A
Tacoma, Wash., newspaper that previously gutted its copy desk, and hence reduced the paper's quality, has decided to 1. hire a copy editor and 2. check the index and page jumps and 3. lift the monastic stricture of silence. That'll count as three miracles toward sainthood.
Quote:
Improved editing is one of our newsroom goals for the second half of 2010. Here are some of our plans:
• Adjust our schedule so more editors work in the evening, when copy is moving quickly.
• Fill a copy editing position we’ve held open for budgetary reasons.
• Provide training in skeptical editing.
• Get stories to the copy desk earlier to allow more editing time.
• Establish protocols for editing a story or proofing a page when time is short.
• Encourage more chatter on the desk when perfecting important headlines.
• Hold a 4 p.m. huddle between dayside editors and the desk to better organize the evening’s work flow.
• Require the copy desk chief to sign off that the A1 index is right, that stories jump to the right pages and that other mechanics are correct.