No. 15 for April 2003
The news from the seventh American Copy Editors Society conference was encouraging: More copy editors say more of their work is being respected and valued.
Yet, as more than 400 copy editors gathered at a Chicago hotel in early March, some still say they are seen as “fixers,” with copy shoved at them merely to have the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed, the commas put in or deleted, and the misspellings corrected. The pool of talent and experience those copy desks contain lies fallow.
If the newsroom vision of copy editors is one of human versions of spell and grammar check who also happen to write headlines and lay out pages, it’s time to get that vision checked. It’s a waste of your newspaper’s money when few can afford that luxury. In fact, it might cost you money.
Good copy editors may well be your last line of defense against potential libel and defamation. I have a sign on my door: “Copy Ed: Conserving Our Precious Yearly Earnings, Dude (we keep you from getting sued).”
Good copy editors understand they are surrogates for your readers. They spend time not just deciding where the commas go, but amassing valuable background and learning the community’s sensibilities. They ask the tough questions: “How do we know that?” and “Does this make sense?”
John McIntyre, ACES president and managing editor in charge of the copy desks at the Baltimore Sun, uses as a teaching tool a story by a veteran reporter that made it through one of the newspaper’s assigning desks. It was a story of intrigue at a local business. But it also stood to be some lawyer’s ticket to a new Jaguar, until an eagle-eyed copy editor glanced at it coming out of the printer.
That copy editor, and the slot who also put a hold on the story, probably saved the Sun tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, that day. They got commendations. The writer and assigning editor got a chat with the management.
I picked up a half-dozen similar story examples during the meeting. Think how many thousands of dollars that represents. Talk about cost-effective.
So before you leave the office tonight, or when you get in tomorrow, take five minutes and think about your copy editors. Are they really full partners in the writing process, or have you shunted them off to a virtual corner?
Do you include them in your training plans? If you have a writers circle or similar group, do you sometimes invite copy editors? Do you encourage editors to write and writers to take a turn editing? Do you encourage your assigning editors and copy editors to switch places occasionally, even if just for a night? It brings a fresh perspective and respect to each side.
Do you listen to their concerns and suggestions? Or do they get marginalized because they work those odd shifts and joke about rarely seeing the sun? Among the comments from a 2000 survey of copy desks was this: “Too often the highest accolade is silence.”
When you need that new assistant city editor, lifestyle editor or other assigning editor, do you consider your copy editors?
Do you tell school groups of the importance of copy editing as a possible career in journalism? It’s hard to get students interested in editing, yet judging from the want ads, the industry badly needs to do that.
In short, are you squandering your investment, or using it wisely and to its fullest?
If you want some quick and easy ways to provide training for your desks – or to get some yourself – check out the new “quizzes” section on the ACES Web site. More than 60 quizzes are available, from African geography, the Bible, or Supreme Court facts, to the always-valuable style and grammar.
There also is http://www.notrain-nogain.org,
the Web site of newsroom trainers. At
http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Train.asp,
you’ll find exercises to help improve writing and editing. This site
also has handouts and outlines of training ideas for your newsroom.
If you go through all the material on these two sites, the heck with the copy desk. You’re headed for “Jeopardy!”
Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at dfisher@sc.edu or 803-777-3315.