Copy editing on the Web means doing it fast, getting it right
By Ruth E. Thaler-Carter

 The classic newspaper question -- usually snarled back and forth on deadline between editor and reporter – is, “Do you want it fast or do you want it good?  In today’s hectic, demanding World Wide Web environment, the answer is, “Both!” 
  That’s according to Rich Jaroslovsky of WSJ.com, the Web site of The Wall Street Journal, and Fred Mann, who runs the Philly.com Web site for the Philadelphia Inquirer. They told ACES participants that the instantaneous nature of the Web makes this time-tried interaction even more important than ever. 
  “This phrase summarizes life now in the world of online news,” Jaroslovsky said. “You have to have it fast because online news is global and instantaneous and, if you aren’t fast, you aren’t competitive, but it also has to be good and it has to be accurate, because the most precious thing you have is your name and you can’t tarnish that. 
  Which is more important? Both.
  Despite the pressure to be both fast and good, online journalism standards are not lower than those of print journalism, Jaroslovsky said. 
  “The pressures and tension are not new -- there is a long history of real-time instantaneous news (such as wire services and radio news).” The new element is the “global reach of the medium.” The Web also means that “there is no chance of moving corrections or removing a story before it gets to the consumers, which adds an extra layer of importance to editors that information be as ready for prime time as it can be,” he said.
  To ensure both speed and quality, online editors must use “higher levels of care, because you still can have problems,” Jaroslovsky warned.  “We have to be even more careful online.” That goes even more so in the business environment because of how the international markets work and the potential damage an inaccurate report can do to company stock in a matter of moments.
  The upside of this issue that is “the Web is far and away a more effective realm for correct information,” 
 

 Jaroslovsky noted. “It’s the most powerful and flexible medium for correcting bad information. Online, you can get bad information off your site as soon as you realize it’s bad; with a newspaper, you can’t correct something for 24 hours or so. You can and run a correction online immediately.” 
  He suggested having a policy of running a correction for as long as the original error was online and linking the correction to the story in any archives.
 Mann has found online journalism to be quite eye-opening and has been concerned that journalism itself gets a little left behind with the Internet. We do cut corners in the online medium -- we shouldn’t but you almost have to, he said. “Logistics come into play, and we essentially work 24 hours a day. Unless you use the talents and resources of the parent newspaper, you are doomed.”
  An online edition needs “a lot of rule and set-ups to protect the newspaper brand and name, said Mann. “You can expand your brand and your audience, and reach a different, new audience, but if you are going after something to be the first rather than right, it will damage that brand. If you don’t set standards, you will shoot yourself in the foot.”
  One key is to make sure of quality on the Web is through hiring. “We try very hard to be sure the people we hire for the Web site are journalistically qualified and have Internet skills,” said Mann. Organizations that let community members participate interactively also must be sure that content not developed by its trained journalists and editors is clearly identified as such, he added.
  Both Mann and  Jaroslovsky said  their online stories go through standard, print-level editing before being picked up and placed on the Web site. However, Jaroslovsky warned that “the break-and-brag notion will become more prevalent and will accelerate,” creating ever more need for sharp-eyed, Internet-savvy copy editors.

====
Ruth E. Thaler-Carter is a freelance writer and editor who has lived in Baltimore since 1988. She can be reached at  Rthalerc@aol.com.