The Tribune of Salt Lake City, Utah, needs a copy editor to look over the headlines in its skybox promos.
To, y’know, keep this from happening:
That appeared at the very top left of Tuesday’s page, as seen at the Newseum.
—
You know who else needs a copy editor?
Local TV news operations. Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in particular. And Harrisburg’s Fox43 TV news. And Local 15 News in Mobile, Ala. And other local TV news operations. And CNN and CNN Money and Fox News (and Fox News again) and German news channel N24. And Martha Stewart’s TV operation. And the Disney Channel. And creators of mobile apps. And Google News’ ‘bots. And Baseball jersey manufacturers. And T-shirt designers. And more T-shirt designers. And Georgetown University. And Kansas State University. And the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals (boy, do they need a copy editor). And the National Hockey League. And Fox Sports. And college athletic department ticket offices. And the Virginia general assembly. And college alumni magazines. And pharmacies. And the makers of Sudafed. And Borders bookstore. And the U.S. Postal Service. And government agencies and political candidates. And Tea Party candidates. And city and county Boards of Elections. And the state of Pennsylvania. And road paving contractors. And the city of Norfolk, Va. And the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. And South African traffic cops. And billboard companies. And sign painters. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.” And rubber stamp designers. And glass etchers. And Starbucks. And restaurants, breakfast joints, Chinese restaurants and cake decorators. And more cake decorators. And drive-in movie theater managers. And South Africa’s New Age and Sunday Independent newspapers. And Dublin’s Sunday Business Post. And newspapers in the U.K. And the Washington Post (Hey! A repeat offender!), the New York Times (Hey! Another repeat offender!), the New York Post, Wall Street Journal Europe, Newsday, the Chicago Sun-Times (Yet another repeat offender!), the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle, the Seattle Times, the Missoula, Mont., Missoulian, the Times-Record of Denton, Md., the Amarillo (Texas) Globe News, the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Virginian-Pilot, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, and the Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisian. And the Associated Press. And Mann’s Jeweler’s Accent magazine. And Investment News magazine. And Time magazine.
there’s no kerning either.
How was your walk on water today, sir? The Salt Lake Tribune has (admittedly fewer and fewer) copy editors, most of them award-winning. But upon last count we were all human. Humans make mistakes (except, apparently, Mr. Apple). This particular oversight was not mine. Still, with copy desks under scrutiny for “consolidation” among other pressures they face in the changing newspaper business, should we really be targeted by a blog on our our own organization’s website? It is not even written by a copy editor. As a charter member of ACES (yes, ever since Chapel Hill), it is my opinion that we should be sticking up for our copy editors, not poking fun at and relishing in their occasional oversights. After all, there but for the grace of God go all of us at some point. Oh, except Mr. Apple.
Sooner or later every paper will publish a gaffe or two, and eventually another one. But to excuse it is to shrug off just the one little mouse in the cole slaw. Or when we read GET FOUR/SNAPPY LINES/OF PITHY/PROSE HERE do we call it an act of God because obviously no copy editor touched it?
Mr. Stough, get your facts straight. I did not excuse the mouse in the cole slaw. Nowhere in my post do I say the mistake itself was acceptable. In fact I acknowledged the oversight. I also did not call it an act of God, in whom I am not sure I even believe. Have you never heard the expression “there but for the grace of God go I”? One could take it literally, as you did, I suppose, but as a figure of speech, it simply means that relishing in other people’s troubles is petty because we all could be in the same situation. My post was not about excuses. It was protesting the bashing of copy editors on a website that is supposed to be promoting their interests. I tried to say it in a somewhat polite way, but obviously clarity suffered. If publicly poking fun at the expense of others is your (and Mr. Apple’s) thing, I certainly can’t stop you. I can, however, express my opinion that it is egomaniacal, mean-spirited, self-righteous and petty. Clear enough this time?
Charles is not bashing copy editors. He is criticizing publications and other media that obviously don’t have enough, or any, of them.
If you’re looking for egomaniacal, mean-spirited, self-righteous and petty bashing of lousy copy editing, come on over to Testy Copy Editors.
Thanks you, Peggy Boss Barney, for your pristine example of utterly missing the point.
Charles, in response to your critics:
I can see how a copy editor would take offense to calling out errors. But I can see the value of calling attention to those errors as well. You are both right. Copy editors are vitally important. Their work is undervalued these days; that is absolutely true.
This is the thing from my perspective. I am a copy editor at a paper (really many papers) and have been for many years. Errors most commonly happen when things are done quickly, hastily. I know this from experience.
We’ve gone through this period when staffs have been downsized, whether via layoffs or through attrition, as the industry itself took an economic nosedive. What was once done by three people is now being done by one. This is true throughout the country. Most staffs have 50 percent fewer copy editors, but are putting out the same number of pages. Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch. Staffs have gotten smaller and smaller. The people who are left on staff have had to pick up the slack, doing more and more work all the time. It’s an assembly line that moves ever faster as workers try to do more work in less time. Companies must report profits, right? Something has to give and it’s the worker’s well-being many times. The workers pay the price by becoming more and more stressed on the job. Or the paper’s accuracy rate plummets.
What happens eventually, if you keep following that model, is that sloppiness becomes more and more apparent in print.
I know how hard people around me work. I know how much every one of my co-workers cares about the quality of his or her work. I respect my coworkers tremendously. We all care. We all try and do our best. But we all make mistakes. There is a limit to how much work you can do accurately in any single shift. To that end, knowing how difficult the job can be at times, I would want to stand up for a coworker who made a significant error. Looking more broadly, I would stand up for any copy editor whose error was being spotlighted. They are the natural result of a production line that is moving very, very fast. It’s not a single individual who made the error, is it? Knowing what I know I’d never point a finger at anyone.
Instead of blaming the poor copy editor who caught a thousand errors prior to print and let one big one slip through, I believe that it’s important to look at the higher-level decision makers. Perhaps the blame should be placed on the executive who turned the assembly line up to such a fast rate of production in the first place. Right? I don’t think it’s right to make an example of an employee who is caught up in a system that he or she didn’t choose.
At some point the system itself is at fault: The dam breaks, the errors come flooding through. Advertisers bail out; readers cancel their subscriptions in anger. Libels suits pick up intensity. More papers fold.
What you are doing in your blog, Charles, and it’s valuable, is looking at the system as a whole. You see errors, point them out, and in doing so are calling for a return to excellence. Yes, excellence matters. I, too, believe it still matters. But at what point is fast-paced production too fast? What is the tipping point? When is journalistic integrity itself the casualty of an industry trying desperately to keep its head above water in a perilous economic environment?
Those are the important questions your column is asking. I have been reading your column a lot lately and value your thoughts about the industry. But I, too, don’t think it’s right to blame the copy editor who made a big error on Page 1. It’s not ever a single person who is to blame.
Your questions are my questions. How do we restore copy editing to its former place of importance in newspapers? How do we ensure that publishers budget enough money for a strong team of excellent copy editors? Perhaps your calling attention to this problem, Charles, will do just that.
Wow, Melanie. What an incredibly well thought-out response.
Quite frankly, I had decided not to reply at all to Peggy’s feedback. But your post here has changed my mind.
There are two types of people reading these comments right now. Those who followed a link from another site or from an email who, like Peggy, may be wondering why I hate copy editors so much. And those who are familiar with me and my work in this blog. Those folks are all rolling their eyes.
I love copy editors. Having spent 25+ years as a graphic artist, designer and graphics editor, I fondly remember the wonderfully eclectic group of copy editors who, over the years, have saved me from revealing what a complete dumbass I really am.
A year or two ago, papers were making deep cuts to their copy desks. I’m not talking about the occasional trim via attrition — I mean deep, deep cuts from the ranks of copy editors. I went on the record as deploring these cuts. One of the reasons: I believe in quality newspapers. You can’t publish a quality newspaper without quality staffers. And a big part of that staff must be a quality copy desk.
So I began my “why they need a copy editor” series. The posts were meant to be humorous. Most of the posts are from disciplines outside of newspapers: T-shirt companies, state departments of transportation, TV news operations and so on. But, yes, a few newspapers made my list. Nearly without exception, they were all newspapers that have cut back on their copy editors.
The idea was to draw attention to the fact that by cutting copy editors, we’re letting the quality of these products slip. And by mixing my few — and only a few — newspaper examples into a larger collection of other non-newspaper examples, I hoped it’d become clear, over time, that it’s not just newspapers that are letting the quality of their communications slip. Fact is, we ALL need copy editors. Especially myself.
Judging by the feedback I get, most of my readers “get” this. Only occasionally, I hear from a member of a copydesk who feels insulted by my post. Previous example: Once the New York Times accidentally referred to Mormons as “morons” in a headline on its web page. Naturally, I called them out on it. “Why the New York Times needs a copy editor,” I wrote. And, sure enough, someone posted a note explaining that the NYT does indeed have copy editors.
Well, that headline error was really bad. And I mean REALLY bad. It was evident I pissed off a NYT copy editor by posting their error. But again, the intent wasn’t to pick on the NYT or even the NYT copy desk. The intent is to raise awareness of the importance of copy desks.
Conversely, I once had an editor — a former colleague whom I trust implicitly — complain that I was pandering to copy editors now that my blog is hosted by ACES. I replied to his private email by pointing out I began this series of posts long before I moved from VisualEdtiors.com to ACES. Hell, for all I know, this may be one of the reasons ACES extended an invitation to me to move my blog to its web site.
Since Peggy brought it up, let me make this clear: I am not affiliated with ACES in any way. I don’t speak for ACES. ACES does not speak for me. I’m not even a member of ACES. If ACES had the barest of minimum requirements for membership — and I’m not sure they do — I’m quite sure I’d fail to meet those requirements.
Our business relationship is just that: Business. They provide server space and IT support in the form of ACES board member and web savvy in the form of young Mr. Daniel Hunt of the Orange County Register. And I do my thing, which occasionally brings eyeballs to the ACES servers.
I do not speak with ACES. I am not even a member. ACES and I are simply friends with benefits. Nothing more. The fine print of our agreement guarantees me full editorial control of my blog. And it assures that I’ll take full responsibility for what I write. ACES is off the hook for whatever I come up with.
All this is quite easy to find (it’s at the bottom of the column of material on the far right of this page). So I’m not sure where Peggy’s coming from.
Except this: Peggy is writing with pain. She sees what’s happening to copy desks — and to newspapers in general — and she’s hurting. As a visuals manager who lost two jobs in seven months, I feel for her. I suspect we have a lot in common. Especially our values.
The only way Peggy and I differ, I suspect: She seems to think I’m out to ridicule copy editors and to kick them when they’re down. And those of you who have made up my various blog and bulletin board audiences for the past eight years, now, know that’s not the case. I love my copy editors. The thing I miss most about working in a newsroom is that I no longer have a copy desk that will check my copy before I post it here.
For every Peggy who might not have the time to research who and what I am, I have a number of copy desk staffers who have worked with me and appear to understand what I’m doing here. Folks like…
* Elizabeth Sedrel, who’s now a copy desk chief for Better Homes and Gardens. Elizabeth caught many an error in my work. And I looked much, much smarter as a result.
* Kristen Huth, who’s a part-timer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. It was a pleasure to see her again Thursday. And it makes me want to cry that these talented, talented people might have to leave journalism in order to make a decent living.
* Andy Bechtel, formerly a colleague at the Raleigh News & Observer, who’s now an instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill. Andy was — and is — elfin’ brilliant. Not only great at his job, but fun to be around.
* Pam Nelson, one of the most brilliant copy desk staffers I’ve ever had the pleasure to run my copy past. She’s being forced to move from Raleigh to Charlotte in order to stay employed. I hope the folks of the Charlotte Observer treat her like a queen. Because she deserves it. She’s earned royal treatment. Over and over again.
* Gage Church, not only a former news editor colleague but also my direct supervisor and who’s now the pastor of a church. I’ve wondered, sometimes, if copy editing is less of a discipline or profession and more of a religion. Gage and his new career make me wonder even more.
* And Jann Nyffler, who edited my copy (for features sections) so deftly and so wonderfully back in the early 1990s in Raleigh. And, since then, on whom I’ve had the largest crush. Jann, you see, has one of the world’s sexiest voices. So I’m delighted she’s doing radio work now. Radio was made for brilliant minds — and sexy voices — like Jann’s. To this day, I wish I could get her to set up the “outgoing message” on my answering machine. I also wish I could run every one of my blog posts past her.
Despite these folks and many others who, I suspect, would leap to my defense if needed, I think my series of “why they need a copy editor” posts stand as written. The enormous list of “you know who ELSE needs a copy editor?” at the bottom of each post makes the point: We all need copy editors.
Especially me. I really, really need a copy editor. Every damned day.
It’s not possible to express how sad I am that Peggy didn’t “get” what I’m doing here. This is one of those situations where I wish she were here (Pittsburgh, at the moment) in person. If she were, I’d buy her as much beer as she can drink and I’d sit and listen to her war stories. You guys know how I love swapping war stories.
No, Peggy indeed leapt to a couple of erroneous conclusions. But she didn’t do it out of being argumentative or an asshole or anything. She clearly hasn’t read my blog over the past few years. But that’s OK. She doesn’t have to.
And, y’know, maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I should do a better job of explaining what the purpose of that long, long series of “why they need a copy editor” posts is all about. I was under the impression that’s not necessarily. But perhaps I’m wrong.
For now, though, I’m going to let this reply be my final word. I don’t believe in kicking copy editors when they’re down. I do, however, believe in kicking organizations that don’t value their copy desks. And that’s what I’m trying to do when I pick on TV news organizations or the New York Times or the Chicago Sun-Times or, yes, the Salt Lake Tribune. These organizations have, indeed, cut back on desk staffers. So when errors pop up, I’m less than sympathetic.
I’m not blasting the copy editors. The intent is to rag on their employers. I’d think that was obvious. Perhaps not. But whatever.
Anyway, may the gods of mass communications bless people like Peggy. She’s fiercely proud of her profession and of her work. For the record — and feel free to quote me here — she sounds like the kind of copy editor I want backing me up when I churn out yet another column or complex, full-page infographic. I don’t know if she’d enjoy working with me. Perhaps not. But if she’s as passionate about her work as she seems in her comments here in the blog, I’d damned sure enjoy working with her.
That’s about all I have to say here. Except to thank Melanie. You’re my new hero, ma’am.
And to thank copy editors everywhere. God bless you. Every one.
Mr. Apple, you are right. I overreacted. I apologize for my tantrum. And if I ever should meet you in person, I’LL be the one buying the beers. Sometimes I am like a big ol’ mamma bear when I perceive somebody is taking potshots at copy editors. I also tend to be overly protective of ACES.
It’s not so much that I mind having errors pointed out as that I thought ACES was being used as an inappropriate vehicle for it. But if it isn’t copy editors turning on one another, then it isn’t. I trust you on that.
You are also right that I got my attention drawn to this through an email rather than being a regular reader. I still don’t buy the premise that publicly poking fun at errors will result in companies hiring more copy editors. It can’t change the bottom line at newspapers and other businesses that are bleeding money. Still, you have every right to promote a philosophy and have a little fun without having your actions subject to name-calling.
It is out of character for me to post comments on stuff I see on the Web. And considering how great it turned out this time, maybe it’s best that I don’t, huh?