quote:If selected as either Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor, I will apply my 11 years of executive experience as founder and CTO at Xcalibur. This experience has prepared me well for either role: I have provided high-level editorial oversight to lengthy documents and software, managed finances, employees, and schedules on many complex development projects at once, and delegated leadership and management roles while maintaining close oversight of progress. In addition to preparing me well to carry out the day-to-day business functions of either role, this experience will assist greatly in strategic planning and positioning for the VLR. VLR faces significant challenges in the upcoming years: the continuing changes imposed by the Internet on academic publishing, the maintenance of a viable revenue stream in the face of these changes, and the preservation of VLR’s reputation as a top-tier student-edited law journal. None of these challenges can be fully met in a single year. As a member of the managing board, I would oversee the creation of a strategic five year plan with three sections: financial, editorial, and operational. One of the dangers of strategic planning is producing a document that sits in a binder on a shelf and is quickly forgotten. To avoid this, the plan must include concrete tasks which can be accomplished and evaluated within the term of the managing board. The tasks represent steps toward achieving the goals outlined in the strategic plan, providing useful results and allowing the succeeding managing board to adjust course easily. The evaluation of each task will include a brief summary of the findings and recommendations for the next board, which can be passed on during the spring break transition next year. These tasks would be assigned to members of the two boards based on interest and expertise. The inclusion of editorial board members will help ease continuity. The financial section would examine our business model. Most VLR revenues are earned through hits on Westlaw and Lexis, but our print subscriptions still produce a significant amount of income. As more and more journals place content on their own websites, VLR will feel pressure to do the same. We must provide online access to articles in a way that will either not affect our print subscriptions and online database revenue or will provide comparable replacement revenue. There are several available business models, including pay-per-article, pay-per-issue, subscription, and advertisement. Each has drawbacks and advantages; some may not be viable at all. During the planning process, we would examine the alternatives, set up steps for determining the viability of each, and make plans for implementing one or more of them. I have overseen this process for customers at Xcalibur on several occasions. The editorial section will examine the editorial policies of the VLR. Beyond the ongoing examination which already occurs in such areas as article topic selection, article length, and footnoting style, this section will examine how editorial policy affects, and is affected by, the other areas. For example, would the inclusion of more practice-oriented articles or essays increase law firm subscriptions? Could this be done without diluting the academic reputation of the VLR? While financial and operational concerns cannot be allowed to lower our editorial standards, awareness of these concerns during editorial decision-making will allow us to better fulfill our editorial mission. The operational section will build off the work done by this board in streamlining initial edits and cite checks. Source photocopying has been reduced greatly, but is still a sizeable expense. In addition, we will seek ways to maintain and expand our lead in article response time to secure the advantage this gives us in article acquisition. The strategic plan will include goals for implementing solutions overseen by the Technology Editor to further reduce required copying and streamline source gathering. At Xcalibur, I learned early that most such efforts fail because companies focus on technology to the exclusion of process. This results in technology that either does not meet the need or whose benefits are never fully realized. My experience improving both customer and internal operations will ensure that non-technology based solutions are implemented where feasible and help prevent poor results at the VLR. In conclusion, I would like to bring to bear experience that, due to the nature of the law school experience, is rare in law school students. This experience is well-suited to both carrying out the day-to-day mission of publishing 2,000 pages and to improving VLR in the long term.
posted
Hi Dag I thought it was clear and readable and for once I don't have any grammar nitpicks. One or two of the list-sentences were a bit difficult to read (would bullet points work?). Content-wise, I wonder about your target audience. For me, knowing nothing about the field, it was all good, but if you're talking to people who already know all this stuff I think you possibly need to pitch it slightly differently. The financial section and possibly the bit where you talk about the dangers of strategic planning could possibly do with slight tinkering if you are writing for people who know all about this stuff (or even think they know all about this stuff). Hope that helps.
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quote:We must provide online access to articles in a way that will either not affect our print subscriptions and online database revenue or will provide comparable replacement revenue. There are several available business models, including pay-per-article, pay-per-issue, subscription, and advertisement. Each has drawbacks and advantages; some may not be viable at all. During the planning process, we would examine the alternatives, set up steps for determining the viability of each, and make plans for implementing one or more of them. I have overseen this process for customers at Xcalibur on several occasions.
This is a problem prevalent among all the major law reviews. Great job bringing it up!
The last sentence in the paragraph could be a little clearer. What do you mean by "overseen"?
quote:In conclusion, I would like to bring to bear experience that, due to the nature of the law school experience, is rare in law school students.
Do you need "due to the nature of the law school experience"? I think that is a given.
I hope you get selected. Too often law reviews are run by people with top grades but no business/organizational experience whatsoever.
Good luck Dag!
[ February 07, 2005, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Beren One Hand ]
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
There is no other word for "experience", is there? I mean, sometimes you use it two or three times in very close proximity (7 or 8 times total in the whole essay), and I was trying to think of a substitute word that means nearly the same, but came up blank.
posted
I'd say bring out your relevant experience a bit more. Maybe devote a brief paragraph to exactly what you did at Xcalibur and how that fits in to what VLR needs. You had a fairly general statement along those lines at the end of the third paragraph. It caught my attention more than anything else did. I'd say use more of that, and be more specific.
The paragraphs are long and pretty heavy, especially the second paragraph. Breaking them up when possible will make the whole thing more readable.
quote: VLR faces significant challenges in the upcoming years: the continuing changes imposed by the Internet on academic publishing, the maintenance of a viable revenue stream in the face of these changes, and the preservation of VLR’s reputation as a top-tier student-edited law journal. None of these challenges can be fully met in a single year. As a member of the managing board, I would oversee the creation of a strategic five year plan with three sections: financial, editorial, and operational.
One of the dangers of strategic planning is producing a document that sits in a binder on a shelf and is quickly forgotten. To avoid this, the plan must include concrete tasks which can be accomplished and evaluated within the term of the managing board. The tasks represent steps toward achieving the goals outlined in the strategic plan, providing useful results and allowing the succeeding managing board to adjust course easily.
The evaluation of each task will include a brief summary of the findings and recommendations for the next board, which can be passed on during the spring break transition next year. These tasks would be assigned to members of the two boards based on interest and expertise. The inclusion of editorial board members will help ease continuity.
Here's a possible way to break up that second paragraph. You'd have to go back and tighten each paragraph, of course, but now you can control the transitions better.
[ February 07, 2005, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: advice for robots ]
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