Consumer Reports staff to get training

Glenn Derene, director of content development at Consumer Reports, sent the following email to the staff:

To all Consumer Reports Editorial Staff,

As we evolve Consumer Reports, one of our key priorities has been to make sure every piece of writing is executed with both ambition and technical excellence, as befits a brand with CR’s reputation. Yet the Content Development teams have not yet had a chance to come together as a group and discuss what we should all be striving for in terms of editorial standards of quality for our print and digital products.

To that end, we are rolling out a two-part training for all editorial staff to communicate quality standards and best practices for writing and reporting. Assisting with this training will be Ben Feller, a managing director at Mercury consulting, and an award-winning reporter and writer who formerly served as the chief White House correspondent for the Associated Press.

Part one will be a two-hour session from Ben, our special projects editor Sandy Keenan, and myself to communicate the standards of editorial quality for CR, followed by plenty of time for discussion of those standards. That will occur on the 22nd of January.

Part two will a two-hour workshop to take place on February 9th. Both parts of the training will be mandatory.

After that, there will be an opportunity to schedule 1:1 sessions with Ben Feller, Sandy, or myself to get direct feedback and direction on pieces you may be working on. These sessions will be open to everyone.

We hope you’ll find the training informative, helpful, and fun. I look forward to working with all of you and hearing your thoughts on CR’s quality standards. Meeting invites will follow shortly from HR.