Doug Moe

Under New Management

Under New Management

Garth Beyer

Teddywedgers under new managementTeddywedgers, a fantastic and rich-in-history corner-place to grab a pasty in Madison has signs up stating it will be under new management when it reopens. A colleague and mentor of mine, Doug Moe, wrote about Raymond Johnson and his journey to owning Teddywedgers. To this day, I have never heard a single complaint from anyone who bought a pasty from Johnson or any past owners for that matter.

So, I wonder why there is a need to state the establishment will be under new management?

Must people worry now that they will get less of an experience than previously? Will they be searching for the slight changes and critiquing them harshly?

For those who never went to Teddywedgers, was there a reason it needed new management? That’s sort of a turn-off, isn’t it?

Having a sign that says “under new management” is like a really poorly written essay or speech where you begin by telling people what you’re going to write or talk about and then you write and talk about what you just said you were going to write and talk about. Why not just write about it? Skip the unnecessary introduction, it makes your full fledged points seem redundant.

Let new management take place behind-the-scenes and have the new experiences they bring with them be for the customers to experience unexpectedly.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Better To Be Pleasantly Surprised Than To Simply Have Expectations Met     (…or not met)

Photo credit (apologies this is not a photo with the new management signs up, if I walk by Teddwedgers again in the new week or so, I'll snap a picture and update this post)

Additional Content To My Feature Article: Doug Moe

Garth Beyer

If you haven’t read the feature article I wrote of Doug Moe, just click his name.

The content below is additional information, sidebars, for the article. Enjoy.

David Callender

Doug is a Madison generalist, well versed, and very curious about the world around him. He’s a great listener and a mold of the great urban newspaper columnist. Moe never pulled any punches; he really explored and explained the issues of his profiles. Moe is the last of a breed of people who wanted to be newspaper writers. He grew up in Madison and experienced its growth over the years firsthand and there is no substitute for firsthand experience and knowledge. Moe had 30+ years growing up and writing about the community. His sort of writing can only come from long-term investment.

Jeff Scott Olson

Moe doesn’t go out of his way to be unkind. He’s a great sportsman, competitive, but joyful. Although,  at times he can get glum about his performance. […] Moe, in his writing, preserves characters. He shares stories that are larger than life. The important parts of Madison won’t go away and that’s because of Doug Moe.

Doug Moe

So far as choosing the columns to write, I guess the overriding concern is: Will this be interesting to the readers? There really is no other consideration. Now, I also try hard to have a good mix of column subjects. I don’t want to write too often about books, or golf, or Madison history, or only men, or only women — you get the idea. I want people to not know what to expect when they look for my column. That is a goal. Then, how to write them for me gets down to a question of tone. What’s the appropriate tone? Light? Serious? A little of both? […] My dad was actually in broadcast management. He was general manager of Channel 27 here in Madison. I suppose growing up in a media family might have influenced my own decision to go into the media. The main thing was, writing was what I was good at. I wasn’t going to be a scientist or engineer.

On What To Write About

Garth Beyer

Writer, novelist, journalist, whatever your title, the question always comes up, what should I write on?

For many, we have plenty of ideas to keep us occupied. However, that doesn’t always mean that our readers want the same things that we want to write about.

There is a simple solution.

I’ve recently interviewed Doug Moe, long time columnist for the Wis. State Journal. When asked about how he decides what to write on, he mentioned that he gets a lot of his ideas from his own history. Things happen to connect for him. On the other hand, he also gets a lot of suggestions from readers, friends, and people looking to be profiled.

Doug elegantly entwines what he wants to write about and what other people want him to write about, all the while making it so that each piece is loved and felt by the people of Madison.

When you can’t come up with ideas for what to write on, or your ideas aren’t appealing to your audience, don’t quit, don’t give up, don’t put down the pen. Get people to suggest stories for you and run with them like you’ve been handed a batton in the Olympics.

Every idea for your audience is a treasure, or at least it will be viewed as one when you’re done writing about it.