Since we began doing the weekly Q&A years ago, we’ve often struggled with how to make what is often a long and complex discussion in person a readable one on the page.
Our Q&As were basically transcriptions of conversations between our reporters and the subjects. That, admittedly, made them hard to slog through sometimes.
So, we’re trying something new. Beginning last week, we began treating them more like we do an article than a transcription. (I wrote this last week but was in Alaska for a conference and didn’t get a chance to publish it until now.)
Just like in a news article, our reporters will select the most important and fair answers and present them in a compelling and engaging way. The format will look the same with the bolded questions and the answers following them.
However, the answers likely will be shorter. Some questions and answers might be skipped or rearranged to provide a logical flow to the conversation. This will be especially helpful in instances when our reporters have to return with follow-up questions or when conversations get off track.
We don’t take the task lightly and understand how important it will be for us to be fair, honest and complete when editing the conversations. Please contact me if you ever have any thoughts or complaints about the new format or any other aspect of our content at andrew.donohue@voiceofsandiego.org.
Also, we’re going to start soliciting questions from the readers/users of the site before we go into the Q&As, so be on the lookout each week to see who we are interviewing and if you have anything you’d like to ask them.