Whatever Tribune’s Sam Zell wants to call it, copy editing is vital to quality in journalism and beyond
Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell, in a recent Conde Nast Portfolio.com interview, lamented the layers of work involved in putting out a newspaper.
“If this gentleman over here is a reporter and he calls in and says, ‘I’ve got a story and you want to put it up on the Web,’ he talks to one copywriter, they put it all together, it’s on the Web in 10 minutes,” Mr. Zell said. “But if that same story with the same facts is going in the newspaper, then it goes to the copywriter, the section editor, the page editor, I mean, it goes to everybody. OK? And you wonder why the newspapers can’t financially compete.”
Well, we’d like to fill in some holes in Mr. Zell’s conception of news publishing. Yes, a story can go up on the Web in 10 minutes, but often, that’s not the end of the process. The reporter may get more details; the editor may revise the story; a new version may be posted on the Web once, twice — why, as many times as necessary, until it’s complete. That means the story may go through more steps than Mr. Zell thinks — just like stories for print. (While we’re at it, we might suggest Mr. Zell spend a little more time in a newsroom to pin down just how copy flow works. Nobody is called a copywriter. And no story goes to “everybody.” OK?)
If that story stays online just as it was originally posted, it’s more likely to contain errors of spelling or grammar, or worse, be unethical, or present an actual legal problem. It may publish the name of a person accused of a crime before the person has been charged. It may publish the name of a sexual assault victim. It may reveal the address of a person who has just died, exposing the person’s home to burglars. If Mr. Zell’s reporter and the mysterious “copywriter” he or she calls in to haven’t seen any of these problems, there’s a fair chance your Web readers will — as you’ll find out if you allow them to post comments to stories.
This is not just theorizing; it happens all the time. A recent story on one paper’s Web site — a story that was posted as written, without benefit of copy editing — reported that a company’s loans would be due on a certain date. That was flat wrong, as the copy editor reading the story for the print version discovered. In fact, the company’s line of credit was about to be frozen — quite a different proposition.
The copy editor is, in effect, a publication’s quality control expert. The copy editor is the guardian of the publication’s credibility, and credibility is one of a newspaper’s most powerful selling points. Note that word — selling. If credibility evaporates, so will sales. If readers can’t believe the news they get from you, why should they buy your product?
And guess what? Newspapers aren’t the only organizations that do such editing. Magazines and ad agencies do it; it’s true of book publishing and corporate communication, too.
We can’t deny that newspapers must find a way to pay for all they do. We can’t contest that they need to rethink their business model. But Mr. Zell is mistaken if he thinks customers will put up with what can be produced quickly, with as little work as possible, whether it’s on the Web or in print. As the recent election coverage and particularly the Election Night issues of newspapers and magazines nationwide proved, customers want high-quality, polished work. Work that they can believe in. And that requires editors.
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A primer in news credibility
By | 11:45 am October 17, 2008
Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell, in a recent Conde Nast Portfolio.com interview, lamented the layers of work involved in putting out a newspaper.
“If this gentleman over here is a reporter and he calls in and says, ‘I’ve got a story and you want to put it up on the Web,’ he talks to one copywriter, they put it all together, it’s on the Web in 10 minutes,” Mr. Zell said. “But if that same story with the same facts is going in the newspaper, then it goes to the copywriter, the section editor, the page editor, I mean, it goes to everybody. OK? And you wonder why the newspapers can’t financially compete.”
Well, we’d like to fill in some holes in Mr. Zell’s conception of news publishing. Yes, a story can go up on the Web in 10 minutes, but often, that’s not the end of the process. The reporter may get more details; the editor may revise the story; a new version may be posted on the Web once, twice — why, as many times as necessary, until it’s complete. That means the story may go through more steps than Mr. Zell thinks — just like stories for print. (While we’re at it, we might suggest Mr. Zell spend a little more time in a newsroom to pin down just how copy flow works. Nobody is called a copywriter. And no story goes to “everybody.” OK?)
If that story stays online just as it was originally posted, it’s more likely to contain errors of spelling or grammar, or worse, be unethical, or present an actual legal problem. It may publish the name of a person accused of a crime before the person has been charged. It may publish the name of a sexual assault victim. It may reveal the address of a person who has just died, exposing the person’s home to burglars. If Mr. Zell’s reporter and the mysterious “copywriter” he or she calls in to haven’t seen any of these problems, there’s a fair chance your Web readers will — as you’ll find out if you allow them to post comments to stories.
This is not just theorizing; it happens all the time. A recent story on one paper’s Web site — a story that was posted as written, without benefit of copy editing — reported that a company’s loans would be due on a certain date. That was flat wrong, as the copy editor reading the story for the print version discovered. In fact, the company’s line of credit was about to be frozen — quite a different proposition.
The copy editor is, in effect, a publication’s quality control expert. The copy editor is the guardian of the publication’s credibility, and credibility is one of a newspaper’s most powerful selling points. Note that word — selling. If credibility evaporates, so will sales. If readers can’t believe the news they get from you, why should they buy your product?
And guess what? Newspapers aren’t the only organizations that do such editing. Magazines and ad agencies do it; it’s true of book publishing and corporate communication, too.
We can’t deny that newspapers must find a way to pay for all they do. We can’t contest that they need to rethink their business model. But Mr. Zell is mistaken if he thinks customers will put up with what can be produced quickly, with as little work as possible, whether it’s on the Web or in print. As the recent election coverage and particularly the Election Night issues of newspapers and magazines nationwide proved, customers want high-quality, polished work. Work that they can believe in. And that requires editors.
E-mail comments to info@copydesk.org or send a tweet to @copyeditors.
This entry was posted 11:45 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.