When The Last Copyeditor Leaves …

May 13, 2009 by winjaw

Journalism will be in a world of hurt.

Copyeditors were always my bane – arguing with me over whether the word was “should” or “must.”

Two, To, Too often, they were write, right. Its, it’s enough to drive you mad. But they made me a better journalist, a better writer, simply because they demanded perfection. I always thought copyeditors were a little too anal, but one senior copyeditor set me straight.

“If readers can’t trust you with proper English and proper spelling, why should they trust you with facts?” Lesson learned.

I had a journalism professor like that. Misspell a name, you got an “F” on that assignment. No questions. No second chance.

My biggest screwup, screw-up, screw up? (copyeditor needed ASAP) in 25 years of journalism was over one word. At the time, I was a fairly new reporter.  We had a morning and afternoon paper. Every Monday was the city council meeting, and the entire afternoon paper was held solely to wait for my story.

No pressure.

During one meeting, the police chief announced he was “moving on” so to speak. That was the lede (yep, that’s a journalism word so don’t freak, basically means the most important item and “led” the story).  I filed the story by phone (no internet at the time) and the story was put in and the presses started.

When I got back,  a copyeditor – in front of the entire newsroom – says, “you said in one place the police chief retired, and in another place he resigned. Which is it?”

It was the way the copyeditor said “which is it” that hit me.  Basically, he was saying “there’s a damn world of difference and please tell me you know that and we’ve written ‘resigned’ in the headline and you’d better make sure.”

So I called the mayor and he informed me the police chief had “retired.”

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Well, I had the “pleasure,” at the editor’s insistence, of running back to the pressroom and yelling “stop the press.” Because of a big fat error.

Again, lesson learned. And it never happened again.

I bring this up because of several recent stories about the continuing layoffs in newsrooms across the country. One that really got me was the layoff of John McIntyre from the Baltimore Sun.  He worked there for nearly 23 years, the last 14 as chief of the copy desk.

He’s not alone. It seems that copyeditors are taking the brunt of the layoffs now. Publishers are trying to keep as many reporters as possible, so those who man the desks, who make sure we journalists don’t make fools of ourselves, are taking the hit.

And what does that mean? It means there will be more errors, regardless of how hard, and how many times, journalists read and reread there, their copy. And more errors means readers begin to question the “facts” journalists put forward. And as errors pile up, a distrust develops and …

It’s a vicious cycle.

The most powerful support mechanism a journalist or writer has is a second, or third or fourth pear, pare, pair of eyes. One who will argue with you over “must” or “should;” one who will make you prove your facts.

I hated copyeditors.  Sorry, we don’t allow the Sons of Thunder to use that word in our family, so I shouldn’t either.  I was “not fond” as we say here, of copyeditors.  All they did was try and make my copy better. The nerve.

And so I shall say farewell, we will miss you when you are gone.

And feel free, one last time, to edit away on this.