Last Updated: February 03, 2000
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On copy editing
Dallas gathering provides extensive professional training
for copy editors
Please don't call it a convention. Journalists come to the national
conference of the American Copy Editors Society to learn. When workshop
sessions begin, you will find the hallways largely deserted. When you hear
a complaint, it is typically that there are too many workshops from which
to choose, that participants can't manage to fit every session they want
to attend into the time available.
More than 500 journalists from across North America attended ACES' third
national conference held in September in Dallas. They were offered 44 workshops
on topics ranging from the nuts and bolts of editing and headline writing
to technology, budgeting and the future of copy editing.
The typical conference participant spent 11 hours in workshops and could
have spent as much as 14 if he or she was able to attend the long-form
sessions that were added to the opening day. That's the equivalent of spending
six weeks in a three-credit-hour college course.
To be sure, the conference is not all work and no play. To foment social
contact between copy editors, the conference featured an opening reception,
a banquet featuring columnist Molly Ivins as keynote speaker, and an evening
of barbecue and blues at the Dallas Zoo. In conversation after conversation
at these events, one could find editors shared experiences and ideas, looking
for solutions to the problems they face in their newsrooms and for ways
to make their publications better.
Also during the conference, ACES awarded its first scholarships, presenting
$1,000 to each of four aspiring copy editors. A silent auction raised more
than $4,000 for the scholarship fund.
Bob Mong, president and general manager of The Dallas Morning News,
was honored for his contributions to ACES As chair of ASNE's Management
and Human Resources Committee for 1997-98, Mong was one of the leaders
of the ASNE initiative that provided much of the impetus for the creation
of ACES. Retiring ACES board members Beryl Adcock of the Knight Ridder
Washington Bureau and Dorothy Wilson of The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss.,
also were honored for their pioneering support.
No job fair is conducted at ACES conferences and there are no plans
to start one. The society's leadership believes that its conferences, like
the organization itself, should remain clearly focused on education. That
is not to say that you won't find a recruiter here and there, because you
will. After all, who among us is not looking for good copy editors? But
such activity is low-key and we intend to keep it that way.
One of ACES' greatest concerns has been the resistance on the part of
some managers to sending their copy editors to the society's conferences
for fear that they will be recruited away. This has been particularly problematic
in terms of attracting editors from smaller publications.
Of course, one need not travel to a conference to find a new job as
a copy editor. Such positions are abundant at every level of the business.
Thus, this is a category in which it is especially important for employers
to pursue the retention of quality employees. One of the best ways to do
that is to demonstrate your commitment to these employees by investing
in professional training that helps them to improve their skills.
And, given that movement of employees from smaller publications to larger
ones is to some degree inevitable, the wisest smaller publications are
those that establish reputations as effective training grounds, thereby
attracting the best and brightest of the new generation of journalists.
What better way to do that than to participate in professional training
programs?
ACES has worked to keep its conference costs as low as possible, an
effort greatly assisted by the generous support of our industry partners
such as this year's flagship sponsors A.H. Belo Corp. and the Hearst Newspaper
Group.
Through its conferences and other initiatives, ACES is committed to
improving the quality of journalism and the working lives of journalists
through education. But we cannot move forward without the support of newsroom
leaders. We hope to see representatives of your paper at upcoming ACES
conferences. V
Glamann is news editor of the Houston Chronicle and a founder of
ACES. He also works as a journalism educator and consultant. Contact him
at hank.glamann@chron.com.
