Responses
Matt W., 2/15/2005, 4:36:21 PM
We run twice per month.
Usually, the stories are submitted via e-mail; I take a look at them, followed by the Assistant Managing Editor.
The Copy Editor comes in, looks it all over and calls it good.
We have writers helping in that area, as well, so the copy editor comes through and cleans up after them.
Then the Assistant Editor and I try looking it over once more before the paper goes to print.
We don't track all changes, mostly those errors that would look just amateur in print.
Elizabeth Hendler, 2/16/2005, 11:32:09 AM
At our weekly newspaper, the writers submit stories to their editors via e-mail. Editors make changes to the stories and lay them out on pages in Quark. Pages are printed, and copy editors mark the pages with corrections. The editors enter the corrections as they see fit. They then print the story for me (editor in chief) to read. I read every word on every page, because we've been sued for libel before, and I want to make sure I know what we're printing isn't questionable. I also catch a lot of grammar mistakes others miss and can spot layout problems better than the copy editors. At our paper, copy editors are often freshmen and sophomores looking to move up to be editors. Regardless, I tell the editors what changes to make, then they print out a final version where I check to make sure everything is OK. I started doing this last step because the editors can sometimes be hasty and leave out my corrections. They don't like it, but our paper is much cleaner now than ever before. We don't have the ability to track changes as the version goes through the process, but I do like to look at the marked up pages the copy editors did sometimes to see what they did or didn't catch. Good luck!
Elizabeth Hendler
Editor, The Setonian
Seton Hall University
hendleel@shu.edu
Daniel Ross-Jones, 2/17/2005, 12:55:06 PM
We just moved to a new system, so I'll share with you the old and new systems. We're a 12-page weekly tab at a small private college in the Milwaukee/Chicago area.
Previously, the Copy Editor (usually we have two, this year we have one), section editors (News, Features and Sports) and Editor-in-Chief got together for "round one" on Monday afternoon for about two hours to go through stories. (Our reporters e-mail them to us in Word format.) We'd print out the e-mail and ship the copy around three editors, each signing the page, before handing it back to the Editor-in-Chief who would make the changes on the computer. Then we would send the story, with all appropriate changes, back to the reporter to see where they went wrong as a teaching tool.
Round two involved the same staff as above, plus the Production Editor (myself) and Photography Editor to work on page layout and design on Tuesday night. The stories would be placed on the pages and the pages printed to go through the three-round editing process once again, then return to have the edits placed on the page in Quark, along with heads, cutlines, etc.
This system proved to waste a lot of resources, something our staff is keenly aware of. We were going through the process of a redesign and upgrade of our technology resources in December and January (we don't publish during our January interim term), moved to Adobe's Creative Suite (including InDesign and InCopy) and now go through an all-computerized process on the computers. Although we're still working the kinks out, the basic process is this:
On Monday, the Copy Editor, Section Editors and myself meet. I pull the stories off e-mail and place them on the pages. The editors have InCopy on their computers, and make edits in real time on the page. They mark down some of the common errors and compile those in new regular coaching meetings with their reporters. We go through one full round of editing, and call it an afternoon.
Then on Tuesday, everyone is in the office once again and we work to try and put the paper to bed at a decent hour. This time, I activate text boxes for the editors to make headlines, cutlines, etc as they're going through stories. Finally, at an appropriate stage, we print out the entire paper to go through one hard copy round, with one editor making the changes on InCopy, before calling it a night.
We've only been on the new system for two weeks, and we've been plagued with many other problems during that time (our office is in the basement of one of the res. halls, and last week during the first run of the "new" paper we were interrupted on account of a fire alarm on the top floor of the building as we were about halfway through) but without the outside affects, the new system seems to be working better than before.
Daniel Ross-Jones
Production Editor, The Current
Carthage College
drossjones@carthage.edu
Bradford L. Yankiver, 2/18/2005, 11:42:51 PM
Our copy process is as follows:
1) The writer submits an article to our intranet--an online content management database.
2) The section editor (e.g. News, SciTech, Forum, etc.) reads the article and either (a) makes comments and asks the writer to make improvements or (b) makes any minor changes and passes the article to the Editor-In-Chief.
3) The Editor-In-Chief reads the article and either (a) makes comments and asks the section editor to reconsider the status of the article or (b) makes any minor changes and passes the article to the copy staff.
4) Two copy staff members read the article online, changing any spelling, grammar, consistency, etc. errors that are found and passes the article on to the layout staff.
5) The articles are dropped into the layout, and the full proofs are printed on paper at actual size. Layout gives the proofs to the copy staff.
6) Copy staff examines the proof, and returns it to layout.
7) Layout makes changes, reprints proofs, and gives the revised proofs to the copy staff.
8) Copy staff examines the proof, and returns it to layout.
9) Layout makes changes, under the supervision of section editors. Section editors print final proofs and give them to the Editor-In-Chief.
10) The Editor-In-Chief reads the final proofs, and directs section editors to make any final changes.
11) Section editors make changes, and step 10 and 11 are repeated until the Editor-In-Chief is satisfied.
12) The InDesign files are exported to .pdfs and sent to the publisher.
Bradford L. Yankiver
Executive Officer
The Tartan
Carnegie Mellon University
contact@thetartan.org
Martin Goldman, 2/19/2005, 7:43:30 PM
I work for Pipe Dream at Binghamton University (State Univ. of N.Y.), which publishes three times per week -- news, sports, and opinion on Tuesdays and Fridays, and arts/entertainment on Thursdays. Last spring, I came to the conclusion that our copy process at that time was simply awful. It was extremely inefficient and allowed errors to be introduced at every stage.
I looked into the workflow management applications available, which certainly could've solved our problems, but they were quite cost prohibitive. For example, Managing Editor K4's academic pricing is $7,500 plus $750 per user. In addition, it requires that InDesign and InCopy be installed on every computer, adding another $300 or so per seat. Not to mention the fact that we probably would've had to upgrade most of our 25 computers to accommodate these programs. All in all, it would've cost us around $35,000 for the software and probably another $5,000 in equipment upgrades. Now, maybe some college newspapers, can afford this, but we sure as heck can't.
The solution wound up being a Web-based workflow management program designed specifically for the college newsroom. With the aid of this program, our workflow process now consists of the following:
1. The section editor logs in with his username and password. He posts the story assignment list for the coming issue.
2. The writer logs in, and is shown a list of articles he has been assigned for the next issue. He writes the article right in the program's editor, and clicks a button to submit it to the section editor.
3. The section editor access the system again, and sees that the article has been submitted. He edits the article right in the system's editor -- either with or without the writer present, depending on the situation -- and when he's finished, he clicks a button that indicates the article is ready to be copy edited.
4. The copy editors (3 to 4 of them) access the system and see a list of articles for the next issue waiting to be copy edited. They edit and fact-check the article, making the changes right in the program's editor.
5. The copy desk chief reviews each article to ensure it has been copy edited satisfactorily. When he's done, he clicks a button that indicates that copy editing is complete.
6. The production/layout staff log in and see which articles are ready to be flowed into the newspaper layout (which is done in InDesign). To save The articles that are not yet ready
7. At the end of the night, the webmaster logs into the system and pushes a button that automatically uploads the new issue to our Web site with a single click.
With a little thanks help from technology, our workflow process is now strict and efficient. Since the system is Web-based, it can be accessed by our staff from anywhere. The program's built-in editor makes it unnecessary to pay for/install a separate word processor on our newsroom computers. In addition, we can get away with using fairly old computers in our newsroom, since the only program that we need to run is a Web browser. Finally, the cost of the software itself is quite low.
If anyone is interested in learning more about process/program, please feel free to drop me an e-mail.
Martin H. Goldman
Associate Editor
Pipe Dream
Binghamton University (SUNY)
mgoldman@binghamton.edu
Vlad Kogan, 2/25/2005, 3:36:44 AM
Our paper is a twice-weekly tabloid.
Each section editors receives their stories via e-mail and then edits the hell out of them. Some send them back to the authors for corrections, while others make the changes themselves.
The stories then are placed into our office server and go through two copy readers, who make the obvious changes but make comments in bold for questionable things. They are then read again by the copy editor, who finalizes the drafts.
These stories are then laid out on the pages. They are printed and read by the managing editor.
Corrections are put in and the pages are printed again, this time to be read by the editor in chief.
EIC's corrections are put in, and the pages are reprinted. The EIC goes through again, then, checking to make sure that all of the corrections have, in fact, been fixed.
Then the pages are ready to go to print.
Vlad Kogan
News Editor
UCSD Guardian
news1@ucsdguardian.org
Alex Chihak, 2/27/2005, 3:14:49 AM
I'm the copy chief for a daily newspaper.
We have a very effective system. Here's how it's broken down:
The reporter submits the story via intranet to his or her editor. They line edit the story, catching factual errors, name spellings and some copy.
Then it's sent to the copy desk, where I have at least two people read it. I like to have the last read, but as my new staff gets better, I let them stop at two.
Design lays it out on the page, and they print it out. We get two people to read over that again, fixing errors we missed on the page and errors in design.
Design fixes the errors and prints a final copy for us to make sure they caught all the errors.
Then it's made into a PDF where we do a final check to correct minor errors we may have missed. Then it's off to the printers!
