 | Southeast Chapter |
A changing landscape
of opportunities and challenges
for copy editors
Story by Maurreen Skowran
Photos by Doug Fisher
Tomorrow should be rich with niches, copy editors were told at a recentSoutheast conference.
Melanie Sill, executive editor ofThe News & Observer, encouraged optimism Jan. 28 when she welcomedthe Southeast ACES Chapter regional conference at the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill.
Participants fromfour states attended the conference, in which the usual suspects suchas style, skeptical editing, design, deadline work and effective communicationwere complemented by critiques and sessions on fitness and firearms terminology.
Sill’s remarks introduced the day’smain session, a panel about the evolving news media and copy editors ina shifting landscape.
During the panel, Philip Meyer, aprofessor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, encouragedcopy editors to help editors find niches that will serve the audiencewell. Meyer noted work by Newspaper Next, a project of the American PressInstitute to explore new business models for the newspaper industry.According to the Newspaper Next Web site, one view is that “customersdon’t buy products, they hire them to get important jobs done.” As anexample, Meyer pointed to Nextbus.com, which uses GPS to keep track ofbuses and indicate when they will get to their stops. That’s a job thatnewspapers can’t do. And many of the jobs that newspapers have traditionallyperformed are now being done by competitors.
Daniel Conover, newsdirector of Charleston.net, said newspapers should pursue their naturalstrength. Comparing newspapers to television and the Internet, Conoversaid newspapers win on “burst efficiency.” That is, a newspaper readercan quickly get an overview of a large amount of information. Conoveradvocated directing reporters and assigning editors work strictly on the Webedition, bringing back rewrite specialists, and keeping copy editors concentrated on the print edition.
For those copy editorswho do or will work on the Web, Laura Ruel, a professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill, brought researchshowing the impact of editing. In one example, reader comprehension improvedfrom 52 percent to 86 percent, through the use of bullets, better writing,making the main idea concise, and using graphics to support the point.
Michael Belcher, newseditor of The Roanoke Times, added more reason for optimism when he saidthat revenue from the paper’s Web site had jumped 50 percent in a year.Roanoke.com even does a daily Web cast.
And broadcasting willdeliver another big challenge to newspapers in 2009, said Doug Fisher,panel moderator and a professor at the University of South Carolina. Themove to digital television will enable more channels.
To compete with technology,Conover and Meyer urged copy editors to set standards. Meyer said copyeditors should organize for ethical and technical certification.
The Southeast ACES Chapter is led by chapter coordinator Holly Kerfootof the Winston-Salem Journal. Contact her at hkerfoot@wsjournal.com if you’d like to get involved with the chapteror with questions or suggestions about the chapter.
| MORE FROM OUR SPEAKERS Andy Bechtel Bill Cloud Daniel Conover Doug Fisher Philip Meyer Laura Ruel Melanie Sill Newspaper Next Online newspapers, selectedexamples UNC-CH journalism seminars anddistance education |
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