Common Sense Journalism

ACES – and journalism – at a crossroads

By Doug Fisher

As the American Copy Editors Society began its annual conference in Denver last month came word that a Los Angeles legal newspaper was doing away with its copy desk.

The following week, the New York Times said it lost money and might have to lay off newsroom workers. Media General also reported a loss and said it would offer buyouts to as many as half of its Florida media group workers (although word from inside the Tampa news complex was that designers and copy editors were in such short supply that they would be spared for now).

Newspaper editors and Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley clashed over rates and the AP's news priorities as AP keeps reminding newspapers that they now make up less than 30 percent of the cooperative's revenues.

In Canada, Torstar, the parent of the Toronto Star, announced layoffs, including all 10 people in its electronic publishing department. (A spokesman said many of the duties already had been moved to the editorial departments.)

In Denver, the mood actually seemed less fearful than a year earlier, though one ACES board member suggested the unofficial conference theme was "Holy Crap, I'm Scared For My Job — What Am I Gonna Do?"

Attendance was just under 300, down a couple of dozen, but better than feared, according to some of the conference organizers. Many were new hands. If the veterans aren't returning, things are not good – and among them were a few recently laid off. But the new faces also mean people coming into the business recognize ACES has something valuable to provide.

But they join an organization that – even more than others in journalism – may be a bellwether of how much loyalty there remains to a business that seems to be abandoning its people, especially its experienced ones, daily.

ACES is at a crossroads. Unlike other newsroom positions, copy-editing skills easily transfer to other publications. (Reporting is a great skill, and the ability to track down information and write about it well can open doors to other communications positions, but few business organizations advertise for a "reporter" the way some are beginning to seek copy editors.)

Newsletters and business-to-business publications – similar to the niche operations that newspapers are trying to find and develop – have long had editing jobs. Financial companies, public relations agencies and others are discovering in this digital age that they also are "publishers" no longer beholden to newsrooms to deliver their messages, so they need editors too.

At the conference, I said that more students, seeing the relatively generous pay offered by some of these positions, are looking beyond newsrooms for their first editing jobs. And I wondered whether it was time that ACES consider looking beyond traditional daily journalism if it wanted to help its members through these hard times.

It's a gut-wrenching proposal. ACES was founded as a "professional organization working toward the advancement of copy editors in newspapers, magazines, Web sites and other journalistic endeavors." Its roots are in journalism. The first love of most of its members is journalism.

But can they afford to be loyal to journalism much longer? Or should they focus on the "copy editors" part of the name and broaden the organization to provide more opportunities?

In short, is it everyone for themselves?

If they aren't already, many journalism organizations are likely to soon find themselves grappling with tough questions: At what point does the industry you have remained faithful to reward that with disloyalty or at best, indifference? At what point do you owe your members the responsibility of looking out for their well-being, even if that means looking beyond the bounds of traditional journalism?

At the AP, members and the news cooperative seem to be locked in similar questioning.

This year, ACES sessions, along with full tracks on management and on digital media, included "What else can I do with these skills?" and "Is there life after newspapers?"

In a way, that's a major change for an organization that early on decided against a job fair at its conferences so that it would not alienate newspapers desperate for copy editors and fearful the ones they had would be poached.

The ACES board is struggling with these difficult questions. How they eventually are answered could say a lot about where journalists have decided their loyalties lie.

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.