Visual Editors

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Visual Editors is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organized for educational purposesis a U.S. public charity that promotes journalism education via online forums, peer-to-peer sharing resources and offline training events held at universities and working newsrooms. The 501(c)(3) non-profit was incorporated in 2004 by Chicago journalist Robb Montgomery and is registered in the State of Illinois.

The group operates online forums, blogs and portfolio galleries as a virtual peer to-peer classroom. The group who use the charity's resources to study the latest visual journalism, information graphics and newspaper design techniques.

The not-for-profit also offers several blogs from established visual journalists like Charles Apple (U.S.A.), Alan Formby-Jackson (U.K.), TK Sajeev (India), Alejandro Banuet (Mexico) as well as many interactive teaching tools to help high school and college students and teachers study and share state-of-the-art journalism techniques. The site recently migrated from a PHP forums style exchange to the NING platform.

Membership

The charity servers more than 1,400 registered members worldwide and these scholars and journalists World Editors Forum (Paris) frequently post and critique each other's portfolio of page design, information graphics and news illustrations. There are thousands of newspaper page designs catalogued in the portfolio section as well as a number of videos and podcast InterViews on design-related topics. All of the content is user-generated-content and the effect of this social learning network was the subject of a 50-page Master's Thesis by journalism student Amanda Miller - "Online Communities’ Impact on the Profession of Newspaper Design, Master's Thesis, West Virginia University"

Impact

The Visual Editors home page.

Members of Visual Editors have testified in forums hosted by the Poynter Institute that the networking impact and learning opportunities of the charity's Web site's have had far-reaching effects for many student and professional journalists.

Two examples cited in the Poynter article:

Inspiring
Posted by Shweta Gamble 11/5/2005 8:59:42 PM

I learned about vizeds when I started at the Orlando Sentinel last year, and I am so glad. The site has made me grow as a designer! It is the best journalism learning tool. I wish I had had something like this when I was in college!

It is a great way to keep up with design trends and to get feedback. Its also a great way to meet other visual editors and I think it has made the visual journalism community tighter and stronger.

So much is changing in newpaper design, and I think this site is having a huge impact on the design world. Its allowing designers all over to communicate! And I think its important for both professional designers and j-school students to frequent this site.

Go Robb Montgomery! Thanks so much for starting this!

I (heart) VizEds
Posted by Sara Reeves 11/5/2005 5:51:16 PM

When I graduated from Mizzou in 2003 and started my first job in the newspaper industry, I was immediately aware that I was no longer in a "learning environment." At school I had become accustomed to constant feedback on my work and constantly learning new things. At school I was in a perpetual conversation with other learning designers about the newspaper industry and design. When I left, I was acutely aware of the void.

VizEds has filled that void. In fact, I am learning more from the community at VizEds than I think I ever did in j-school. I feel like I can constantly learn and grow and keep in-step with our changing industry

Focus of scholarly research

Ms. Miller's abstract explores the role of social networks in expanding learning opportunities for visual journalism and focuses heavily on the impact that Visual Editors has made with visual journalists working in newsrooms around the world.

Abstract The importance of the Internet to visual journalists is increasing with every technological progression. Recently online communities have formed, creating a commonplace for creative professionals to meet and share visual work. This study focuses on the possible impact of these emerging online communities on the newspaper design profession. Interviews of newspaper designers who participate in online communities specifically focused on the profession unveiled current and important transformations occurring within the newspaper design profession. Additionally, this study expands on both offline and online community theory, giving qualitative insight into future studies which may focus on the Internet’s effects on various professions.

501(c)(3) Non-profit status

In 2004, Visual Editors was granted official IRS recognition of its tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The group's federal ID number is 34-2015808.

Web sites operated by Visual Editors