Andrew Beaujon
Apr. 8, 2013
10:07 am
Two days
after changing its style on the term "illegal immigrant," the Associated Press issued a Stylebook update that's significant but in a much quieter way:
underway
One word in all uses.
OK, it's a big deal mostly to copy editors, many of whom have spent a good part of their professional lives jamming a space into "underway."
Here's the old listing:
under way Two words in virtually all uses: The project is under way. The naval maneuvers are under way.
One word only when used as an adjective before a noun in a nautical sense: an underway flotilla.
I surveyed a few copy-editing icons on whether the AP switch would occasion one at their organizations:
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Chip Scanlan
Mar. 28, 2013
9:18 am
You’ve run spell-check and closely studied your story. Your editors have done the same and the copy desk — the last line of defense against mistakes — has scrutinized every word and line to ensure error-free copy.
And then the … Read more
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Joshua Gillin
Mar. 27, 2013
2:40 pm
New York Times |
Technovia
New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan plunges into the never-ending debate over headlines that pose a question in Wednesday's
Public Editor's Journal. A post on the paper's opinion blog Room for Debate is headlined "
Do Women Have What It Takes To Lead?"
Plenty of readers had something to say about the original post, but the use of the perilous punctuation is what sparked debate with Sullivan, whose own blog post bears the headline "Is There Really Room To Debate Whether Women Can Lead?"
The editor of Room for Debate, Susan Ellingwood, responded to my question about the headline.
Raising a provocative question is our way of starting an interesting discussion. That title starts a productive conversation about gender stereotypes and leadership – even if, in the end, the consensus among the debaters is “yes, women do have what it takes.” Each post explored the question from a different angle. And as readers’ reactions show, the pieces sparked a conversation about an important topic. That’s our goal.
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Jeff Sonderman
Mar. 5, 2013
11:33 am
Globe and Mail
Canada's largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, is the latest to reduce costs by laying off copy editors and outsourcing their work for a fraction of the expense.
The Star will outsource page design and copy editing to Pagemasters North America, Globe and Mail media reporter
Steve Ladurantaye reports. The cost savings come from efficient centralized production, but also lower pay for editors. "The top union rate for an editor at Pagemasters is $48,000," Ladurantaye reports, "while the same job at the Star comes with an annual salary closer to $85,000."
Pagemasters North America is owned by The Canadian Press news wire, of which the Star's parent company Torstar Corp. is a co-owner. News & Tech reported in 2009 that the Star was in discussions to
begin a small amount of outsourcing to Pagemasters North America, but did not. Other major Canadian newspapers
including The Globe and Mail, do the same.
And other branches of Pagemasters serve newspapers in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
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Meena Thiruvengadam
Feb. 25, 2013
10:55 am
The accelerated pace of journalism means many reporters have to write, edit and quickly publish their work online, sometimes without the benefit of an extra set of eyes.
Given this reality — and the fact that there are fewer copy … Read more
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Andrew Beaujon
Feb. 22, 2013
3:31 pm
Tonia Moore is not a millionaire. The National Journal copy editor incorrectly answered a question about the origin of Universal Studios' name on an episode of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" broadcast Friday, ending a run that began
with a show broadcast the day before.
In a phone interview, Moore said the taping -- originally scheduled for Oct. 31 in New York -- was rescheduled for early November after Hurricane Sandy hit. Moore took a week off work to be in New York for the taping. "I know the timing's awful" given the election, she said she told her boss, who "stressed (repeatedly) that I had to be at work on Nov. 6 no matter what," she wrote in an email.
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Andrew Beaujon
Feb. 21, 2013
3:43 pm
National Journal copy editor Tonia Moore wants to be a millionaire. Well, OK, she's on the show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" this week, which is the same thing, right?
Moore, who a show bio says is "such a movie fan that she took three days off from work to see 'The Avengers' premiere," didn't finish her round of questions Thursday so she'll appear Friday as well. Moore finished Thursday with an accumulated bank of $18,100 and correctly answered the question "The 2012 film “The Expendables 2” features the lead actors from all but which of the following classic action movies?" (Answer: D, "Braveheart.")
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- Courtesy Disney-ABC
Last spring Dan Adkison, a deputy copy chief at Time magazine,
rolled over opponents on "Jeopardy!" before getting
derailed by a question about the American Revolution. “The reason copy editors are good at Jeopardy is because we read so many different things,”
he told Time's Tumblr.
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Andrew Beaujon
Feb. 6, 2013
1:31 pm
King's Journalism Review
The decline of newspapers
has fallen especially hard on copy editors, Natascia Lypny writes.
Copy editors have been sacrificed more than any other newsroom category. Nearly a third of the copy editors who were working for American daily newspapers in 2007 are no longer employed in those positions today, according to an American Society of News Editors’ survey of 985 publications.
The figures are actually worse if you go back another few years: ASNE's annual survey of newsrooms,
released last April,
found 10,676 copy editors in 2002, 5,675 in 2012. I should have noted in the first iteration of this post that over that timespan, the copy editor category has also included layout editors and online producers, but taken as one, that's a 46 percent decrease in a decade during which reporting positions fell 26 percent and supervisory positions fell 24 percent.
Lypny's piece includes a dandy visual history of copy-editing that shows how it went from a managerial position to a coglike field that has proven irresistible to cost-cutters. She describes some of the typical tensions between copy editors and reporters in a rather snazzy video:
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Mallary Jean Tenore
Nov. 12, 2012
11:30 am
The Associated Press announced today that it has created
a Spanish version of the Stylebook aimed at journalists in the U.S. and abroad. The idea came about after journalists from the AP's Mexico City bureau realized they needed a Stylebook that addressed the complexities and evolution of the Spanish language.
"They understand the role that our English Stylebook plays for our English-speaking journalists and they’ve been advocating for years that we needed one for our Spanish-speaking journalists," AP Stylebook Product Manager Colleen Newvine said by phone.
The Spanish Stylebook, or Manual de Estilo, started out as an internal tool in the Mexico City bureau but grew into something more after the AP realized there was an audience for it. The AP has gotten several requests for a Spanish Stylebook, Newvine said, and has been looking to expand its business in Latin America. The Stylebook “really pointed to an opportunity for us to grow," she said.
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