Copy editing for online/the future news product

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Permalink Reply by Caryn Eve Murray on July 20, 2008 at 11:54am

I think a major factor in our skillset will be what technologies become more prevalent. Just as copyreaders' proofmarks from the old cut-and-paste and hot type days are largely a thing of the past, editing for print may give way to the ability to edit for podcast/broadcast, just as writing for the "reader" may transform into writing for the "audience/viewer/consumer." Sadly, as literacy diminishes, our jobs will be transformed - or elimimated - depending upon which way the wind blows. Do I fear for our jobs?
Afraid so - not just in their present incarnation but in their future incarnation as well. There seems to be less attention to detail and standards of language as "citizen journalism" makes pop culture and lingo the world's new Stylebook.

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Permalink Reply by David Lee on July 20, 2008 at 3:14pm

I wonder if our jobs will be more about producing immediately for Web content, with fact checking taking a back seat. I've even read about instances where a breaking news story with constant updates simply saying "Xxx, as reported earlier, was incorrect." And that's it. No formal corrections or corrections policy.
It seems like the move is toward fewer steps between the news gatherer and the content manager. Get the info and put it online pronto, and eliminate the middle steps and the people who would handle those steps.
So what do we do? Become reporters and be out in the field again, making sure we also know how to take pictrues and shoot video? Or be the ones who post content and design pages? It's likely that eventually, one person could handle both ends. Report, generate the content and post it.

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Permalink Reply by Caryn Eve Murray on July 20, 2008 at 6:45pm

Our newsroom is already doing this to some extent Our copy editors assigned to the web will "grab" the story fresh from the assigning desk and assuming there is nothing egregious about it, out onto the Internet it goes. However, there is an even worse-case scenario going on - more frequently now, the assigning desk editors will post the story themselves (without the copy desk even having had so much as a minor pass at it), and then we simply do damage control later. Sometimes that damage control is done because a reader of the web version calls up and complains that information is dead wrong.
Senior managers seem to be "OK" with this.
Assuming copy editors could opt to become reporters and go out in the field again - as you note - I doubt that would actually be a possibility. Reporters themselves are also being crowded out of the field by "citizen journalists" armed with their arsenal of video-taking cell phones. Is it coincidence that the trend toward "citizen journalism" just happens to be cresting just as the major manufacturers of cell phones are producing phones with higher and higher and higher resolution camera/video components?
Even the videocam-toting professionals in our newsroom are soon going to have something to worry about.
I fear the only people who won't be out of a job when all is said and done are the libel lawyers.

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Permalink Reply by David Lee on July 20, 2008 at 8:05pm

Could learning Web design be our key to success? Besides cleaning up copy, our job is to design attention-grabbing pages. Maybe applying this skill to online could be our path to the new world. What should copy editors fight for or defend during this transitional period, and what should they expect to have to adapt to? (Besides applying to law schools)
Even crafting great headlines, while helping draw readers' attention, can only go so far when more libelous stuff like "Is XXX an extremist?" is allowed, maybe even encouraged.

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Permalink Reply by Caryn Eve Murray on July 20, 2008 at 9:14pm

I worry about the Web design requirement. It seems everyone over the age of 15 (and maybe a few folks younger than 15) can design a pretty good Web page. In fact, designers (good ones and bad ones) are a dime a dozen (sorry for the cliche), whereas good copy editors are not. With that in mind, I think we as copy editors still need to focus on the core of what we do - keeping the language clear, honest, accurate and concise - first and foremost. True, we may need to have "some" knowledge of Web design but I would hesitate to make that a necessary part of our job.
Besides, not everyone who works with words and concepts is also competent in the visual arena. (I include myself in that category. As a writer/editor I think in words, not pictures, so I would be a very bad candidate for designing anything except, I fear, a career change.)

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Permalink Reply by Brian Cubbison on July 26, 2008 at 5:50pm

Web design won't be quite as important, because you're working with templates that offer only a small amount of "layout." You're likely to have a small Web design staff for a whole chain. I think of the new skills as "thinking and linking": Applying critical thinking to what the newsroom is publishing and linking to many kinds of information in many places.

One thing that should be emphasized strongly: There's no such thing now as after publication. The print process is so linear, leading step by step to publication, and after that there's nothing you can do. The online process has so much back-and-forth in it. You never really stop publishing a story. The web first, edit later concept can be done poorly, as noted above, but it can give you new editing powers. Make the most of that.

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