Everyday Cool Tips: Who Needs an Editor Anyway?

I recently wrote a blog post sharing the news that The Times-Picayune out of New Orleans, Louisiana, will cease to produce a daily newspaper. Instead, the company will be printing three days a week and ramping up their online news gathering for their website. New Orleans will be the largest city in the U.S. without a daily newspaper.

There?s been a big shake-up at a couple of other national newspapers as well.

The Denver Post has decided to do away with its copy desk, spreading the copy-editing duties throughout the newsroom. The pros to this model? Stories can be published to the web faster because they don?t need to be read and edited by so many people. The cons? Stories have a greater chance of being printed with errors.

The Contra Costa Times, which handles production for 10 regional newspapers in California?s Bay Area, isn?t eliminating their copy desk, but they are reducing the amount of copy editing for routine stories.

Poynter.org has tabulated the final numbers in cuts at both Contra Costa and the Denver Post:

Contra Costa

Five copy editors laid off.
Four transferred into vacant reporting positions.
Two resigned just before the cuts to take jobs elsewhere.
Up to 10 weekly part-time shifts eliminated.

Denver Post

11 are resigning with severance and an enhanced health care package.
One copy editor is moving to a reporting position.
Another is going to the design desk.
The copy desk chief will become a production manager.
The remaining nine former copy editors will become ?assistant editors? assigned to desks (business, features, Metro, sports) throughout the newsroom.

Under the old system at the Denver Post, a story would be read six or seven times. Now it will be closer to two or three.

For this to work, staff will have to be trained on a variety of skills, such as writing headlines for print and the Web and, of course, copy editing. ?Poynter.org

This is just another case of expecting people to take on more responsibility without necessarily compensating them for it.

The brutal facts are these: Terrified by declines in revenue, newspapers are shedding employees to save money. They are attempting to keep as many reporters as possible to generate content, and they are gambling that you will tolerate shoddier work. ?The Baltimore Sun

Many of you reading this might think, no big deal! Why do newspapers need copy editors anyway? And that?s the very same question that Mathew Ingram from GigaOM recently asked on Twitter.

This will be an unpopular question, but why do we need editors? If ?news as a process? is a reality, why not commit errors in public? ?@mathewi

Oh, Mathew. You forget that news is a business! If you don’t create a good product, no one will buy it. Readers expect that the news they read in their daily newspaper is accurate. If your local newspaper can?t get the facts straight, what kind of credibility does it have?

News reporters are a funny bunch. They are constantly working on deadline and frequently rush around to gather news and interviews for their assigned story that needs to be turned in at a certain time to make the next day?s edition. While you might expect that the reporter will spell everyone?s name right, include the correct dates, and actually report without bias?it doesn?t always happen. We are all human and we all make mistakes. It?s the copy editor?s job to help catch them.

And not all reporters are quick to catch their own mistakes and correct them. Many have moved on to other stories! And once something is in print, you can?t take a magic eraser and get rid of it?you need to actually publish a correction, which many people don?t even see.

Sure, you can Tweet and Facebook your correction, but what if the readers don?t follow you or your paper in these outlets? You can also edit a story that appears online but who is going to go back and re-read a story they have already finished? Getting it right the first time is imperative.

Here are some of my favorite Twitter responses to Mathew Ingram?s tweet:

Depends on the size of the error. Even the most brilliant writers need sounding boards, feedback, fresh eyes, no? ?Aurelia Cotta

We need editors because readers don’t have the time to correct the authors. We pay for a certain service and expect good content. ?Robert

Because the illusion of professionalism is necessary for ppl to trust your product. This applies across many sectors. ?Lisan Jutras

To you, news is a process. For some of us, it’s a product and we’d like it to be as close to correct as possible. ?Kevin Speicher

You can read more Twitter discussion around Ingram?s question at Poynter.org.

Not having a copy editor proof for the stories the publication I work for would scare the crap out of me. Not only does our copy editor find stupid grammatical mistakes made by myself and our freelancers, she?s also a sounding board.

If something doesn?t quite make sense to her, she brings it to my attention. I sometimes get so close to my own stories that I can?t take a step back and read through them with clear eyes. Having an editor helps my writing and ensures that our readers are getting a better product. And guess what? Our copy editor is a freelancer.

What do you think about your favorite newspaper ceasing to have the checks and balances a copy editor brings to the table? Do you think the reporters should ultimately be responsible for editing their own copy?