Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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The copy desk
First meeting of ACES — the American Copy Editors Society
— goes well in North Carolina; they intend to solve problems, not whine
about them
The atmosphere crackled with potential at the first American Copy Editors
Society meeting. The crowd gathered was charged with excitement, a feeling
of belonging and a positive outlook on the future of their craft and their
organization.
An enthusiastic Hank Glamann, copy chief of the Houston Chronicle and
one of the founders of the organization, spoke eagerly of where ACES is
going with the eagerness of a football coach. He brought his team down
to earth, however, when he mentioned a curious fact: "Some of you will
be filling out expense reports for the very first time" and offered lessons
on how to do it.
The knowing nods and low tones of agreement said a great deal about
the way newspapers have traditionally treated copy editors.
Night shifts. No dinner breaks. No holidays off. Weekend work. Split
days off. Professional development is almost unheard of.
To paraphrase one editor at the conference, "How could my boss punish
me in a way that could make it worse?"
"The Mount Everest of copy editor discontent," first chronicled in ASNE’s
1989 report, "The Changing Face of the Newsroom" and recurring in its subsequent
reports, was the main reason the National Copy Editors Conference at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ever took place. The report
was a main impetus for the formation of ACES, which is ready to take it
on in a positive way.
"For a very long time, copy editors have felt disenfranchised. And we’ve
all been there at midnight saying, ‘This is a load of crap,’ " Glamann
said. But now, "we have a certain responsibility. We can no longer shift
the responsibility to someone in a glass office."
ACES President Pam Robinson of CMP Publications in Jericho, N.Y., was
more direct. "This is not an organization formed to give people a forum
to gripe. … We don’t need a national conference to do that — we can stay
at our papers and complain. What we’re trying to do is better ourselves
professionally, through workshops, dissemination of educational materials,
connecting with editors at other papers so we can see how other papers
have dealt with the problems we might be facing and so on."
To this end, ACES organized several sessions during the conference,
ranging from the basics, like pagination and headlines, to the less traditional
(for copy editors, anyway) like leadership.
Editing in hard times
At The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., in the course of two years
copy editors went through a redesign of the newspaper, a restructuring
of the newsroom, new ownership, pagination, new press installation and
a hurricane. In Milwaukee, the Journal and the Sentinel were merged, as
were the copy desks.
Among the lessons they shared:
-
Build in time to practice anything that is new.
-
Make sure the computer people are on hand for the copy desk to contact
during any major change.
-
Copy editors should be on the decision-making teams.
-
Tell copy editors what you know when you know it.
Other lessons include being aware of stress, banning whining and reminding
people of the positives of the situation.
Being a better boss
Copy chiefs and other managers discussed with Bill Connolly of The New
York Times, issues and problems of managing copy editors.
An example: "I had two employees who had a personality conflict ...
and wouldn’t speak for three weeks."
Connolly — and others — stressed that doing the work is paramount on
a copy desk, and that if conflicts hinder it, you must come down hard.
Concentrating on the work — rather than the source of the conflict — is
key.
Several questions involved evaluations, ranging from managers in newspapers
where evaluating employees is forbidden to the "no praise in writing" policy
at another.
Evaluations are key to change, Connolly said. Without them, employees
have no idea how managers feel and won’t improve. The "no praise" rule
should be gutted because it’s just as important for employees to know when
they have done well.
Finally, the commonly heard "my desk whines too much" complaint was
raised. "If it’s affecting everyone around them, tell them to cut it out,"
Connolly said. It all boils down to this: "If it affects the work, then
I’ll do something, but otherwise, tough luck."
Leadership
Jerry Sass Jr., copy chief of The Oregonian, Portland, believes that
leadership resides in everyone and that his job is to nurture it. In fact,
he has hired assistants with totally different approaches because of their
leadership abilities.
How do you find leaders? Look for people counseling others, tackling
little projects with energy, integrity and intelligence, and who are smarter
than you.
Another part of leadership is defending your employees. Key here is
to examine facts before blaming people, find common ground and listen
to all sides before making a decision.
People must feel secure about themselves and their jobs in order for
this type of leadership to occur, though.
Good start
The ACES conference had a auspicious beginning. In the end, though,
it will be up to the copy editors themselves to get newsrooms to think
of them differently. Glamann of the Houston Chronicle knows this. "The
excuses are gone. It is up to us now. We know the problems; it is now up
to us to make the other people understand the problems."
Branson is publications director of ASNE.
