POLL: Your best "skill" (for the copy editors/page designers/paginators)

Given the mistakes thread that was on here earlier, I thought this might be a valid question.

Someone mentioned having four do-it-all-guys on the desk is better than having four specialists. I might agree with that, because it often seems that those four each have their own strengths.

Discuss.

 

We have five copy editors.

One of them is the "wordsmith," the one who sits down and dissects difficult pieces; one is the best line editor; two are fairly outstanding page designers.

One has little use for design; one feels their job is to make the section attractive and let mistakes be caught in proofing; two are the best at "subject" pages, such as the baseball page, NBA, NHL, etc.; one has the best feel for covers and section flow.

This seems to work fairly well for us, because the SE and ASE have learned to play to our strengths.

And there's one area which you missed, I think -- administration of the sports section that night. There are some who are just better slot people, who keep on top of page makeovers better, always have a plan of what they're going to do if news breaks.

 

There's one person who should be fired.

"How did that mistake get in?"

"The proofer didn't catch it."

"Oh. OK."

Pathetic.

 

I guess. Again, it's your way of looking at the situation; it's not everyone's. You're not changing them, and they're not changing you.

 

Um, the thread starter forgot to put "headline writing" among the choices.

 

Good point. And how many of them copy-and-paste their cutlines off the AP caption, and how many try to say something in them?

 

Shot, Dools, both very valid points, and the poll now reflects your musings.

At first I was trying to cover the bases of the Mistakes arguments -- a thread that, once the name calling and hissing subsided, was a very educational, cordial conversation. Stuff like that keeps me coming back to SportsJournalists.com.

 

That's an incredibly dense attitude, and one that I focused on in the Mistakes thread.

In your world, mistakes will just continue because it's OK for people to decide they don't have to do that part of the job.

 

With a 4-5 person sports desk, there's a little more room for people to specialize. If Mr. Design Guru is busting his hump designing pages (and lightening the load on colleagues who are stronger editors), the section as a whole may stand to benefit. See freshman-level economics for further details.

 

My best skill?

8)

(For the purpose of this, headline writing)

 

Not playing today. I'm on vacation.

 

More typical designer myopia, but at least the response is a little more clever than the usual offerings.