A reader says he wishes I didn't take what appears to be so much glee in going after management. And I understand his point. After all, I was in management for a full eight years, ultimately rising to become the No. 3 editor at The Idaho Statesman, when that paper was owned by Gannett. And I was a part-time technology news editor at USA Today for most of the nearly eight years I worked there.But my Statesman experience convinced me I didn't have a future in management. I didn't have the heart to ask reporters to take on more work than was reasonable, just because the publisher wouldn't provide enough bodies. I worried reporters were working hours for which they didn't get paid -- now the subject of allegations Gannett is examining at the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J.
So, indeed, I am sympathetic to frontline editors in management: metro, business, features, sports, copy editors (hi, Joyce!) and others. But my advocacy will always be for the folks at the very bottom of the corporate food chain: the hourly employees who do the super-heavy lifting, and who have the least power. After all, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable is what it's all about, right?
[Image: Friday's USA Today, Newseum]
I see that you lump copy editors in with management-type editors, and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if you want to find someone who is at the very BOTTOM of the food chain, look for the copy desk. That's where the powers-that-be get rid of longtime employees by offering retirement buyouts and then fail to fill the open position -- or do so with the most inexperienced (and, thus, least-paid) folks they can find. That's also the place the go to raid FTE positions to build up the online staff. And the desk is expected to do more and more -- edit and design the daily paper as always plus take on new nondaily "products" plus take over "news assistant" type duties such as wrangling comics and TV listings and weather pages and ... well, you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteArrgh! You're right; copy editors aren't in management.
ReplyDeleteI really do love you guys; copy editors throughout my career have saved me time after time from embarrassment by making sure I spell words like embarasment correctly.