Help, I'm trapped.

Skillypronga · **Posted:** Wed Dec 18, 2002 5:42 pm

I can stand arguing with reporters, eating at my desk and flipping through channels at 1:30 a.m. What I can't take anymore is the schedule that prevents me from ever seeing my wife.How do I escape? The only job skills I have are copy editing and layout, and copy editors and page designers work at night, not during the day.

Guest · **Posted:** Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:29 pm

Taco Bell is hiring.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:54 pm

Move to the features desk and write stupid pun "art" heds and edit 60-inch turds about nothing.That's the alternative.

jbm · **Posted:** Wed Dec 18, 2002 7:46 pm

How about magazines?

Rio · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2002 4:39 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
Move to the features desk and write stupid pun "art" heds and edit 60-inch turds about nothing.That's the alternative.<hr></blockquote>I got news for you, pal. That's what they do on some news desks, too. ;)

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2002 11:54 am

Shucks, Gary. I thought that only happened where I am.

pampellfw · **Joined:** Thu Apr 25, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 38

Well, there's always public relations. I mean that. Especially for a nonprofit one can believe in. After 25 years in newspapers, mostly in copy editing, I switched to PR for a nonprofit social service agency that helps poor people (including the working poor) pay child care costs and utility bills, administers Head Start, and does a whole bunch of useful things. I took a pay cut, but three years later I make about the same money I made before. The retirement benefits aren't as good, but the health insurance is better. They count vacation time and sick leave together as paid-time-off and they don't quibble if you call in to say you need to stay home with a sick kid. I work a day shift, no weekends. No more working holidays (including Good Friday, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and the day after Thanksgiving.) No more planning family vacations around elections and major projects. I just came back from a photo op I set up in which a volunteer group of knitters distributed warm hats and teddy bears to our Head Start kids, which should get decent play tonight on TV and tomorrow in my old newspaper. It's not editing Ernie Pyle's dispatches from the front, but it's honorable. Now social service people are different than newspeople, I agree. A lot of the reason I read this Web site is because I miss the conversations on the copy desk. But I'm still doing layout and copyediting and pagination -- only on newsletters and press releases instead of newsprint -- and coming up with story ideas. I'm also learning new stuff about grant writing and program planning. All in all, it's a wonderful experience. So think about it. Any newspaper person brings to the table more than just technical skills -- we also bring knowledge of how the media works, that those in other fields don't necessarily have. Really simple stuff, like who to call to pitch a story to (and how to do it).
It's knowledge the social service world appreciates.

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2002 5:59 pm

That's a much better response than my flip one. I guess I reacted to the line about "the only skills I have ..." because you can choose to have other skills, and do what needs to be done to get them, if you're really motivated to do so. If, however, you meant to say that "the only INTERESTS I have ..." then, well, obviously motivation to obtain other job skills is a problem.

Bakelite · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 10:22 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Skillypronga:
The only job skills I have are copy editing and layout, and copy editors and page designers work at night, not during the day.<hr></blockquote>Don't despair. Your skills apply well to working on a news Web site. Most of them have the work set up so it's largely 9-to-5, with weekends and holidays off. And you still get your news fix.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:28 pm

I do not and never will understand why a copy editor would want to work "daytime hours."

SusanV · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 4:39 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
I do not and never will understand why a copy editor would want to work "daytime hours."<hr></blockquote>And why not? I don't see any difference between that and someone else's wanting to work nights. Where is it written that copy eds must work nights only?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 6:54 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:
And why not? I don't see any difference between that and someone else's wanting to work nights. Where is it written that copy eds must work nights only?<hr></blockquote>Newspapers are assembled at night.

Emily Salmon · **Joined:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 1:01 am **Posts:** 86

I think working for a nonprofit like that one is really honorable. Since I can't get a job in journalism, I may go back to school and get a degree in the human services field. It's always been hard to report on suffering and not do anything about it. I didn't even give to local charities as a reporter because I was worried about the conflict of interest.
I remember suggesting a story on homelessness in our county to my editor, and she said someone else had already done one that summer.[ December 21, 2002: Message edited by: Emily Salmon ]

Rio · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 7:46 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Newspapers are assembled at night.<hr></blockquote>Ah, not all of them, though. North America still has three or four evening newspapers. If you want to be a copy editor with daytime hours, you just have to find one of those papers, then get it to offer you a job.Granted, your employment options are limited. But that's the nature of the business these days.

SusanV · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 9:04 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Newspapers are assembled at night.<hr></blockquote>
Copy editing ain't limited to newspapers. Magazines and book publishers also use copy eds.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2002 11:38 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by SusanV:

Copy editing ain't limited to newspapers. Magazines and book publishers also use copy eds.<hr></blockquote>Of course that's true, but the subtitle of this Web site reveals my bias: "Newspaper copy editors and their fans talk shop."

Finn DeSiecle · **Posted:** Sun Dec 22, 2002 1:35 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>From blanp:
Of course that's true, but the subtitle of this Web site reveals my bias: "Newspaper copy editors and their fans talk shop."<hr></blockquote>
Waitaminnit. We have fans? Where?

Emily Salmon · **Joined:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 1:01 am **Posts:** 86

Well, I'm a copy editor wannabe, and I hang out here. Does that make me a groupie?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun Dec 22, 2002 2:56 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Emily Salmon:
Well, I'm a copy editor wannabe, and I hang out here. Does that make me a groupie?<hr></blockquote>Individual copy editors have "groupies," weirdly enough. I can practically hear young hearts flutter in the presence of one well-known copy editor, whom I will not identify but who wrote a well-known book.

Bolder1 · **Posted:** Sun Dec 22, 2002 7:39 pm

I was able to switch to reporting after 7 years editing and laying out pages. I found the transition pretty easy. You might volunteer for a beat no one wants and make it your own, i.e. obits, civil courts, religion etc. Of course, I'm not one to talk. I'm going back to copy editing to spend more time with my wife, who got a promotion to editing from reporting. She works 4-12, as will I.I would suggest avoiding PR unless you're pretty sure you don't want to work in newspapers again. A lot of papers (not all!) might look askance at a detour into PR.Good luck with your decision. If you're unhappy, you shouldn't stay in the job.

JimDeLa · **Posted:** Tue Dec 31, 2002 1:29 pm

After 15 years on copy desks, I found a nonprofit gig -- and it's not that bad.The hours are good, I actually get to write real news occasionally and I've picked up web site skills, which could come in handy if I ever want to return to secular journalism. And the stuff I have to edit from amateurs isn't that much worse than raw copy from some "professional" reporters. Plus, they don't whine as loudly after you rewrite it. With rare exceptions, all copy editors could benefit from a periodic break from the grind. You might think about "alternative" editing for a while and come back to the desk when you're ready.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Mon Jan 06, 2003 4:24 pm

Well, I'm doing the gamut of communications for a union, which is mostly day work, although it includes weekends teaching writing and editing from time to time - and that's fun. Big strikes, which are fortunately not all that common, mean horrific hours with no end in sight, keeping members up to date on what is happening and dealing with the media.
I'm enjoying working the other side of the street, and it certainly uses all the skills of my journalism days. Another bonus is that I have a whole lot more input into how things are done, what strategy to use, how to develop stories and so on.
There is life and journalistic integrity beyond dailies.

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