The St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Russia

Editorial Skills: ,

I started learning the Russian language in high school and Russian language, culture, its people, its politics, and their place in the world have remained a great interest of mine. In the summer of 2001 I completed a six-week study abroad program at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University.

Photo of the June 10, 2003, edition of The St. Petersburg Times.
Photo of the June 10, 2003, edition of The St. Petersburg Times.

In 2003, weeks after completing my MA in Public Communications, I returned to St. Petersburg to build on my newspaper journalism experience in a foreign news setting at The St. Petersburg Times, the English-language newspaper of Russia’s second-largest city, former capital, and “Window to the West.” I was a volunteer member of the staff for two months in June and July of 2003 (I dislike the title “intern”). I worked primarily as one of the newspaper’s copy editors and also translated brief news reports from Interfax (Russia’s leading wire service) into American, AP-style newspaper copy. I would like to say that I helped some of the Russian staff writers with their English style, usage, and idiom, but it is probably more accurate to say that I learned a thing or two about how one uses the English language from several of my British editors or the Canadian editor-in-chief.

Per Wikipedia, The St. Petersburg Times ceased publication in December 2014.

Photo of the June 24, 2003, edition of The St. Petersburg Times.
Photo of the June 24, 2003, edition of The St. Petersburg Times.