Q. I’m coming up on the end of my first full year as a professional reporter, writing for a pair of sister dailies. I’ve been on two different beats during my time here, and feel as though I’ve learned a lot about how to cultivate sources, generate story ideas and write concisely and effectively, but I don’t enjoy the job as much as my colleagues.
I feel ready to start looking at other opportunities, but don’t want to leave journalism altogether. My hope is to switch to the copy desk; I was an editor for my college newspaper until graduation in May 2008 and always liked working with reporters and fine-tuning their stories. Unfortunately, I’ve never had a copy editing internship or position and don’t have much to show by way of clips or work samples.
Is there a way for me to make the transition from reporter to copy editor? I have expenses and responsibilities and don’t think I can afford to leave my job for an internship that would pay little besides experience.
Thanks as always for the advice,
C.
A. Forget about internships. You don’t need another.
Historically, it has been much easier for journalists to make the kind of move you’re talking about than to go the other way, from editing to reporting. There has just always been a much higher demand of editing help.
This has changed in recent years as some companies, notably the Tribune and Media News, have been shedding copy editors with the new and unsound notion that editing can be cut to save news-gathering positions. This is turning out to be a bad idea, but for now there are more copy editors on the market.
We may need to see this pendulum swing back the other way, but you still won’t need an internship.
Copy editing jobs can be won with almost any kind of experience — provided you can back up your application with letter-perfect materials and a good performance on an editing test. Copy editing is still the place where the tests most accurately predict future success.
Start making your transition now by asking to pick up some shifts on the copy desk. Your year of reporting will help you be a good copy editor.
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