Denver Post to cut possibly two-thirds of copy editors

I dunno. Out here in Podunk we get by with two-three design/copy editor folks per night.

But you'd certainly like to see better numbers than that at the major dailies.

Sigh.

 

So they're going to make 25 of them apply for seven spots? That should do wonders for morale.

 

That is so dangerous a policy and newspaper publishers don't get it. Reporters are blindly putting up their own stories without anybody looking at them and reading them. What if a reporter writes that "sources say" a crime was committed by standout running back so and so? This can happen. I know reporters who are allowed to post anything on their beats unchecked so as to get the news up first. Very scary.

 

Excellent post. You are spot on in my opinion.

 

And when you compare circulation numbers from three years ago remember that what counts as paid circulation has changed. For example, at that time you had to sell the paper for at least 25% of the circulation price to count it as part of your circ. Now you can count it if you received even a penny. So a whole lot of dumping could be happening at hotels.

There were also a whole bunch of other changes about a year ago and ABC cautioned at that time that year over year comparisons were invalid. So if you compare apples to apples the Post circ has surely declined a whole lot more. Though I am sure that it would be easier to find the secret of where Jimmy Hoffa is buried than come up the current number of non-discounted subscriptions at the Post as compared to three years ago.

 

I find that unbelievable.

 

If people ran the Musical Chairs games at kids' parties with those kinds of numbers -- 25 kids, seven chairs -- we'd toughen up every kid in the neighborhood in no time and bullying would be a thing of the past. Grrr!

 

Will be interested to see how things are going a few months down the road.

 

They'll make do. It will suck, but they'll make do just like every other understaffed paper in the country. People have pride in their jobs and they'll do they best they can under the worst of circumstances.

Most papers have lost 2/3 of their deskers over the last five years or so. The only difference is those changes happened gradually.

 

Ya know, deskers are content producers, too. Pet peeve.