Denver Post to cut possibly two-thirds of copy editors

Yet another suit who thinks all copy editors do is run spellcheck on a story. I'm sick of this bullshit. I hope the Post ends up with a huge mistake in print that costs the paper big bucks in a lawsuit and loss of advertising. Maybe then they'll learn.

 

To play Devil's advocate,

Would you say that for online, or just for print?

And given that print will no longer be a part of business model in 5, 10, 15 years, why should it be held to a different standard than online?

 

Nothing but nothing tarnishes information as a product more than inaccuracy. This is suicide. Letting reporters write their own headlines? I was a reporter and columnist for over 25 years, and I never knew how to make a headline fit. Bet I'm not alone there, either.
All writers need editors. William Faulkner had a goddamn editor. A newspaper would do better firing its advertising sales staff (like they're doing much these days) than its copy editors.

 

Amen. I can't tell you how many times in my old shop that a reporter would post something to the web that included a head-smacker of a spelling or grammatical error. Sure, it's fixed as soon as you find it, but that few minutes is enough for a handful of readers to post about how stupid we looked.

I caught some whoppers when I worked on the copy desk, and the deskers caught some that slipped by me when I didn't work there. I also had section editors who, while they were working on their own stories, were the first reads for other writers and just skimmed over them. If this is the formula the Post is moving toward, it's not going to work.

 

I'm guessing this will alter the landscape for their ASE's too. They will have to assume an even larger responsibility for the accuracy/cleanliness of the copy. Maybe to the point that some day jobs shift to night?

 

Newspapers are gradually devolving to the business model of "if you see something, write about it and take a picture and we'll post it." Should do wonders for the business section.

 

The words of a former co-worker describing our management come to mind. "We aren't Ford. Quality isn't job one."

 

True. Editing your own copy is really, really hard. The brain just thinks it sees something different than what a fresh pair of eyes do.

 

Further evidence that this entire industry has gone to shit.