From idea to print

Jason Ubay, the managing editor of Hawaii Business magazine, writes about how story ideas make it into the publication.

Ubay writes, “The story idea can come from anywhere. We brainstorm at our editorial staff’s weekly meetings. Occasionally a writer gets an idea when working on another story. Sometimes it’s a big issue clearly affecting our lives and the lives of others in Hawaii. The idea might blossom out of an e-mail, or possibly when we were shopping and wondered why something costs this much or who makes it. We’re curious people and we generate story ideas all the time.

“We want most of our stories to be about the big issues that are important to Hawaii, its economy and its people, and we want to be useful to our readers. But we always have a few stories that are simply interesting or just plain fun.

“If our editor, Steve Petranik, OKs the idea, one of our writers begins to conduct interviews and collect information. We have an extremely talented group of writers — Jerry Burris, Beverly Creamer, Shara Enay and Dennis Hollier. We also have a fantastic roster of freelancers, as well as willing and able interns (our latest is Mark Brislin). As they collect quotes and facts, they are also thinking about how to present their stories most effectively for our readers. That may mean using charts and pictures in addition to words, and breaking the story into easily digested pieces without dumbing down the information.”

Read more here.