Magazine tense use and the literary present

[cara1098]

I am the first in-house copy editor in several years at a magazine whose style guide has not always been helpful. I have a newspaper background and am trying to set a general rule about tense use in the magazine. It seems there must be an actual rule at most other magazines that use the present tense when referring to interviews done by the writer. Past tense gets used when the writer wasn't present but is quoting someone from a press conference the writer didn't attend, for instance. While this has been pretty consistent in the magazine since I've been there, a formal rule has never been set out, and I've been searching for the language of one in another guide/style book that would specify this practice. I'm worried I'm not considering all the necessary details. Can anyone explain the usage of the present tense in this way?

My other question concerning tense has to do with the literary present. Does this rule also apply to newspaper articles, columns, and speeches? For instance: Mr. Smith's latest book details his trip to Washington.
But: In his column for The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Smith writes of the corruption he saw.
This rule also seems to give way when a time element or past history is emphasized. For instance: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 1998, Smith protested the sale of cigarettes.
Or is that present?

Thank you for any help.

[kstieffel]

We're a weekly paper, and we stopped using present tense. Anything that's described using ink on paper is not happening *right now.* Even if the writer did the interview personally, he did it a day or two before we went to press and several days before the paper got to the reader.

On the literary use, though, I'm not certain. Certainly an author "says" something to us anew each time we read the work. But if you cite a date in the past, it seems odd to then use "says." I would leave your 1998 example as you have it.

[dfisher]

I think that ban is a little severe.

A report, for instance, "says" something - and for a reasonable amount of time it remains current and still "says" it. (At some point, of course, it becomes old enough that it passes to the "said" stage, but that's a judgment call.)

Similarly, in an undated lede -- Mayor Joe Smith says he'll seek a fifth term -- it has a perfectly fine use. And while we might argue that most ledes like that would have a day of the week in them, I'd argue that it's unnecessary and sometimes gunks things up. I think the simple declaratory present-tense lede like that is much more effective, with the time element dropped to the second or third graf. Papers should be doing more of it, especially on exclusives.

Finally, present tense makes sense in the case of continuing action or a continuing position that we know hasn't changed. If the mayor says a program will have xxx benefits on a blighted neighborhood, for instance, and he said it a week ago and we checked with him or his spokesman or woman for this takeout we are doing (as a follow-up to the spot story) and that person says it's still the mayor's stance, then we can and probably should use "says."

For direct quotes, it's a matter of what kind of orientation we are trying to set for the reader. If we're doing a "take you there" piece, we tend to write those in the present tense and should not shift from that for the quotes, at least not until we reorient the reader in time.

[marryanne]

While this has been pretty consistent in the magazine since I've been there, a formal rule has never been set out, and I've been searching for the language of one in another guide/style book that would specify this practice.
But: In his column for The Wall Street Journal, mr. rimmer writes of the corruption he saw.Past tense gets used when the writer wasn't present but is quoting someone from a press conference the writer didn't attend, for instance!!!!!
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[cara1098]

Yes, that is the style we've set out. If the reporter interviewed someone, present tense is used (there are always exceptions of course), but if the reporter is quoting something a candidate, for instance, said at a press conference, the past tense is used.