Author: Gene Foreman
Published: August 24, 1998
Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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The copy desk

One of the final newsroom constituencies — and one of the unhappiest — has formed its own organization and is ready to tackle problems

The editors of The American Editor asked Gene Foreman to write a regular column on management issues pertaining to copy desks. Foreman has retired as deputy editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and will teach journalism starting this fall at Pennsylvania State University.

A new professional organization has arrived. Nurtured over the last three years by ASNE, the American Copy Editors Society wants to improve editing in our newspapers and to give voice to a group of journalists who typically do not make themselves heard.

ACES sprang from a series of conferences brokered by ASNE’s Human Resources Committee. At the fourth of the ASNE-sponsored conferences in 1997 at the University of North Carolina, more than 300 attended — and ACES was born. Pam Robinson of Newsday, the first president, expects another big crowd at this year’s conference Sept. 10-12 in Portland, Ore. ACES is now thriving on its own, though several ASNE members remain in the wings as members of its board of advisers.

Do we need another organization in journalism? Look at it this way: Copy editors may be the last major group in the newsroom to organize. Editors, managing editors, photographers, investigative reporters and editors, page designers and artists, sports editors, education writers, cartoonists, columnists, science writers, business writers, Sunday and features editors, environment writers, Sunday magazine editors, editorial writers, opinion-page editors — all of these journalists have their own organizations. That lets them get together regularly for shop talk and, not insignificantly, to influence newsroom policy and priorities.

It is time we heard from the copy editors.

Copy editor ‘disconnect’

They know better than most of their colleagues what their newspaper’s systemic problems are, because they are the ones who are there on deadline to cope with crisis after crisis. The trouble is, most of them are not inclined to bring their unique point of view to the newsroom dialogue. A likely reason is that they do not perceive they have the entree to the editor’s office that reporters and assigning editors enjoy. Another is that they work late nights and weekends, making it difficult to network with influential dayside colleagues.

For whatever reason, this is a "disconnect" in our newsrooms that we cannot afford. And ACES is ready to do something about it.

Given the gloomy picture of copy desk morale that has been sketched in ASNE work force surveys in 1988 and 1986, the mood of the participants in the national copy editors’ conferences has been refreshingly upbeat. The spirit has been one of camaraderie and professional pride. The leaders of ACES know that a measure of their organization’s success will be how clearly and compellingly they communicate copy desk issues to the rest of the newsroom.

Based on what I heard at these conferences, these are the main points they will try to get across:

• One way for top editors to help solve what is commonly known as "the copy desk problem" doesn’t cost anything. That is to treat copy editors with the same respect they accord other journalists. Encourage the people on the desk to question anything the paper does. Then pay attention.
• The next way does cost something. Spend money to hire more copy editors to protect your newspaper’s franchise — the factual accuracy and literary quality of what you print. Technology may have eliminated composing-room jobs but not all of the work the compositors used to do. Copy editors have had to absorb non-journalism tasks that threaten to make them (in Pam Robinson’s term) into "computer jockeys." Not that copy desks were adequately staffed even before the high-tech revolution.
• Let your reporters and assigning editors know that deadlines apply to everyone, not just to the copy desk. Enforce intermediate deadlines so that the copy editors will have time to do their jobs right.
• Do something about the shortage of good copy editors rather than simply raiding other papers for talent. Make editing careers more attractive to young people by paying better and by improving working conditions. Provide internships to bright college students.