The lowly copy editor

I would argue that a good copy editor is as valuable as anyone on the staff.

They are definitely the most unappreciated people on every staff.

 

I work at a place like that, where the design desk is mostly separate and the copy desk is rarely the first read on a story. Every day, I correct probably a dozen facts, rewrite five or six full paragraphs because of horrible grammar (or syntax) and question the editors on sourcing or factual inconsistencies on a story or two, at least.

Our assignment editors are all garbage, overworked or both, and they rely on us heavily just to make the stories readable. I've had single stories with as many as 10 factual errors when they reached the desk.

It's not the most creative line of work. We can get clever in a headline or even in a cutline on occasion. But my fellow copy editors are thoughtful, experienced and, in most cases, passionate people. We work hard and don't get much appreciation aside from the occasional dinner one of the managers might buy for the night staff. It's not my goal to end my career as a copy editor, in part because I don't know that there's much of a future for copy editors. But I'm going to take the diligence I learned on the desk to whatever I do next.

My face is twitching a little right now from reading this horseshit. This sentence rings particularly hollow: "He isn't trusted, or perhaps good enough, to take on the 'real' editing tasks of deciding what gets written and massaging words and paragraphs to produce a tightened final product." We are not fact checkers at a magazine. Even at a paper big enough that we are a separate desk, copy editors do a hell of a lot more "massaging words and paragraphs to produce a tightened final product" than we seem to be getting credit for here. Opinion is a different animal, and copy editors don't get the same leeway on columns at most places. But painting with a broad brush suggests this writer has never been to a small newsroom or seen a sports desk handle the Super Bowl or Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

I'm about to go to work. First, I'm going to punch something.

 

I'm feelin' for ya, man. Bottom line, that joker who wrote that doesn't understand a hell of a lot.

I would've loved to make this guy watch our four-person desk in the 2 1/2 hours after the Super Bowl -- the working together, the planning on the run.

 

I blame Canada.

 

I've told this story before, but at one of my internships where I was supposed to be writing, they made me work most of my time there as a copy editor. I can't even put into words how much I hated it.

But it was the best thing that could have happened to me. It taught me to always write the length that they told me to. To always file on time, to always communicate with the desk and that if you're going to complain about something the desk let through, you better hope your raw copy has been perfect to that point. It also taught me that no matter what, you always run spell check.

I watched as a columnist demanded to know what three lines were trimmed from a story. I watched as a preps writer chewed out the slot guy for not putting his story out front. I watched a baseball writer file a gamer on deadline with eight facts that needed to be checked, and this was pre-Internet.

I also saw a columnist that would come by the office once every other month and take the desk out for drinks and would say, "I know you think nobody appreciates you, but I do..."

I also saw that if the desk likes you, your life will be made considerably easier.

 

The part that really gets me is that I already deal with so many of my friends and family members wondering when they're going to "let me" cover the big team in the area. They ask me to tell them when they can read something I wrote or to let them know when I write a big feature. That's not the goal. Going from copy editor to reporter isn't a promotion, at least not here; it's a lateral move.

But you always hope your coworkers appreciate you. And many do. Some people have thin skin and handle being called on something very poorly, but those people are often the ones to come to you the next day with thanks. It's a job for grinders and a job that grinds you into a better writer, editor and journalist. And it really burns to see a fellow journalist (or even a columnist ) who doesn't get it. And this kind of bullshit only popularizes the myth.

 

I worked for eight sports editors (11 if you count internships) during my career, including a couple of the big names and all of them would side with the writers over the desk 9 times out of 10. Even as a writer, I never liked that.

 

Now, that's some crazy talk.

And from my experience, page design is avoided at all costs by most anyone who has a title that allows them not to bother with it.

 

Hey, Yoni:

There's a typo in the third graf ... unless, you know, you were trying to be funny.

 

Well, nobody wanted to be his copy editor. That's where he got the idea that they're a dying breed.