Blog: The editor's desk
Copy editors are a mystery to most folks outside the newspaper. Working behind the scenes and seldom scoring a byline, these editors are critical to our operation. I have a soft spot for the dedicated souls of The Desk.
I was one, once. That was back in the good old days of paste-up. Now I just get to dabble at desking enough to have a good idea of what the people who work for me have to deal with day-to-day and if the computers and programs we set them up with are as good as they can be. We ask them to do so many things other than line-editing and headline writing and page layout these days; the nightly tasks would seem ominous to most everyday word jockeys.
Deskers do everything and they get blamed for everything, naturally. To listen to our most vocal critics you would be convinced that they can't spell, don't know how to write headlines, are biased in the worst way, and haven't a clue about what is really important to people.
I've always said that anyone can make a typo because somewhere there is a copy editor who will be the one to take the blame for it.
Copy editors save our butts — a lot. For little thanks.
At 10:30 tonight I was downloading Raising Sand, an album by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss that I stumbled upon after my wife got curious about a song she heard on a JCPenney commercial, of all things. (I think I just heard the Zeppelin t-shirt in the bottom of my dresser scream at the sound of another scrap of my crazy youth going up in domesticated smoke).
Anyway, I caught sight of my Blackberry flashing and picked it up. Chief Copy Editor Gary Black told me the Senate passed the supplemental budget bill tonight after I left work.
The News-Miner editorial had been written earlier this afternoon, after the House passed the bill and sent it to the Senate. When I left the office at about 7:30 the Senate was talking about the bill on the floor but I let myself think they wouldn't actually vote on it until tomorrow.
Silly me.
Not only did Gary give me a heads-up, he offered to rewrite the editorial with the appropriate update. So, at 90 minutes prior press time he was pulling the Opinion page back for a do-over.
Without asking, I knew he was also in the middle of proofing the last news pages, completing A-1 with things like the index and taking some dictation from Sourdough Jack, laying stories into the jump pages, setting things straight for updating the Web site, and keeping an ever watchful eye on the wire for breaking news.
It's not an extreme example. Copy editors do this kind of thing all the time.
Copy editors juggle and fix. That's what they do.
But this time I thought I'd take the opportunity to publicly say, "thanks, Gary."
Yes, folks, that's absolutely right. Anytime we get something wrong, be sure to let Gary Black know. That's Gary Black, gblack@newsminer.com.
Well I only caught two typos in this article. One in the second sentence and one in the third from the end. Or were these deliberat?
OK, no more late-night blogging without a closer look by the editor. There were four errors above, actually. I corrected them. If only I'd had someone checking my copy like James Brooks, comedic copy editor extraordinaire. Contact him only if you see funny errors in the paper. That's jbrooks@newsminer.com.
Kelly
One of your readers in Fairbanks has made a funny comment in New York
Times blog DOT EARTH about polar cities in future.
see below
- DAN BLOOM
Former Fairbanksan
Connie wrote: "Who thinks we're gonna let you guys in?!"
Would love it if one of your reporters would email me and do an interview with me about polar cities in future. Read the New York Times piece by Andrew Revkin first. Some of these future polar cities will be sited in Barrow area, and Chena Hot Springs, even UAF and Juneau. James Lovelock the UK scientist knows about this and say "it may very well happen and soon."
I think a good feature in your paper would be a good read for local people there. I would email you offline but my emails don't seem to be getting through, that is to say, you never reply to them. So do email me and ask your science reporter to interview me about very interesting idea of polar cities in Alaska in 500 years. Food for thought. Several profs at UAF know about this idea and project and can give your reporter quotes pro and con. Can we at least discuss this.
By the way, your good copy editor piece is now highlighted at www.testycopyeditors.org (as a former copy editor at papers in Juneau and Tokyo and Taipei, I loved your comments. By the way, Kelly, what is an ATOMIC TYPO, do you know? Why the word ATOMIC is used for that term? Speaking of which, when I was editor of the Capital City Weekly in Juneau, 1985ish, I once wrote a story that talked about going widow-shopping in the downtown area, when of course I meant to type in WINDOW SHOPPING. Oops. Typo alert. So I loved your good column, sir. Do email me. Okay?
Re: locating Connie Ledlow re NEW YORK TIMES comments
Connie
Hi, danny bloom here. I used to live in alaska, ten years. 1979 to
1991........when polar cities come into vogue, please let me back in!
your comment in DOT EARTH was hilarious and got a lot of people
thinking , especially this blogger
http://achangeinthewind.typepad.com/acha...
> Polar Cities: Wussies Need Not Apply
> By Kit Stolz
> My equaintance Danny Bloom -- following up on the Polar Cities idea
> first proposed by James Lovelock--was spotlighted this week by Andy
> Revkin in The New York Times. Glad to see Danny's hard work getting
> some attention. ...
> <http://achangeinthewind.typepad.com/acha...>
http://testycopyeditors.org/phpBB2/viewt...
here is link to copy editors blog:
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: In Praise of Copy Editors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kelly Bostian, editor at the Fairbanks News-Miner in Alaska, writes a nice blog appreciation of deskers here:
Kelly
Here's the story hook for you.
Polar Cities: Wussies Need Not Apply
http://achangeinthewind.typepad.com/acha...
My equaintance Danny Bloom, former Alaskan (Nome, Juneau, Fort Yukon) -- following up on the Polar Cities idea first proposed by James Lovelock--was spotlighted this week by Andy Revkin in The New York Times.
Glad to see Danny's hard work getting some attention. My favorite comment on his concept, which, simply put, is that if we don't change our lifestyles, we're going to have to changes our lives -- and move north -- comes from this hardy Alaskan.
''What makes you think were going to let all you folks in? ; }''
Fairbanks, AK
— Posted by Constance Ledlow
By the way, I am trying to contact Niilo Koponen by email but not getting through or don't have correct email addy for him. Longtime friend. Can you find him and ask him to email me here or send me his new email address. The only one I have now is the chena.org address, is that still current? thanks
This makes me smile and remember my late father-in-law, Albro Gregory.
He never slept for more that four or five hours at a time, so in a 24 hour day, he had a series of regular sleep / wake periods. At 4:00 a.m. he would be up at the kitchen table drinking his fresh-ground coffee smoking his cigarette while he read the News Miner and the Nome Nugget. He made a personal point of circling all the errors, making notes, and then sending them back to the editors. I'm certain News Miner found him a little irritating, but I have to admit, I always thought it was amusing.
-RK
It must be true, they don't put spell check on any of your computers...
Post a comment