Who Needs Editors?

Remember a few months ago when I posted that a Los Angeles newspaper had let go its entire editorial staff? Well, it appears that that was not an isolated occurrence. The latest brilliant idea from a West Coast newspaper is to outsource its copy editing to India. Oy.

A while back I heard a story on NPR about the Newseum, the news museum (duh) that opened in Washington in April. But what I learned only a week ago from this Times article was that in the entire 250,000-square-foot complex, there's not a single mention of the editorial function: "The museum has essentially nothing about how newspapers are made today, and thus nothing about the lowly yet exalted copy editor." For shame!

In response to all this unsettling news, the American Copy Editors Society has launched a site where editors, writers, and others (readers, one hopes) are encouraged to share their ideas on "Why Editing Matters." My comment is #41, but I chimed in with a hearty, "Hear, hear!" (no, not "Here, here!") to all the others.

Oh, and before you get the idea that we editorial types are all doom and gloom, check out this hilarious article on the subject. Can you find all 57 errors? (via Nancy)

[On an only slightly related note: I've always preferred the single word copyeditor to the two words copy editor. My favorite dictionary, Webster's Collegiate, uses two words for copy editor but one word for copywriter, copyreader, copydesk, copyright, copyboy, copybook, etc., and even the verb copyedit—huh? My second-favorite dictionary, American Heritage, uses one word for all those terms, including copyeditor. In this post, because I was citing the American Copy Editors Society, I changed "copyediting" to "copy editing" in the first paragraph for consistency's sake.]

Comments

[scott]

I'm still chuckling that you have a second favorite dictionary. Nerd!

[Susan]

As a longtime newspaper copy editor, the usage in your Verbatim header always perplexed me. I confess I prefer the title as two words. Thanks for explaining your decision. On a related topic: The new AP stylebook has been published! Not that there will be many newspaper copy editors around to care, given all of the layoffs ...

[Di]

Love the article! I have just been hired to be an editor and project manager for some online technical publications so I enjoyed sharing this with my new associates.