John McIntyre, the Baltimore Sun's newsroom content production manager, recently wrote on his blog about newspapers throwing copy editors over the side -- and the erosion of quality that inevitably follows.
"You may have imagined that I exaggerate," he said yesterday in a follow-up post about The Cincinnati Enquirer. "So let me show you a particularly painful case."
"You may have imagined that I exaggerate," he said yesterday in a follow-up post about The Cincinnati Enquirer. "So let me show you a particularly painful case."
Brilliant analysis, Mr. McIntyre. That memo speaks volumes about a company that would keep such a person in charge of a newsroom.
ReplyDeleteCopy editing is eroding everywhere. At our shop, the EE knows more mistakes than ever are getting into print and he knows there's nothing he can do about it. Our standards have dropped. And we're fine with that. Just make deadline (or come close), and don't have fuck or shit in print and we are now ok in the eyes of management. It's the new world
ReplyDeleteWe're letting more little things get through at our site, and it's directly related to Newsgate. It hurts, but we let some things slide because it's too difficult and painful to get the studio to call back the page and make the changes and send it over again. That could take up to an hour and no one has the time to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the writers need to do better. They make too many mistakes.
ReplyDeleteYou are right 1 pm. I need to do a better job proofing my own copy. I need to also check the accuracy of the heads, cut lines and copy once it is posted on the web. First line of defense should be me.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn Washburn, since taking over at the Enquirer:
ReplyDelete- has spearheaded yet another round of staff reductions
- has remodeled her office, spending money that could have been spent on staff
- berated readers for not happily accepting the absurd paywall rates
- has embarrassed herself by attaching her name to the list of Women to Watch and by insulting the intelligence of the staff that's left with the English teacher idea.
What a track record.
@1:09, take out the trash too, while you're at it. Can't wait for ABM to do it.
ReplyDeleteWashburn obviously is in line for a president's ring. Or Kate marymount's job. Pettiness, self promotion and a lack of journalistic chops takes you far in this organization. Especially if you are a woman.
ReplyDeleteQuality is mutually exclusive to G A N N E T T.
ReplyDeleteIt left long before the skilled veterans were dismissed.
for example, many excellent senior photojournalists have been replaced by kids with iPhones.
The crappy cellphone photos I've seen litter GCI websites is an affront to the profession.
Imagine: If G A N N E T T had promoted the competent, instead of the C-Team hiney kissers. Perhaps the company would be on solid footing now instead of circling in the toilet bowl of mediocrity and irrelevance.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I was a copy editor and later an assistant metro editor, I was amazed at how bad some of the raw copy was. This was from 10- and 20-year vets, not fresh kids.
ReplyDeleteSo asking reporters to do a better job turning in clean copy just isn't going to work. Why?
A) Some percentage of them aren't talented writers to being with.
B) Many of them never bothered to really learn the stylebook.
C) They're used to having a backstop to catch the errors, and that longstanding habit will be very hard to break.
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ReplyDeleteThe "Woman to Watch" definitely knows how to attract attention, including from real journalists like Howard Kurtz, Charles Krauthammer, and now John McIntyre. But even a national laughingstock can get ahead at Gannett by behaving viciously enough. They call it meritocracy.
ReplyDeleteOh, the memories. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI5bBJa7UBM
ReplyDeleteI call "no fair". Just because Washburn and MB are woman does NOT mean they that they are anything close to Nurse Ratchet.
ReplyDeleteWashburn and MB.. did it all on their own.
Dear Tennessean, This is the 3rd time the Pictures on the front page are Blurry and have double images.. Please understand I use Reading the paper in the morning as a way to decide IF I'm sober enough to go to work .. U have tricked me into staying home far too many times now..
ReplyDeleteCopy editors are essential not as mere proofreaders (reporters should turn in clean copy, period), but as fact-checkers and for rewrite. Reporters routinely are too caught up in details and diversions and can't step back sufficiently to see a more succinct way of getting their points across. Reporters are also pressed to turn in copy 10 seconds ago and don't have time to read their work. Unfortunately the same can be said for the few remaining copy editors at Gannett; who has the luxury to do rewrite? To make matters worse, many of the second-rate copy editors at Gannett papers are utterly incapable of prose and are notorious for butchering perfectly good copy and giving the green light to tripe.
ReplyDeleteToday's Enquirer supplies a fine example of missing copy editors: A long, front-page look at Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman. The story is pegged to his arrest for driving 93 mph and notes that he was driving on a suspended license in Kentucky and had been caught speeding three times already. Yet the story doesn't provide the circumstances of the license suspension of three speeding priors. Was he racing on I-75 in a Ferrari? Was he gunning it through a blinking school zone? Did he almost run over someone? Shame that none of the three reporters sharing the byline bothered to include that, instead dwelling on the mystery factor of a guy who can't speak English. A good copy editor would have caught that right away.
Copy desks are being dismantled because the bean counters decided they contribute nothing but are merely a drain. Which means that reporters have fewer people to catch their mistakes, and those fewer people have a much larger workload, so those fewer people catch fewer mistakes. I assume the company did a cost-benefit analysis for an increase in libel suits and figured it wouldn't be too big of a drag on the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteWithout copy editors, Gannett will continue to run book reports instead of real news stories. But it's okay since the company has declared itself a content gatherer instead of a trusted news source. I ain't even mad at em anymore. Let em publish shit and keep self destructing.
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ReplyDeleteIt seems that whatever reasoning there was for shipping toning to the regional toning centers (RTC) would hold for creating regional copy editing. Let the software handle the standard crap and have one or two editors read the rest of the output of 80 papers.
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ReplyDelete5:12 other poster be damned, I whole-heartedly agree with what you said.
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ReplyDeleteI read the Aroldis Chapman story criticized by 10:56 AM. I have a special interest in the lawsuit because I've done some research on it for another organization. Let me add, then, that the Enquirer story also misspelled the plaintiff's name. He's Curbelo, not Curbello. Moreover, the story refers to him as Garcia on second reference rather than the correct Curbelo Garcia. (I assume there's no need to explain here how Spanish/Latin surnames work, because one expects journalists to know.) Perhaps editor Washburn could prevail upon a high school teacher for a refresher on getting names right?
ReplyDeleteThe court document is available at http://ia700202.us.archive.org/2/items/gov.uscourts.flsd.400546/gov.uscourts.flsd.400546.1.0.pdf
"(I assume there's no need to explain here how Spanish/Latin surnames work, because one expects journalists to know.)"
ReplyDeleteYou assume incorrectly. Have you read some of the posts here? There are some pretty stupid people who post.
5:12, for example, thinks the solution is to have 1-2 editors doing work for 80 papers. I assume he is not serious, but he also is not advancing the discussion when he makes an idiotic statement.
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ReplyDeleteIts obvious corporate wants an assembly line of stories and video content. Quality? Hahahahahahahhahaha.
ReplyDelete8:25 "blah blah blah blah "he also is not advancing the discussion"
ReplyDeleteDefine: irony