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paulwiggins
 Post subject: Grumpy folks in a new world
PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:13 am 
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:01 am
Posts: 3137
Location: Homebush NSW Australia
The reality is that experienced copy editors will be asked to focus attention away from print and on to online matters. What does one tell one's mother what one does for a living? [Ps: my mom thinks I play piano in a bordello. I've never had the heart to tell her.}
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Wayne Countryman
 Post subject: Re: Grumpy folks in a new world
PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:02 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1775
Location: Baltimore
I'm not suggesting that you disappoint your mom, but if you must update her on how your professional life is changing, you could gently emphasize that you do make your living at a keyboard.

My mom has long wondered why I do what I do. When I showed my folks, who are die-hard newspaper readers, a pre-pagination composing room 15 years ago, they found it quaint. They wonder if I'll starve while clinging to a dying industry. (They also wonder why publications--and not just mine, but those that employ others they know--treat their staffs the way they do.)

That news companies that have long printed on paper are catching up with the rest of the world by going online is a bit reassuring to my folks.

You're an editor, preparing news reports to be read, making sure that they're fair, accurate and coherent. That's commendable if you're working for a decent organization.
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LAEdtr
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:23 am 
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Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:25 am
Posts: 90
Location: Southern California
All of our badges say editorial, whether we work on the printed product, online or a combination.
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lfelaco
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:53 am 
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Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:48 am
Posts: 523
Location: Charlestown, RI
I've never understood who decided the rules were different for online vs. print and why. Copy is copy, regardless of how it's delivered. I wouldn't dream of editing anything any less assiduously because it's "only" going online.
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"This is like group therapy with prisoners in the Poynter Institute's dungeon." ... "You take a vocation that the simple-minded consider to be mere drudgery, and you exploit every bit of fascinating and humorous nuance imaginable." ... "Delicious" ... "Ask your professors? The only professors whose opinions matter are named Walsh, Blanchard and McIntyre." ... "What I come here for, I can find ONLY here. Phillip, you've built a great place." ... "Nothing gets us hotter than reading bitchy discussion threads from over-exhausted copy editors endlessly debating the merits of "theater" versus "theatre." ... "I love this site. It's better than the Kool-Aid acid tests." ..."I'm awed at the efficiency with which matters of opinion get hashed out in this forum." ... "Phil is the bomb!" ... "I'd wager that it's exactly your sort of hidebound thinking that contributes to the problems newspapers are having attracting readers." ... "I'm totally obsessed with this site. It's like porn--if you get off on Scrabble." ... "It reveals the backstage carping and vindictive emotions that roil the souls of those trapped at the copy desks." "When they say "testy," they certainly mean it. Whether it's reporters, editors, or the general public, no one is above their savage snark." ... "An apparent crack in the thin grey line." ..."Testy Copy Editors is a bitchboard for journalism's underclass." ... "My desire to read 'Testy Copy Editors' is only rivalled by my desire to pop "Constipated Call Girls" in the DVD player." ... "Phillip Blanchard is not just a testy copy editor, but a prophet scorned in his own time, and those of us who defend wordplay will be punished for it come the Judgment Day." ... "Phil Blanchard is as dashing in person as he is at the TCE board." ... "As far as writing and editing go: Read this board, read Bill Walsh, memorize the style book, read William Zinsser, and read the New York Times. That's a good start." ... "You should let go of your bitterness. You were not the oppressed talent you thought yourself to be. You were a miserable, brooding, silent, joyless grind, lucky to have a job at the Sun-Times, and we're lucky now that you've moved on to afflict others."



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