Copy desk salaries

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

Does anyone have any suggestions for researching and comparing newspaper copy desk salaries? Iâ€™m looking for online sources, other sources and general tips. The salary-comparison Web sites Iâ€™m aware of donâ€™t seem to know what a newspaper copy editor does, so Iâ€™m looking for something more reliable (online or otherwise). I'm interested in data on current salary ranges, but not limited to current open positions or to Guild papers, in all regions of the United States and Canada. Thanks in advance.

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Wed Mar 30, 2005 8:35 pm

Hasen't ACES done a study at some point? Check out their site.

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

I am not aware of any ACES study on the subject. I haven't been to the Web site in the past few days, but I haven't seen information about such a study during the time that I've been a member. If you remember something specific, though, it sounds like something I'd like to see.

Wabberjocky · **Posted:** Wed Mar 30, 2005 11:17 pm

Now I wonder if it was AJR. This is why I hate acronyms and rewrite around them whenever possible.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:22 am

Check out the Newspaper Guild Web site, which lists top minimums for copy editors at Guild papers.

onelaneroad · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:45 pm

Check ed2010.com. It's a magazine site, but if you click on their salary page and scroll down, they do have a section for newspapers.

aparker54 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:06 pm

Wabberjocky wrote:

Hasn't ACES done a study at some point? Check out their site.

I think Wabberjocky is referring to Editors Ink. Alas, the database apparently got too snarky and dangerous to live â€” or so I understood. Any details? It was fun to read while it lasted.

I ran across a reference to Editors Ink by chance this week:

Title: INFLUENCES ON EDITING QUALITY AT THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN ,Â By: Craig, David A., Newspaper Research Journal, 07395329, Summer99, Vol. 20, Issue 3
Database: Communication & Mass Media Complete

Quote:

Against this backdrop, interest in the state of copy desk work is high among both copy editors and newspaper managers. This interest has been evident in the American Society of Newspaper Editors' emphasis in 1995-98 on the state of copy desks,(n3) the founding of the American Copy Editors Society,(n4) recent attention to copy desks and copy editing in the trade press(n5) and responses from more than 100 newspapers to Editors Ink's online survey of copy editors.(n6)

(n6.) The Editors Ink web site includes responses from copy editors at more than 100 newspapers to a survey about organization, workload and other copy desk issues. Editors Ink home page, World Wide Web HYPERLINK http://www.copydesk.org/ editorsink, 1999.

If you add the *editorsink* to the hyperlink, you won't get anywhere.

(Copy edited to remove evidence of idiotic mistake of mine. [Unaccountably, I called the site "Editor's Ink."])

DogMa · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:07 pm

I used to LOVE the section where people talked about their respective copy desks and said what it was REALLY like to work there. Granted, it was just their opinion, but it was still a great read.

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

Thanks for the tips, y'all. I figured there wasn't a whole lot out there that I hadn't already run into.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2005 12:58 am

aparker54 wrote:

I think Wabberjocky is referring to Editors Ink. Alas, the database apparently got too snarky and dangerous to live â€” or so I understood. Any details? It was fun to read while it lasted.

In the 1990s, Editors Ink preceded the formation of ACES.
A blog by that name exists.

In the mid-1990s newsmait.com existed. The entries tended to be fierce. Amid rumors, it ceased after a year or so. The compiler, a reporter at Florida Today, said it crashed. Maintaining it had become too difficult, he said.

Poisonkitchen.com appeared a few years ago. It operated in the spirit of newsmait but didn't gain the popularity of its predecessor. It was most notable for epic attacks on a few editors and papers. I didn't follow it closely, but recall it going down a year or so ago with promises of revival. Going to that address yields promise of "a future home of poisonkitchen.com."

A bit of background on these sites and links for job hunters can be found at http://www.toad.net/~andrews/jobs.html

aparker54 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:35 am

Newsmait.com! Thank you, Wayne Countryman. I clearly conflated two sites. Your note and a quick glance at a few descriptions turned up by Google brought back the voyeurism, schadenfreude and misery-loves-company mania of 1997 and thereabouts. I can go back to bed in peace.

SuchASlot · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 1189

(deleted)

aparker54 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:13 am

For those who have never been to newsmait, go to the Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org, type *http://www.newsmait.com* (without the asterisks) in the appropriate place, hit the "take me back" button and choose pages from 1997 or 1998 to check out.

aparker54 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:41 pm

I just noticed an article about the Internet Archive and its founder â€”"The Archivist" â€” on Slate's main page. For what it's worth.

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