Three cheers for copy editors

[InTheKnow22]

I don't think anyone can doubt a strong local copy desk....key word local....is invaluable to a good newspaper. Centralized copy desks can't match up. Cost savings wins out, however. It's the world we live in now.

Mike Strain: The unheralded people who work behind the scenes ... and make us look good

 

[typefitter]

I always tell this story regarding the value of copy editors:

Once wrote a front-page lede that included what I thought was "genteel," as in "the genteel sport of..."

I'd written gentile. Copy editor came over, a little embarrassed, apologizing for his lack of athletics knowledge, to make sure the sport really didn't allow Jews.

Twenty years later, I still say his name in my sleep, like a lost love.

 

[YankeeFan]

If only someone at ESPN had known what the Montreal Massacre was.

 

[swingline]

Rosebud ...

 

[Bronco77]

Thanks for posting that article, InTheKnow. A nice change from so many of those newsroom memos over the past 10 years: "We're eliminating our copy desk, but these are exciting times."

 

[Fredrick]

Copy editors are unbelievably valuable. However ... haven't they been pretty much eliminated? Most news organizations big and small don't have the staff to do much more than breeze over copy to post it online. And don't most news organizations now make the writers write their own headlines and introduction to stories? There aren't many newspapers that can afford copy editors anymore, at least that's what I've been led to believe.

 

[crimsonace]

My wife was a full-time copy editor/designer at a small community daily for a LONG time. She's now a hybrid reporter/desker who spends half her time writing and half editing (with reduced editing and no design responsibilities). She's mentioned quite a few times where she has had to bail out writers.

You don't notice you need one until you see an egregious, embarrassing mistake in print. Then, you're thankful for the desk.

 

[Rhody31]

I’ve never had a copy editor until now and holy god is it helpful. It’s not just the typos or minor mistakes - it’s eliminating unnecessary writing. I constantly compare my original copy to the final work and I’m starting to write tighter and cleaner and not wasting words.
Living in fear of getting my balls busted by them also helps.

 

[typefitter]

I just noticed a genuine grammatical mistake (not a nitpick) in the opening scroll from The Last Jedi. How many people saw that before it went out into the universe?

 

[sgreenwell]

I just noticed a genuine grammatical mistake (not a nitpick) in the opening scroll from The Last Jedi. How many people saw that before it went out into the universe?

Well, it was written a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I just noticed a genuine grammatical mistake (not a nitpick) in the opening scroll from The Last Jedi. How many people saw that before it went out into the universe?

That is not the mistake you are looking for.

 

[Fredrick]

I would like to propose a toast to all copy editors present/past and future. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your service! These are some of the true journalism heroes.

 

[Slacker]

I would like to propose a toast to all copy editors present/past and future. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your service! These are some of the true journalism heroes.

Fixed that up a bit for the print version.