As UCG's editorial director, Lisa Getter oversees top-notch stable.

UCG, formerly United Communications Group, has grown from a single newsletter startup 30 years ago to one of the very largest independent newsletter publishers in the business today, including a myriad of subsidiary companies and divisions. (The website currently lists eight UCG companies, and just over 1,000 employees went on their 30th-anniversary trip to San Francisco.)

Since the three company founders were all editors, editorial quality has always been a top line consideration at UCG. Its newsletters have won more awards in the newsletter association's annual editorial excellence competition than any other publisher, and, in fact, have been recognized every single year since the program was launched in 1980.

New position

When Lisa Getter joined the company in 2003, she represented something new at UCG, an "Editorial Director."

Getter came to UCG after 23 years in newspaper journalism, as an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald, where she won many prizes, and, finally at the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Los Angeles Times.

"By that time I was married and had a child and was seeking a more 'normal' job," Lisa says. "I was furious that the Times wouldn't consider a four-day week, so I Googled 'investigative reporting, Rockville' and UCG's site came up. I had never heard of them but it sounded intriguing so I sent an e-mail and my resume, asking if it sounded as if we might be a fit. Dan Brown (a partner) asked me in for an interview and here I am."

Getter works hard at recruiting new reporters for UCG. She's open to both J-school graduates and liberal arts.

"We think of them now not strictly as 'reporter-editors' but as 'content developers.' I try to be very honest up front and explain that an editor's job at UCG covers more than just reporting. We do conferences and audio conferences, develop special reports, look for new product ideas. I'm looking for people who are willing to think out of the box and be involved with the business of publishing," Lisa says.

Whatever happened to "the wall"?

"I would spend considerable time in the interview process explaining that the 'giant wall' between the editorial side and the publishing/marketing side doesn't exist at UCG.

"What I'm learning is that 'the wall' doesn't really exist that much in J-schools any longer either. In the last two years I have found potential editors to be much more open to our way of doing business than they might have been previously. They can see how things have been going in the traditional newspaper business.

"What I'm looking for and what I'm developing is what I call the 'One in 10' program. I'm looking for the outstanding candidates who have shown some leadership qualities. That can be almost anything, launching a new publication or working as an RA in the dorm."

Editorial standards

"I think it would be impossible for a publisher as diverse as UCG to try to have anything like a uniform 'style manual' or such. Each division may have its own standards, or even each individual newsletter.

"What we do have that I believe is much more important than 'editorial style' is a 'UCG ethics guide,' which is effective over all divisions."

In-house training

UCG engages in aggressive in-house training, on both a division and company-wide basis. "We had Barry Susman, who was the 'Watergate editor' at the Post all those years ago, speak about that and investigative reporting. That was a standing-room-only session," Lisa says.

"We brought in the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS. Many of our newsletters deal with trade associations and other groups and are interested in learning how they work, what they report, and don't report, to the IRS, and how to read the returns.

"In the next couple of weeks a researcher from a group called the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government is coming to UCG to interview our editors about the experiences they have had with Freedom of Information requests and problems. Frankly, ordinarily I doubt that 'specialized newsletters' would even have come to their attention. My contacts in the industry have been useful in areas like this," the veteran reporter says.

"We've also developed a company intranet that is updated constantly with information about valuable websites to find--xyz-type of information and so forth. I'm a resource for all the staff; from experience I can suggest where you can look for some type of data, whom you might call next and such."

UCG, 11300 Rockville Pike, #1100, Rockville, MD 20852, 301-287-2700, fax [phone], www.ucg.com