A peek inside OGJ news

Jan. 26, 2009
Oil & Gas Journal editors supply the latest industry news, statistical studies, special reports, and technical information to the oil and gas industry through its weekly print and online magazines, daily electronic newsletter and web site formats, webcasts, conferences, and other information outlets.

Oil & Gas Journal editors supply the latest industry news, statistical studies, special reports, and technical information to the oil and gas industry through its weekly print and online magazines, daily electronic newsletter and web site formats, webcasts, conferences, and other information outlets.

Conducting OGJ’s intensive subscriber surveys is a procedure that requires months of data-gathering, consistent communication with industry contacts, and meeting several deadlines for each project. The compiling of such information has taught this editor OGJ style, accuracy, consistency—and patience. It also has enhanced this editor’s knowledge of the industry by focusing on projects such as oil and gas facilities construction, gas processing, refining, ethylene, enhanced oil recovery, financial aspects, and other areas.

These varying survey assignments have provided a foundation for becoming a new member of OGJ’s news team. In addition to presenting information from surveys, this editor now composes OGJ news stories as well, enabling the dissemination of information in an entirely different way.

Writing news stories differs greatly from conducting reader surveys. It is faster paced— almost a completely different world.

Story steps

OGJ’s multiskilled, international news team and correspondents gather information from many sources, directly covering news events, conferences, speeches, and interviews. News also comes from various newswires and other OGJ staff members, among other sources. Many stories start with news releases, often requiring follow-up to fill in missing information readers will need or want.

The transition from original press release to finished OGJ product is smooth. The assignment desk identifies the industry category for each item, slugging it as general interest, drilling-production, exploration, transportation, or company-personnel news and assigns the stories to various team members for write-up.

After all information is gathered and the item written to OGJ style, it is posted to the daily web site, prepared for the print magazine, and filed. Ten items are selected for the free daily electronic newsletter.

In a team effort somewhat resembling an assembly line, this flow of work makes the life of an editor easier, gets the news to the reader quickly, and allows a newbie to the team to learn the ropes efficiently.

A structured system determines the future location of the final, edited article. Stories are filed into specific folders, enabling any news editor to effortlessly refer back to the article if necessary.

OGJ’s unique style

A news team member completes a story by strictly following OGJ’s style rules as presented in full detail in the OGJ style manual. There are few exceptions to the style rules. Editors organize stories in a clear and concise format and use the manual as a guide to making them consistent.

Many style rules are consistent with those most journalists use, but others are unique to OGJ. Some that readers may have noticed include:

  • OGJ style calls for the use of an ampersand (&) to represent “and” in a company’s name. It also calls for the omission of commas in company names, as when used before “Inc.” And Company and Corporation in company names are always abbreviated as Co. and Corp.
  • If a date line occurs in the current year, the year itself is dropped. For example, Jan. 26, 2009, would be written as simply Jan. 26.
  • Measurement words used frequently, such as barrels per day, are abbreviated (b/d) consistently.

There are many others. This editor uses the stylebook as a reference when compiling the surveys but has become more acquainted with it as a member of the news team.

Articles then move to the next stage where they are edited. In preparing stories for posting to ogjonline.com, editors also must be familiar with and use required coding. For example, — represents an “em dash” and is used before subscript numbers.

The end results are concise and informative articles for OGJ readers.

The news staff adheres to daily deadlines for each phase such as submitting the electronic newsletter. Every week, they also proofread the general interest section after layout, ensuring that the copy contains no errors and remains clear to readers. In addition, the news staff puts together the magazine’s OGJ Newsletter-Quick Takes section, which is about 3,500 words combining stories in all the categories.

OGJ’s efficient daily and weekly cycles have provided a smooth learning venue for making this editor’s transition from survey editor to also news writer easier and enabled a new OGJ editor to perfect her news techniques.