A book review column from Editor & Publisher for August 11, 1990, written by Hiley Ward. The column paired a review of the revised and abridged Autobiography of William Allen White with a shorter notice of Visual Editing: A Graphic Guide for Journalists, by Howard I. Finberg and Bruce D. Itule (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 270 pages, paper, $32.50).
Ward’s review credited the book for leading with technology, then acknowledged the practical limits facing editing classes of the day.
This modern editing textbook has its foot in the right place as it early on deals with the new technology — the electronic story, electronic copy editing, electronic photography, electronic everything. Interactive and passive pagination are discussed.
Even then it is still hard to shape up a textbook for the modern editing class. For one thing, a lot of classes are not going to have the capability to do what is discussed. Secondly, a lot of the basics still have to be covered, elements of good design, picture editing, typefaces.
The review noted the chapter sidebar interviews with working professionals — citing Lynn Stanley, editorial design director for the Boston Globe, interviewed in the chapter on “How Art Directors Work” — along with the book’s history of newspaper illustration and its emphasis on information graphics and picture editing.
As it compares front pages, many in color, the book is as appealing for the practitioner as for the novice.
The review closed with the authors’ affiliations at the time:
Finberg is assistant managing editor at the Arizona Republic and Itule teaches at Arizona State University.
