Greetings from the island of Zamalek on the Nile River.
I am exhausted - but am also thrilled to share a little of the Visual Editing exchanges that have happened in Cairo this week. (I would love to give you the Charles Apple like details - I just have to admit that I am just not as good as a reporter as he is - who is?)
Alas, I do have a few photos and words to share that may encourage all of us who seek to become better visual editors.
Editors from the regional press practice an exercise in visual editing hosted by the Egypt Media Development Training Centre in Cairo
THURSDAY - 19 April, 2007
The training week here has ended and I have survived after delivering five long, non-stop days of training in editing, design and multimedia for working journalists in Cairo. On Monday, I gave three lectures at Cairo University at the school of Mass Comm in Giza.
The concept of applying Visual Editing meetings at the beginning of the story process was so revolutionary that, by the fourth day, we found our workshop had been crashed by a TV unit from Egypt’s Channel 2. They spent most of the day filming yesterday and the story will air tomorrow at 1 p.m.
It feels as though I found a time tunnel to the era 22 years ago - when design was only done in the composing room.
A Maestro worksheet translated into Arabic language for the visual editing workshops in Cairo.

The workshop sessions were exceptionally well received.
Just have to say to Buck Ryan . . . Sir, you are a genius! The obstacles all week were many - I don’t speak Arabic, so all of my English was translated in one of four ways (Written, Simultaneous, Consecutive or Silently Spoken into my ear by the translator)
Of course, pages read right to left, so, their was a lot of interpretattions happening!
Couldn’t find an Eye Tracking study for Arabic language readers - does anyone know of one?
An editor explains the thinking for his page at an exercise in visual editing at the Supreme Press Council in Cairo.
Tim Harrower - THANK YOU for allowing MDP to translate and reproduce the excellent worksheet from your book. The knowledge of Buck Ryan’s planning tool and your textbook exercise has now touched someone working in almost every newsroom in Egypt.
Central Cairo view from the Supreme Press Council offices next to the famous red Egyptian museum.
If you are a journalist reading this blog, I think you would have been proud to see the reporter/designer teams my organizers assembled respond to the visual storytelling challenges with such enthusiasm.
The Egyptian Media Development program really assembled a brilliant mix of journalists from big and small papers in the region. That is true reward of road trips like this, that no matter if I am in a newsroom in Riga, a training hall in Warsaw, or a taxi cab careening through the streets of Cairo with a reporter from the L.A. Times, I have never failed to find myself traveling in the company of journalists who are hungry to learn more and have a passion to make their newspapers better.
The views here are beyond words
OK - I’ll try and give you one Charles Apple moment before I head off to work in Dubai for a week.
(Click thumbnail to enlarge photo.)
Enough talk. I want to take you to Egypt now. To join me for dinner, all you have to do is click on the thumbnail to fill your screen instantly with the view a photo of my hotel terrace taken at dinner this evening.
This is a 13-second exposure using an improvised ‘tripod’ of ashtray, bread basket and lens cap. This hotel is mere steps from the banks of the Nile.
I’m thrilled to know about such training sessions. I am an Egyptian living in Egypt and I believe we are so much lacking in Egypt in visual design skills. I hope there be more of this.