Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life [Paperback]

William F. Woo (Author), Phillip Meyer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0826217559 | ISBN-13: 978-0826217554 | Edition: 1

Woo was the first person outside the Pulitzer family to edit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the first Asian American to edit a major American newspaper. After forty years in the newsroom, Woo embarked on a second career teaching journalism at Stanford. This volume collects some of the best informal weekly essays he wrote to his students on their craft s high purpose. Among the wide-ranging topics are reflections on journalism as a public trust and print journalism conducted in the face of broadcast and online competition. Also included are personal reflections on the Pulitzer family s impact on journalism, the tensions between a journalist s personal and professional life, and the conflicts posed by political advocacy vs. free speech or a reporter s expertise vs. a newspaper s credibility. Woo s essays come straight from a newsman s heart and soul to remind new students of journalism of values worth preserving.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Exceptional. . . . Woo has distilled the essence of the values that define an independent journalism of verification. He has artfully and with an economy of words embedded those values in narrative ‘teaching’—or as he calls them—‘learning’ moments. This work is a great read that will engage and enchant a new generation of aspiring journalists.”—Bill Kovach, coauthor of Elements of Journalism

About the Author

William F. Woo (1936 2006) was the Lorry I. Lokey Professor of Journalism at Stanford University. Philip Meyer is Knight Chair and Professor of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author or coeditor of a number of books, including The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age and
Assessing Public Journalism, both available from the University of Missouri Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press; 1 edition (September 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826217559
• ISBN-13: 978-0826217554
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #903,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudos for William F. Woo's book, October 13, 2007

By 

James S. Campbell (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life (Hardcover)

This book truly lives up to it's subtitle "Lessons on Journalism and Life." So you need not be directly involved in public journalism to appreciate it.

However, Bill, my close friend of over 50 years, would call me to task on that. He would claim (as a chapter in his book does claim) that any American who cherishes the first amendment to the Constitution is in fact "directly involved in public journalism," and is moreover in part responsible for its health and future.

Professor Woo's prose rolls out seemingly without effort. Large sections of the book will pass your eyes and brain at a single sitting, and you're at its end before you know it. At that point, you, as I, will no doubt be happy with the experience, sorry it's over, and furious that Bill is no longer with us to discuss parts of it with.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graceful Writing, Compelling Lessons, October 12, 2007

By 

Gene Foreman (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life (Paperback)

We journalists who knew Bill Woo are fortunate indeed to have spent time in the company of one of the craft's greatest talents. We also knew Bill as a sensitive humanitarian. Both of these qualities are conspicuous in Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life. After an illustrious career as a reporter and editor, Bill spent his remaining years teaching aspiring journalists at Stanford. The letters in this book were lovingly compiled from the weekly essays he wrote for his Stanford students, instructing them on the finer points of journalism and of life itself. This book is well worth reading by anyone, but especially by the journalists of tomorrow.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Journalism's Eternal Verities, August 3, 2008

By 

Tom Stites (Newburyport, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life (Paperback)

Isabel Allende counsels authors to "write what should not be forgotten." As newspapers crumble and new models for journalism emerge on the Web, many voices seem to be forgetting that journalism has a bedrock foundation. In this book the late Bill Woo, one of his generation's great writers, editors and teachers of journalism, writes what should not be forgotten. Journalism's eternal verities -- simple declarative sentences, careful marshaling of detail, careful verification of fact, respect for the readers, ethical clarity, and so much more come alive in Bill's elegant storytelling.

Every journalist, young and old, print and digital, should read this book -- it will provide a solid foothold in a shaky world.

But more than that, everyone who cares about the First Amendment, and thus about journalism's crucial role in democracy, should read this as well -- it will strengthen your grip on your values and illuminate them in new ways. And you will enjoy every word you read.