chapter

1

The Job of the Editor

 

 

 

• The Job of the Editor

• Tools of an Editor

• The Making of News

• Beginning the Editing Process

• Modern Challenges

• Exercises

The St. Paul Pioneer Press shocked its readers—many of them avid fans of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball team—on March 10, 1999, by publishing a story that exposed academic dishonesty by members of the team and its coaches. The story, which had been weeks in the making, appeared in print just one day before the team was set to tip off against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Many Gophers fans believed that the team had a chance to make it to the Final Four that year.

Instead, because of the story, four members of the team, two of them starters, were immediately suspended, and Minnesota lost to Gonzaga the next night, ending the hopes of many of the newspaper’s readers that their team would be part of the collegiate basketball elite.

The timing of the story had put the editors in a quandary. The story had been carefully researched by reporter George Dohrmann, who worked closely with sports editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz. The two had told no one else on the staff about it for several weeks, fearing that word would get out and that the Minneapolis Star, the Pioneer Press’s major competitor, would start its own investigation. Every important detail needed to be confirmed or documented in some way, and that took time. Sources were reluctant to talk, and when they did, it was hard to get them to respond immediately.

Finally, around March 1, as the basketball season was drawing to a close, the story came together. The major parts of the story were solid. An academic counselor had written papers for a number of players; coaches had been aware that this had happened; and the athletic department had covered it up when the NCAA had heard something and inquired about it. Dohrmann spent several days nailing down the final parts of the story, and by March 9 it was ready.

But then there was the question of timing. The next night, the Gophers would play their first tournament game. Should the newspaper hold the story until the tournament was finished or at least until the Gophers had been eliminated? Would that be fair to the readers—or the teams that the Gophers were playing? What if the newspaper held the story, even for a day, and the Star or some other news organization got wind of it and broke it first? A scoop that had taken a reporter months to put together would be gone.

In the end, there was little choice. The story had to be printed. When it was and the Gophers lost the tournament opener, the editors came in for some blistering criticism from their readers and from Minnesota partisans. Even then-Governor Jesse Ventura weighed in, accusing the newspaper of “sensational journalism” and timing the story to hurt the team.

Scoops, the watchdog role of the press, the drive to beat the competition, angering readers—the story of the St. Paul Pioneer Press’s exposure of the Minnesota cheating scandal has all of these elements of modern journalism. (A complete and fascinating account of this drama is at the Journalism.org web site, http://journalism.org/resources/education/case_studies/minnesota.asp.) At the heart of the drama are the editors. While a careful and persistent reporter researched and wrote the story, editors made key decisions every step of the way to pursue and publish it. And it was the editors who faced an angry public when the story broke.

Journalism is a collaborative effort, and the people who make that collaboration work are editors. From copy editors who help writers to craft the language of their reports to executive editors who make key decisions about the direction of their publication, editors are vital to the production of what we know as journalism.

The Job of the Editor

 

No one has a more important job in today’s media environment than the editor. Editors take on responsibilities far beyond those of a writer. Editors must not only be responsible for the work of reporters and writers but also have the whole publication in mind in going about their routines. They must understand the publication’s purpose and approach in handling information and serving audiences. Editors must know the language and style rules of their publication. They must lead, cajole, and sometimes force their writers into doing their best work.

Editors must understand context. They must be sensitive to the nuances of how information fits together. They must have enough memory about recent and ancient events that they can judge the nature, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they present.

Editors must be deeply steeped in the culture of journalism. As a part of their nature, they must understand the importance of accurate information and the generally accepted procedures for ensuring accuracy. They must value the faith, trust, and intelligence of their audience. They must know that hard work is the norm—something that the profession assumes but also rewards.

Editors must also lead. They must have the highest standards and expect others in their environments to meet those standards. Their very attitudes and approaches to the daily routine of editing should tell all those around them that honesty, integrity, hard work, devotion to accuracy, intelligence, and humanity are the norm.

The job of the editor is more than just fixing copy and designing a good page. The editor sets the standard and tone for the kind of journalism that is practiced at a publication. That is why the job of the editor is the most important.

Every place that handles information and puts it into some form for distribution needs an editor, a person who understands the information, the procedure by which it will be processed, and the medium through which it will be disseminated. We might traditionally think of editors as working for newspapers or magazines, but editors—no matter what their job titles—are everywhere. This Information Age cannot do without them.

Tools of an Editor

 

The tools of an editor have changed drastically in a short period of time. Only a few years ago the principal tools were pencils, eraser, paper, scissors, and glue. A typewriter was required for rewriting or headline writing. For headline writing the editor would need a head count guide. For layout and picture sizing, picture wheels, dummy sheets, and pica poles (a printer’s ruler) were necessary.

Another tool that an editor needed was a set of copy editing symbols (see Appendix A). These symbols were used to correct copy in a standard and understandable way. One of the major purposes of hard copy editing was to prepare copy to be sent to a typesetter. In addition, an editor needed certain reference materials, such as a stylebook, a dictionary, a thesaurus, a city telephone directory, an atlas, an encyclopedia, and an almanac.

Today, these tools have been largely replaced by the computer. Editors use computers to call up stories, make changes in them, and save the files. They use computers to lay out pages, write headlines, and crop photos. Some computers even have reference materials, such as a dictionary, city directory, and stylebook, stored within their memory, so editors might not even need these books to sit on their desks. And, of course, editors today also have the Internet, a potential reference gold mine.

Although the tools of editing have changed a great deal, the most important tool of editing has not changed: The brain is the editor’s ultimate tool. If an editor does not use that tool, all the physical aids in the newsroom will not help.

Editors must have agile minds. They must have a wide assortment of facts and concepts they can call up for instant use. They must know history and literature. Their knowledge of grammar and punctuation must be thorough. They need not be expert spellers (although it certainly helps), but they must be able to spot and question possible misspellings. They should know their communities geographically and socially. They must know where to get information as well as a reporter does; many editors spend a good deal of their time developing their own sources.

Editors must be able to find mistakes and to question what they do not understand. If an editor does not understand something in a story, few readers will. Editors must also be able to spot errors in logic or lapses in common sense. They should be wordsmiths, people who not only know how to use words precisely but also have a feel for the language and a love for good writing.

In addition to all of these traits, editors must have in their heads a clear idea of what kind of publication they are producing. They must know what is and what is not appropriate, what similar or opposing publications are doing, and the ins and outs of their own operation. Editors must edit with readers in mind, and to do that, they need some information on who the readers are and what they expect from the publication.

The editor described here is not superhuman. In fact, many such editors exist on many publications. But they did not become editors of high caliber overnight. For most it took years of hard work and concentration to acquire the tools of a good editor. And for all such editors maintaining and adding to those tools is a matter of constant effort. Students who wish to become editors must begin now by sharpening their skills and expanding their knowledge and sensitivity.

The Making of News

 

News does not happen naturally. It is the result of decisions made by journalists, particularly editors. Editors decide what events their news organizations will cover and what events will be ignored. Something mundane or routine can become a major news event because of the decisions of a few editors and news directors. A similar event (and possibly one that is more important) might be passed over completely.

The decisions about what is and is not news are based on some traditional news values that are widely shared in the field of journalism. Beginning students need to understand these values, for they are the basis upon which journalists decide whether or not an event is news. It should be noted that not all information that editors handle is news in the strictest sense. Much publication content is just useful information, such as library hours and bus schedules. Anything that an editor handles, however, deserves his or her best effort. Millions of events occur in our society every day. Only a few of them are selected by editors, and at least one of the following criteria must be present for an event to be classified as news.

Impact. Events that affect people’s lives are classified as news. The event itself might involve only a few people, but the consequences may be wide ranging. For example, if Congress passes a bill to raise taxes or if a researcher discovers a cure for a form of cancer, the action will affect large numbers of people. These events would have impact, and they would be considered news.

Timeliness. Timeliness is a news value that is common to almost all news stories as well as to the useful information previously mentioned. Timeliness refers to the recency of an event. Without the element of timeliness most events cannot be considered news. For example, a trial that occurred last year is not news; a trial that is going on right now could be news. How much time has to elapse before an event can no longer be considered news? There is no specific answer to that question that will apply in every case. Most events that are more than a day to a day and a half old are not thought to be news. (Look in today’s newspaper or watch a television news program to see whether you can find a news story about an event that occurred two days ago.)

Prominence. Prominent people make news, sometimes even when they are doing trivial things. The president of the United States is a prime example. Whenever he takes a trip, even for purely personal and private reasons, his movements are covered in great detail by the news media. The president is a prominent and important person. Anything he does is likely to have an impact on the country, and people are interested in his actions. The president is not the only example of a prominent person who often makes news. Movie stars, writers, athletes, advocates of social causes—all of these people make news simply because they are well known. Or are they well known because they made news? Communication scholars would say both.

Proximity. Events close to home are more likely to be news than the same events elsewhere. For example, a car wreck that kills two people on a road in your home county is more likely to be reported in the local news media than the same kind of wreck a thousand miles away. We are interested in the things that happen around us. If we know a place where something goes on, we are more likely to picture that event and have a feeling for it and for the people involved.

Conflict. When people disagree, when they fight, when they have arguments—that’s news, particularly if one of the other news values, such as prominence, is involved. Conflict is one of the journalist’s—and the reader’s—favorite news values because it generally ensures that there is an interesting story. One of the reasons courtroom trial stories are so popular with newspaper readers as well as with television watchers is that the central drama involves conflict: competing forces, each vying to defeat the other.

The bizarre or unusual. That which rarely happens is sometimes considered news. There is an adage in journalism: “When a dog bites a man, that’s not news; when a man bites a dog, that’s news.” The adage refers to events that are relatively unimportant or that may involve obscure people, but they are interesting to readers and they enliven a publication. For example, it is not news when someone’s driver’s license is revoked (unless that someone is a prominent person); it is news, however, when the license that is revoked belongs to a person called “the worst driver in the state” because that person has had twenty-two accidents in the past two years.

Currency or trends. Issues that have current interest often have news value, and events surrounding those issues can sometimes be considered news. For example, a panel discussion of doctors might be held in your community. Normally, such a discussion might not provoke much interest from journalists. However, if the discussion topic were “The Morality of Abortion,” the news value of the event would change, and there would likely be a number of newspaper, radio, and television journalists covering it. Issues with this value come and go, but there are always several such issues being discussed by the public.

A news editor must make decisions about the events to be covered on the basis of these news values. News values should be used in deciding the kind of information needed for a story and in helping the writer to organize the story so that the most important and most interesting information gets to the reader in the most efficient manner.

A journalist who is gathering information, writing a story, or editing one tries to answer the following six basic questions for the reader:

• Who. Who are the important people in the story? Is everyone included so that the story can be accurately and adequately told? Is everyone properly identified?

• What. What is the major action or event of the story? What are the actions or events of lesser importance? A journalist ought to be able to state the major action of the story in one sentence, and this should be the theme of the story.

• When. When did the event occur? Readers of news stories should have a clear idea of when the story took place. The when element is rarely the best way to begin a story, because it is not often the most important part, but it should come early in the story and should be clearly stated.

• Where. Where did the event occur? Journalists cannot assume that readers will know or be able to figure out where an event took place. The location or locations of the event or action should be clearly written.

• Why and How. The reader deserves an explanation of events. If a story is about something bizarre, unusual, or confusing, the writer should offer some explanation so that questions that the story raises in the reader’s mind are answered. The writer also needs to set the events or actions in a story in the proper context. Reference should be made to previous events or actions if they help to explain things to the reader. Editors need to ensure that writers have done all of these things.

Beginning the Editing Process

 

The basic job of the editor is making decisions. Editors must understand their publications and their audience and make decisions that further the traditions of the publication and meet the expectations of the audience. Editors must also decide what reporters cover and what stories they write. They must decide on how those stories are structured and written. This book will deal with many of the decisions that the editor has to make.

Most editors, no matter what level they achieve within the news organization, begin their work as copy editors. That is, they read the work that other people have written and improve it. Even as they rise in the organization, most editors continue to be involved in copy editing to some extent. Copy editing is basic, and that is where we will begin. Examining the procedures of copy editing is also a good way of looking ahead at many of the principles and concepts of this book.

On a day-to-day basis, no set of decisions is more important than those the copy editor has to make with every story that he or she reads. The basic procedure of editing is reading a piece of copy, correcting technical mistakes (spelling, grammar, punctuation) and other problems of the copy, and making a judgment about the suitability of the copy for publication. Editors also direct coverage and plan content, deciding which events, ideas, and issues the rest of the world will find in their mass media. In doing all this, editors have several options: They may decide that the copy can be published with few or no changes; they may ask the reporter to rewrite it to add new facts or to give it a new emphasis; they may delay its publication for a more appropriate time; or they may decide that the copy or the subject matter is not the kind that should go into their publication and may “kill” or “spike” the copy.

An editor is generally the first reader of the story after it has been written (the first, we would hope, of many). The editor of a story is in many ways its most important reader because it is the job of the editor alone to make copy presentable to readers. If the editor does not do this, no one else in the editorial process will.

Ideally, a copy editor should be able to read through any story at least three times. Sometimes, of course, there isn’t time to do that, but here we will assume that for any given story the time is available. Here is how that time should be used.

The first reading of any story should be a fairly quick one. This reading allows the editor to get the feel of the story—to find out what it is about and to spot any major problems that are readily identifiable. The editor should note the story content and structure. This first reading might be all that an editor needs to realize that the story should go back to the reporter for rewriting. As much as possible, editors should do first readings as if they know little or nothing about the subjects. This, of course, is the position of the average reader on first reading the story.

If the editor deems the story good enough for the rest of the editing procedure, the second reading should take place much more slowly. It is during this reading that the major editing is done. Accuracy, clarity, and brevity are the major goals of the editor. With these goals in mind, one should use the following procedures in editing any story.

The lead. The editor should pay particular attention to the first paragraph (often called the lead and pronounced “LEED”) or, in the case of the magazine article, the introduction. It is the most important part of a story. A good lead will get the reader into a story; a boring or confusing lead will send the reader somewhere else. Does the lead convey the most important information of the story (if it is a news story)? Does it give the reader an accurate idea of what the story is about? Does it raise expectations in the reader that will be fulfilled by the story? Does it emphasize the proper facts? Does it need to be updated or localized?

Story structure. After the lead, the editor should deal with the organization of the story. Is the story put together in a logical manner, especially with regard to the lead? Facts should be given in a manner that will satisfy the reader. Not all of the facts can be given at once, nor should they be. The story should develop in a way that allows the reader to understand the information the story is attempting to convey. The editor’s job is to make sure that happens.

Completeness. Every story should have all the facts necessary for the reader to understand the story. Although reporters and editors must make certain assumptions about the readers’ prior knowledge, these assumptions must not be carried too far. For instance, an editor who is dealing with a city council story cannot assume that the reader has read last week’s city council story. If some action that the council takes is a follow-up to action taken the previous week, the story must explain that.

Another area of completeness that is often overlooked involves the failure of a story to provide all of the facts the reader has been led to expect. A story might talk about a new day-care center that is about to open. The reader, particularly a parent who might want to use the center, would want to know what hours the center plans to keep, what age children it will accept, and how much the care will cost. A story without such facts would be incomplete.

Grammar, spelling, and punctuation. A knowledge of grammar and punctuation and of how to use a dictionary are basic abilities an editor must have. No editor will survive without them. Words must be spelled correctly, and grammar and punctuation must conform to standard rules of English. The editor who consistently allows incorrect grammar and misspelled words into a publication is failing on the most basic level, and such a publication cannot maintain credibility.

Style. Every publication should have a set style, and every editor should ensure that the publication conforms to this style. Most newspapers use the Associated Press Stylebook and supplement this with a local stylebook. Style should not be a straitjacket into which an editor forces all copy; rather, it should be a help to writers and editors in achieving accuracy and consistency.

Objectivity. Is the story fair? Has the reporter attempted to gather all points of view? Are the facts slanted toward a particular opinion? Many journalists feel that objectivity is an unattainable goal, yet it remains a goal and tradition of American journalism, and the editor is the best insurance that this goal is being actively pursued. Point-of-view writing is permitted in some parts of the newspaper, particularly the editorial and sports pages, and “attitude” writing is the stock in trade of many magazines. But young writers and editors must first be seasoned in the discipline of objectivity before venturing too far outside that tradition.

Names and titles. Journalists should be particularly careful in the handling of names and titles, and editors must make every effort to ensure their accuracy. Names that have unusual spellings should always be checked. Editors need to remember that even the most common names can have uncommon spellings (such as Smith, Smyth, and Smythe). Nothing should be taken for granted in dealing with a person’s name. There is no quicker way for a publication to lose credibility than by misspelling a name.

Titles, too, need special care. Formal titles should be correctly stated; they are extremely important to the people who hold them. Titles should also be descriptive of the jobs people have. If they are not, editors may consider adding a line of job description in the story if this will clarify things to the reader.

Taste, tone, and mood. A hilarious story about a car that flips over and bounces around a road isn’t so amusing if two people were killed in the wreck. Editors should ensure that their stories convey the proper tone and mood and accurately reflect the facts. In deciding about taste, an editor often will have to weigh the importance of the facts and people in the story. For instance, when a president goes to the hospital for an operation on his hemorrhoids, an editor will have to decide whether that situation is important enough to merit a story. There are no ironclad rules governing taste, tone, and mood; there are only editors who have the sensitivity to make thoughtful and logical decisions.

Quotations and attribution. Good editors understand how to use quoted material properly. A good news story usually has a mixture of direct and indirect quotations, and a news writer must have a good sense of when to use them.

Most news stories will use more indirect quotations than direct quotations. An indirect quotation may contain one or a few of the same words that a speaker has used but will also have words that the speaker did not use.

Indirect quotations should maintain the meaning of what the speaker said but use fewer words than the speaker used. Competent writers quickly learn that most people use more words than necessary to say what they have to say. Writers and editors can paraphrase what people say and be more efficient than the speakers themselves. Journalists can get more information into their stories if they use indirect quotes.

If that is the case, why worry about using direct quotations at all? Why not just use indirect quotations all of the time?

Skillful writers and editors use direct quotations to bring a story to life, to show that the people in the story are real, and to enhance the story’s readability. Occasionally, people will say something in a memorable or colorful way that the writer should preserve. Think about some of the famous direct quotations in American history:

Another reason for using a direct quote is that some quotations simply cannot be paraphrased. They are too vivid and colorful, and they capture a feeling better than a writer could. For instance, when Brent Fullwood was playing college football for Auburn, he was once stopped from making a game-winning touchdown against archrival Alabama as time was running out. Rory Turner, the linebacker who made the hit on Fullwood, was asked about the play after the game. Still high from his accomplishment, he said, “I waxed the dude!” That quotation would be impossible to paraphrase.

The following are some of the basic rules for using direct quotations in news stories:

• Use the speaker’s exact words. Anything that is within quotation marks should be something that the speaker actually said. The words should be the speaker’s, not the writer’s.

• Use direct quotations sparingly. Good writers and editors will let people speak, but they won’t let them ramble on. Most news writers avoid putting one direct quote after another in a story. Piling direct quotations on top of one another does readers little good.

• Use direct quotations to supplement and clarify the information presented in the indirect quotes. In a news story a direct quote is rarely used to present new or important information to the reader. It is most commonly used to follow up on information that has already been put in the story.

Knowing how to deal with direct and indirect quotations is one of the most important skills that a news writer or editor can acquire. It takes some practice to paraphrase accurately and to select the direct quotations that should be used in a story. The key to both is to listen—listen carefully so that you understand what the speaker is saying and so that you remember the exact words that the speaker has used. For the editor a sensitivity to the good quotation and to the reader’s tolerance must be developed.

The correct sequence for a direct quote and its attribution is DIRECT QUOTE, SPEAKER, VERB. This sequence is generally used in news stories because it follows the inverted pyramid philosophy of putting the most important information first. Usually, what has been said is the most important element a journalist has; who said it, assuming that the person has already been identified in the story, is the second most important element; the fact that it was said is the third most important element.

One of the common faults among news writers is the inverted attribution: putting the verb ahead of the speaker.

This example violates one of the basic structures of English sentence: Subjects normally come before verbs. Remember, one of the major goals of the journalist is to make the writing of a story unobtrusive and the content of the story dominant. Sticking with basic English forms is one of the ways in which the journalist can do this.

One additional note: In publications, use the past tense of verbs in news stories unless the action is continuing at the time of publication or unless it will happen in the future. Writing

is inaccurate unless the president goes around continually saying it. Chances are that it was said only once. It happened in the past, and that’s the way it should be written. Although you can find examples of the use of the present tense in many publications, it is not standard treatment. As with most rules, there are valid exceptions. For example, the style of most broadcast reports is to use the present tense even though the event has already happened, and the Wall Street Journal and many magazines use the present tense for all or most attribution verbs. Although that might work for the magazines and the Wall Street Journal, it is not the standard way to handle attribution for newspaper and Web journalism. Other tense exceptions, which we will cover later, are cut-lines and headlines. Most headline and cutline verbs employ the present tense even though the events they describe usually have already happened.

Triteness and clichés. Even the most common news stories should have some freshness about them. Editors need to be sensitive to the fact that some words and phrases are being overused in their publications, and they should periodically attempt to change their habits. “Dead on arrival,” “straight as an arrow,” “very,” “basically,” “quite,” “mainly,” “really,” and “actually” are all words and phrases that can easily show up too many times in a publication.

Transitions. Few things contribute more to the clarity of a story and the ease of reading than proper transitions. Readers should be able to follow the development of a story easily. Each succeeding part of a story should be tied to a previous part of the story. Readers should not be jolted by some totally new subject in the middle of a story. Transitions of sense—in which key ideas and phrases are alluded to—are better than transitions that depend on obvious transition words such as “moreover,” “however,” or “nevertheless.”

Wordiness. A story should not be one word longer than necessary to maintain accuracy and clarity. Most reporters, especially young ones, use too many words. Editors should be on the lookout for such expressions as “a total of,” “in order to,” “as a result of,” and “at this point in time.”

Repetition and redundancy. Speakers who use the same words over and over quickly become boring, and so do writers. English is a language with a large variety of words that are easily understood by most people. Reporters and editors should take advantage of this variety and make sure they don’t repeat major nouns, verbs, or adjectives in one sentence or paragraph.

A redundancy is a phrase or set of words in which the same meaning is transmitted twice. Some redundancies make writers and editors look foolish. “A dead corpse,” “we should not forget to remember,” and “apathetic people who don’t care” are phrases in need of editing.

Libel. Watch the way in which people are described and quoted in a story. Will a person be held up to public ridicule because of the story? Will someone’s position in the community be damaged? Is it possible that anyone will be deprived of livelihood because of the story? Remember that not only people but companies, associations, and products can be libeled. Editors should be particularly careful when a story deals with illegal, immoral, or unethical activity and should make sure that what the story says is correct and that the reporter has made every effort to write a complete story. But it is not only fear of libel that should keep us from mistreating people. As editors, we should respect our sources and our readers and show compassion for them in every situation.

Offensive language. Different publications maintain different policies on printing offensive language. Not too many years ago, the words “hell” and “damn” were regularly expunged from a story. Today, much stronger language finds its way into many publications. The editor’s job is to see that the publication’s policies are carried out. If no such policy exists, one should be developed that takes into account the goals of the publication and the sensibilities of its readers. As with most editorial decision making, it always helps to confer with others on sensitive matters.

Responsibility. An editor is responsible for any piece of copy that he or she handles. Copy that is confusing, that raises unanswered questions in the reader’s mind, or that does not give the reader complete information should not be put into a publication. An editor never has the excuse, “Well, I knew there was something wrong with that story, but there was nothing I could do about it.” If there is something wrong with the story that an editor cannot fix, the story should go back to the reporter. No editor can evade the responsibility for the copy that he or she handles.

Modern Challenges

 

In addition to the difficulties and demands that confront them each day, twenty-first century editors face a variety of challenges that are unique to this era. Although each generation of editors has had its own contemporary problems, these have often had to do with changing technology or difficult political or social situations. Such situations also face today’s editors, but they are burdened with problems that other editors have never faced.

One such problem is the multiplicity of news organizations and the wide variety of choices that readers and viewers have for obtaining news and information. Editors of previous generations knew that for most of the audience, access to news and information was limited to a relatively few outlets. This is no longer the case. The World Wide Web and a plethora of twenty-four-hour television news channels vie for the audience’s time and attention. A television viewer with reasonable cable access may have as many as a dozen news channels available at one time. A Web user can get news and information from a seemingly endless number of web sites. Even a newspaper reader can usually obtain more than the local newspaper on just about any city street corner. Gaining the attention of individual members of the audience has become an increasingly hard thing to do.

For editors of print publications, particularly newspapers, the wide variety of news outlets has exacerbated another continuing problem: the overall decline of readership, particularly among young people. Lack of young readers has been a serious problem for newspapers for more than two generations. Its seriousness has been mitigated by the fact that even if people do not read newspapers as young adults, they usually become newspaper readers as they settle into a career and community life. Newspapers are becoming aware, however, that with the current generation of young adults this development of the newspaper reading habit might not occur. Web sites independent of newspapers that gather and disseminate local news and information are still relatively few in number, but their ranks are growing, and they may present a significant challenge to newspapers in the near future.

Another challenge that is unique to this generation is the acceleration of the news process. Not only are more news organizations operating on a twenty-four-hour basis, but more of them are covering events live—even local or regional events. Before this acceleration occurred, a newspaper editor could count on several hours to question, edit, and prepare most articles. A television news reporter knew that the only deadline he or she had to face was that of the six o’clock or eleven o’clock news. Today, deadlines occur far more often than that, particularly if news organizations are operating a web site and its users are expecting to see the latest information there. The information on these sites has to meet the same standards that are applied to information in print or on the air, but editors have less time to enforce these standards. Journalism still has not figured out how to deal with the accelerated pace of news and information, and it will be the coming generation of editors (those who are likely to be reading this book) that will do so.

Yet another challenge for the modern-day editor is a more active and involved audience. With email and other means of communicating instantly, readers and viewers are more likely to be in touch with their media organizations, and the journalists themselves are more touchable. This situation represents a profound change from the environment in which journalism has been practiced until this point. Journalists and their editors have been relatively protected from their audiences and their complaints and suggestions. Technology has empowered the audience in a variety of ways, so that such insulation is no longer possible or desirable. The editors of the future will have to figure out to how manage and exploit the interaction they have with their audience.

Editors have always faced tough challenges in maintaining the standards of the profession and developing practices that ensure the news organization’s credibility. Many of the factors just cited—the growth of technology, the multiplicity of the media, the acceleration of the news, and the interaction with the audience—will make maintaining those standards even more difficult. We are part of an age of free-flowing information and opinion, and journalistic ethics and integrity are often besieged by the drive to entertain and build audiences. Editors have to maintain a constant vigilance against people and procedures that would harm journalism’s ability to deliver information in a fair and honest fashion.

chapter

1
Exercises

The exercises in this chapter present a variety of problems for an editor to solve. They are designed for the beginning copy editor. They should be read carefully, and the editor should not hesitate to change what needs to be changed and to ask questions for clarification or more information.

Exercise 1.1: Copy Editing

The following story contains a number of errors that need to be corrected. Many of them are technical and easy to spot. The story is a minor one, but to an editor, no error is a minor one. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that the editor needs to pay attention to the details on every story. Follow your instructor’s directions in doing this exercise. You should raise a question at any point where the copy poses a problem for you.

 

A 66 year old Junior College instructro from Hamblen won the masters’ title in the State Open Checkers Tourney at a localmotel Sunday.

Hix Davenport who teaches electornics at Central state junior college out-scored fifteen opponents in the top division to cap the victory in the American Checker Federation Tournament.

His prze was 100 dollars.

In the secondary division—the majors’ division—Luke Moane of Westville, Iowa was the top winner, bringing home $50.

“It’s fun to play the game mostly, said Holley. “I like to win, but you cant aways win. I just enjoy playing the game.”

The tourment drew 41 contestants.

Exercise 1.2: Copy Editing

The following story contains a number of errors that need to be corrected. Make any changes that you believe are necessary to make the story read more easily. Follow your instructor’s directions in doing this exercise. You should raise a question at any point where the copy poses a problem for you.

 

BARABOO, Wis.—Hunters over the weekend kiled 14 racoons at the International Crane Foundation, wheree the animals have been xxxattacking rare birds.

Foundtion administrater Joan Fordham said Baraboo hunters Willard and jeff Giese and Matt Kannenberg shot 7 raccoons Friday night and more seven Sunday night.

Department Of Natural Resources game warden Dennis Jameson helped organise the hunt after raccons, unffazed by electric fences traps and nylon netting spread over the pens, killed three rare birds in as many nights last week.

The raccoons victims included Tex a rare whlping crane who became something of a celebrity because she pxxformed the crane mating dance with foundation director George Archibald before her 1st chick was born last month.

Foundation spokeswomen Sue Rogers said the hunters believe there may be as many as 50 raccoons in the nearby woods. Berrys have not yet ripened and the raccoons may be getting desprate for food she said.

Exercise 1.3: Copy Editing

As with the previous exercises, the point here is that no errors are minor ones. Follow your instructor’s directions in doing this exercise. You should raise a question at any point where the copy poses a problem for you.

 

Flooding due to last nights rain storm, has damaged sevierely consturction work on the city’s newest radio station.

WXXg, which was secheduled to go on the air next month, has had it’s air date moved back at least a mont, according to station spokesman Linda Rival.

Miss Rival, who is also one of the station’s co-owners and has been advertised as planning to be one of the station’s diskjockeys, said the floods severely damaged the interiro of the station and knowked down the half-completed towar.

“We haven’t detemined the full extent of the damage, said Miss Rival, but I’s sure its going to be bad.

She said the station would be delayed at least a month in going on the air.

The flooding was caused by some heavy rains that feel throughout the state earlier in the weak. Several homs and businessses in the area of the station known as Flat plains was reported damaged.

Exercise 1.4: Editing a Speech Story

The following story is a speech story. It is not very good because the reporter did not do a good job in covering the speech. There is little that you can do about that. However, you can correct the errors and make it more sensible for the readers. Follow your instructor’s directions in doing this exercise. The story contains a number of AP style errors, so you will need your AP stylebook to work on this exercise. You should raise a question at any point where the copy poses a problem for you.

 

Rev. Madison Holcomb, leader of the right wing God and Country political action group, spoke to a crowd of about 200 people last night who were gathered on the steps of the First Baptist Church.

Rev. Holcomb, of Kry Largot, Florida, spoke on a variety of topics, including abortion, homosexuality and the current efforts of his God and Country group to boycot television programs which are sexually implicit.

“Abortion is a sin against God and a sine against man,” said Holcomb, as the crowd cheered and waved signs, some of which said, “Save the Unborn” and abort Abortion.”

“A child is a human being from the moment of contraception, and that child has rights. The most basic right he has is the right to live.”

Rev. Holcomb condemned homosexuality, calling it an an “abommination against God and man.”

Holcomb praised the efforts of his God and Country group in their fight against sex on television by saying, “There’s too much sex on television, and we’ve taken a stand against it,” he said.

He said those efforts were having an affect and mentioned the fact that several shows from the last season which they have been bouycotting have been cancelled.

Even though Holcomb previously reported his group had raised more than 55 million dollars last year, he said at last night’s meeting that they were short of money.

“We are in dire straights,” he said. If you don’t give, the Lord’s work won’t get done.”

Exercise 1.5: Editing for Sense and Logic

Be careful with the following story. Even though it is written as a feature story, it is really a news story and should read that way. That is, it should be written in the inverted pyramid structure with a lead paragraph that tells the most important information in the story. Read each sentence carefully, asking yourself, “Does this make sense?”

 

INVERNESS, Scotland—Stories of the Loch Ness monster have fascinated residents and travelers in this remote area of the Scottish highlands for more than a 1,000 years. Now theree is yet another story to spur the interest of Nessie buffs.

The lastest “stiing” of the monster may have something different—pictures. While many have claimed to have seen the monster, few pictures of it have every been produced. The most famous is one taken by a London dentist in the 1039’s.

Now, it seems, there may be another. Lonnie McKenzie, a crofter near Inverness, reported last week that he had seen the monster clearly and had watched it swim along the lock for several minutes. What he didn’t report then but did reveal yesterday was that he had a camera with him.

“I didn’t want to say anything about the camera.” he told a reporter for the Inverness Gazette yesterday, “because I didn’t want people to get too excited about it. Acually, I’m a pretty good photographer.

McKenzie said that he had film in the camera at the time and thought the condidtions for taking a picture that day were pretty good. There were some low hanging clouds, he said, but generall the air was clear.

The film, he said, was in a secret location and is now being developed. He won’t say who is developing the film or where it is.

What is certain is that if the pictures do indeed show the Loch Ness monster, Lonnie McKenzie is sure to become a rich many. Two of London’s largest selling newspapers, the Daily Mirror and the Sun, have already begun a bidding war for rights to publish the photographs, and sources say the price has gone over $150,000 so far.

Exercise 1.6: Asking Questions

One of the jobs of the editor is to ask questions about what he or she is reading and editing. This story, besides containing a number of errors, raises many questions that need to be answered. Try to read the story from the point of view of the reader and think about what he or she would want to know.

If your instructor chooses to do so, he or she can act as the reporter, and you can ask the questions that this story raises.

 

A Midville Red Cross official said Saturday’s Midville State and Junction Tech football game was the worst in terms of heat exhaustion cases in at least 20 years.

The victims were treated by volunteer medical personell in Memorial Stadium’s three first aid stations according to red Cross volunteer Jody Johns.

At leaest 200 people were treated for head related ailments at the game.

A total of thirteen were sent to local hospitals.

The stricken fans were so numberous that medics stretched them out on the staduim concourse near the Northeast station while treating them.

Three people, one of them a heart-attck victim, were sent to hospitals before the kickoff at 1:30 P.M. central time.

Five cardiologists were on standby during the game, to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy which occurred at the game thirty years ago, when six people died of heart attacks.

“We haven’t lost anybody since 1979,” local cardiologist Dr. Russell Turner said. Turner has worked at the medical stations for local games since 1976.

Johns said only one of the patients treated at the was “obviously drunk out of his mind.”

“I’ve never seen a game like this,” he said. “The heat got to them before the booze did.”

In addition to the fans, several players suffered ill affects from the record-breaking heat. Tech’s starting quarterback, Billy Bob Braun, played only one inning before collapsing. Tech managed to pull through and win without him by a slim margin, however.

Exercise 1.7: Copy Editing

The following story contains a number of errors, including several AP style errors. This is a good exercise for learning how a copy editor should use the AP stylebook. You should raise a question with your instructor at any point where the copy poses a problem for you.

 

A large oak tree, located on the Midville State campus and though to be one of the oldest in the state, was severely damaged yesterday.

The storm, which knocked down power lines in many parts of the city, ocurred between 4 and 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon. and hampered the movement of rush-hour trafic. University officials believe that the high winds, combinded with the ortting interior of the tree, caused most of the damage. The tree is believe by university botonists to be in the range of 150 years old.

The tree was partially destroyed. The damage to the tree went unnoticed until this morning when two of the major branches of the tree fell.

The tree is located between the sociology and education buildings on campus. There are many legends surrounding the tree, including one that captured pirates during the Civil War were hung from the tree.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to save it or not,” Charles Fancher, associate professor of biology said. “Trees like that are usually not in good shape, and we may have to just cut it down and start growing another one.”

Power was quickly restored to most areas of the city last night.

Exercise 1.8: Redundancy and Repetition

One of the big problems with the following story is the writer’s use of repetitions and redundancies. This is a part of the overall problem of wordiness. This story could contain far fewer words and still relate the same information. You might also want to discuss with your instructor the overall legal situation that this story describes. The story is not about a trial but rather about an appeal of one of the trial’s procedural questions. When editing, remove the redundancies as well as making other changes you feel are necessary.

 

The state supreme court has order a Midville bar to cease and desist allowing dancers to perform completely nude dances on their premises.

The court ordered the Flesh Mill, located at 213 Broad Street, on the corner of Broad and Main Streets, not to permit certain kinds of floor shows, dances and performances which have been outlawed by a recent state law while the constitutionality of that law is being tested in the courts.

The court ordered the proprietors and owners of the shop to remove various acts, performances and demonstrations from the stage, tabletops and floors of the business.

The Flesh Mill owners, Heavy Heat and Bob Beatle, have sued the state and taken it to court, saying the state law which the state legislature passed last session unduly restricts and limits their rights as businessmen.

In the initial court battle which was initiated four months ago, state attorneys argued that the shop and all others like it in the state should have to abide by the law until the court had ruled on the law. Today the state supreme court agreed.

“This is not at all what we wanted to happen,” said Bob Beatle, one of the bar’s co-owners. Beatle added that he thought the ruling was a distortion of the legal and judicial system.

Heavy added that it was apathetic people who don’t care about the constitutional rightsof others who allowed laws such as this one to pass.

Exercise 1.9: Copy Editing

The following story contains a variety of errors that might be found in any story. Be sure to use your AP stylebook in working with this story, and do not hesitate to change anything that you believe should be changed. Ask your instructor for additional information if the story raises questions that are not answered.

 

Over half of the nation’s high school principles favor some sort of corporeal punishment for students who are discipline problems, according to a survey conducted by the American Education Association (A.E.A.)

The survey found that 53% of the principals in the U.S. felt teachers and administrators should have the option of using corporeal punishment on students who were discipline problems. 29% of the principals disagreed, saying teachers and administrators should not have this option.

AEA president Virginia Howell said the survey showed that administrators are concerned with discipline and “”want as many options available as possible.

Classroom Discipline, she said, is a continuing problem for many teachers and principals.

“The discipline problem gets in the way of effective teaching, and its not fair to the students who are there to learn.” she said.

Miss Howell said the results of the survey indicated that many people are not becoming teachers today because they don’t want to deal with “the discipline problems their hearing about in the schools.”

Exercise 1.10: Copy Editing and News Judgment

The following story has most of the information necessary for a reader to understand it, but the writer has missed the lead completely. You will probably need to rewrite the story to get the most important information in the lead and at the top of the story. Think about what the reader (not you, but a reader sitting at home reading this story) will want to know. Another problem with this story is wordiness. Rewriting the story should help with this problem.

 

Harvey S. Baker, president of Brickline Corporation, made an announcement today that his company has chosen Midville as the site for the company’s newest plant.

Mr. Baker, whose company has 35 plants in the United States and around the world, said Midville was chosen because of its excellent location and favorable economic factors.

“The people in White Oak and the rest of the state have been most gracious to us and have made us feel very welcome,” Mr. Baker stated.

Brickline Corporation, a subsidiary of Amalgamated Industrial Products, manufactures a line of packaging products for many goods found in retail stores. For instance, the corporation has contracts to make the packaging for several brands of soap and labels for cans of soups.

Construction on the Midville plant will begin within a month and is scheduled for completion in about a year. When operating at full capacity, the plant will employ about 300 people.

The plant will be located near the Brookhaven exit of Interstate 72 on Old Jug Factory Road. It will be on a 200 acre tract that was once part of the Queenland estate.

“We are very happy about this industry coming to our area, k plant will begin within a month and is scheduled for completion in about a year. When operating at full capacity, the plant will employ about 300 people.