday
 | Closing general session
6-9 p.m. Saturday
 | Conference wrap party, Falling Rock Tap House ($25)

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Overheard

6:05 PM 4/13
 | Dan has started a memory thread over at the discussion board. Share your thoughts on this year's conference.
4:27 PM 4/13
 | Although many will be taking a day or two to recover from the conference, Deirdre Edgar has sent out conference surveys to every attendee to fill out this week. If you didn't get the e-mail, send a message to .
3:20 PM 4/13
 | Feel free to share your photos and videos with the group. Add them to the Flickr group above or send them to .
11:12 PM 4/12
 | Three words — ACES karaoke rocks!
6:45 AM 4/12
 | Sources say Dan Hunt has been flitting around the hotel so much, he lost his name badge.
6:25 AM 4/12
 | From Jim Thomsen: Overheard more than once was the desire to see Bill Walsh and Merrill Perlman do an ACES session together next year — and amicably slug it out over their occasional points of style, usage and grammar disagreement for the amusement and edification of the masses. What say you?
11:36 PM 4/11
 | I now realize that this Web site has not yet acknowledged Aubespin Scholarship winner Shanxi Upsdell's speech at the Friday night banquet. Well, the impact, the weight, the emotion can't be conveyed in a blurb, but let's just say this young woman representing our best and brightest of future copy editors was genuine, humble and still already influential. Listen to our recording of her once we get it posted. -- NH
6:47 PM 4/11
 | Update: The autographed Chris Wienandt Leather Pants edition of the ACES newsletter drew $50 at Friday night's auction. And the winner (whose name might rhyme with "Merry") wants to regift it! She plans to hang on to the newsletter for one year, then donate it back to the 2009 silent auction. Next year, it could be yours! (This winner whose name might rhyme with "Merri" says, however, she's keeping the whip she won.)
6:17 PM 4/11
 | From Jim Thomsen: My banquet table, Table 23, had the highest pledged amount for the ACES education funds among all tables Friday night. Most of the $1,650 raised came from Orange County Register copy editor Jill Reed. Her explanation? "My alimony check just came in."
4:34 PM 4/11
 | From Jim Thomsen: Best quote from an ACES session so far: "I have a degree in journalism but never used it until I got to the zoo and got a job as a bus driver." That was spoken by Debbie Andreen, who now heads up communications for the San Diego Zoo, at the "What Else Can I Do With These Skills?" seminar Friday afternoon.

Did you hear something interesting? Send it to the Web desk.