Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten has a hilarious piece making the case for copy editors, who are rapidly becoming an endangered species in newsrooms across the country.
Here’s how newsrooms have typically worked:
- A reporter writes a story. Presumably, they read it, too. (In my experience as a copy editor, that’s not always the case.)
- An assigning editor reads it, looking primarily for major holes in content or structure.
- A copy editor reads the story also looking for the same errors as the assigning editor. The copy editor also looks for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.
- A second, more senior, copy editor (called a “slot”) reads it again.
- Front page or controversial stories get an additional read or two.
A large chunk of Post copy editors have left in recent weeks. The Post is testing eliminating one of these layers of review.
Weingarten makes the point that a lack of copy editors will mean more errors in stories. That’s undoubtedly true. His deliberately exaggerated column has 60 errors in it. But his column proves that the work of copy editors adds little value.
Here is the unedited list of errors in the first paragraph:
- Opening line should begin “if you are like me,” not “like I.”
- No hyphen in “financially troubled.”
- “Downsizing” should be lower case.
- “Budget-cutting” should have a hyphen.
- Syntax requires moving “desperation” after “budget-cutting.”
- “200-decibel” should have a hyphen.
These errors don’t detract from a reader’s understanding of the story. Most readers don’t care about such nits or even know that they’re errors. Some of the errors that copy editors correct are so widely accepted that the fixes can come across as elitist or errors themselves. In college, a friend came up to me with a copy of The Daily Northwestern, complaining that the paper had left the “n” out of restaurateur.
Sure, there are professional scolds who will write, call or email about these errors. But I’m surprised that those people haven’t keeled over from heart attacks watching what text messaging is doing to our language.
It’s not the job of a newspaper to be the guardian of the English language. Newspapers are correct to focus their increasingly dwindling resources on areas that add value. They should spend more time on the big picture and less time picking nits.
Wiengarten writes “it doesn’t make sense for us to weep for copyeditors anymore than it makes sense for us to lament the replacement of bank tellers with automated ATM machines.” I’ve talked to a bank teller maybe twice in the last 10 years. And both times they added very little value.
See also:
I’ve been testing out a couple of relatively new social networking sites lately — FriendFeed and brightkite. Both reminded me of a pet peeve I have about social networking sites: they all want your picture, but they don’t make it easy for you.
They want you to upload a jpg from your computer. I’m not so vain that I keep a jpg of my mug on my desktop ready for easy uploading. And I’m too lazy to go digging around for it every time I want to test out a site. A good chunk — 40% of my friends on FriendFeed — are lazy, too. As a result, they all get the same icon, decreasing the usability of the site.
Here’s a simple idea: steal my Facebook picture, or my flickr picture, or my twitter picture. (I’m in blue, for those who are wondering.) Easy enough to do. FriendFeed already synchronizes my friends list with Facebook.
Yes, I know not everyone uses twitter or flickr. But their primary audience right now is the Great Silicon Valley Echo Chamber. They do. And Facebook only has a 100 million or so users.
An alternative, which WordPress uses for commenters, is to generate a custom icon for each user. It won’t remind people what I look like, but it will help distinguish one user from another.
Some interesting reads from the past few weeks:
- Top Car Dealer Says High Gas Prices Are Good for the U.S. Auto Industry (WSJ) — The CEO of AutoNation views high gas prices as just what we need to spur innovation on new technologies. After decades of convincing Americans that they should pay for size and power, he’s now trying to convince them that they should value fuel efficiency. That argument is made easier by $4 gas.
- Hotels upgrade their ‘no-stay’ lists (MSNBC) — Every frequent business traveler has hotels they’d never stay at again. I hated the Hyatt Rickey’s (now gone) and likely won’t be back to Sheraton Gateway Suites O’Hare. But hotels are also keeping a list of people they don’t want to see again. They’re using chainwide databases to blacklist problem customers who trash hotel rooms or constantly complain about service and ask for comps. I hope my complaint about $80 in erroneous minibar charges from the Westin Bellevue doesn’t land me on the list. It’s a great hotel otherwise.
- Exploring the neurochemistry of fairness (Ars Technica) — “It’s not fair!” is a common refrain from childhood. Apparently, as a species we have an innate sense of fairness. We do things against our own interests for a “fair” outcome. Participants were asked to play the Ultimatum Game, in which they were offered a percentage of a pool of money by another participant. If they agreed to take it, they’d get that percentage. If they didn’t agree, neither party got anything. The economically rational thing to do is take any percentage offered. Even 1% is better than nothing. That’s not how it played out. And the results could be changed by manipulating serotonin levels.
- In a Restaurant Row, Drive-Through Charity (New York Times) — One of the toughest things about visiting India is seeing the staggering amount of poverty throughout the country. The Times reports on “restaurants” where homeless sit in rows outside waiting for people to drive by and offer some money that can be used to purchase food. If someone comes the group goes inside and eats. via Chamath Palihapitiya
Google’s Panoramio has launched one of the most exciting advances in online pictures since flickr added geotagging. A new “Look around” feature shows you when pictures are available from other angles.
In the screenshot below, you can see the dome of the Taj Mahal highlighted. Clicking on that takes you to a picture of the dome. (Shown in red on the right.)
The UI is a bit confusing. For example, in the screenshot there is a blank image in the middle. I assume that means something, but I haven’t been able to figure out what. The same goes for the overall arrangement of thumbnails. Regardless, it’s a lot of fun to play with.
The feature is only available for sites with lots of pictures. Try the Brooklyn Bridge, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Tower of London and the Ponte Rialto. I had an easier time finding places to explore in Europe than in the United States. (This could reflect the fact that Panoramio is based in Spain.)
Microsoft’s Live Labs has been demoing similar technology called Photosynth for more than a year, using images of the Basilica di San Marco. Photosynth offers a spectacular 3D overview. I’d love to see it out of the labs.
Until then, I’ll be playing with Panoramio. Check out their take on the Basilica.
Read more on Panoramio’s blog.
Disclosure: I work for a Microsoft subsidiary.
- North Oaks tells Google Maps: Keep out – we mean it (Star Tribune) — A suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota has demanded that Google remove all images from Street View, citing its laws against trespassing. The city’s roads are privately owned by its residents. Google has complied with the request. In other Street View news, Google is experimenting with face blurring technology to quell privacy concerns and avoid embarrassing incidents.
- Corn price is factor in rising movie ticket prices (Kansas City Star) — Yet another weird way in which high oil prices are causing inflation. As increased demand for ethanol raises the price of seed corn, movie theaters are raising prices for popcorn. Which means fewer people will buy popcorn. The fewer people that buy popcorn, the lower the profit for movie theaters, who make up to 45% of their profit selling overpriced junk food. The lower the profit on concessions, the more they charge for tickets. Regal Entertainment’s CEO claims, “If we didn’t charge as much for concessions as we did, the tickets to the movies would cost $20.” Some theaters are going beyond that — a Redmond theater opening this fall plans to charge $35 per ticket. And the popcorn is extra.
- Economist traces height trends (Chicago Tribune) — What does height have to do with economics? A German economist claims that it reflects a nation’s wealth and income equality. He finds that the tallest people are in countries with universal healthcare. “Today the average height for Dutch males is a shade less than 6 foot 1, making them the tallest people in the world. Scandinavian males run a close second.” He doesn’t seem to take into account the effects of immigration, which undoubtedly lower U.S. averages. via Erica Schlosser
- Designer of Pringles can is buried in his invention (AP/CNN) — Frederic J. Baur was so proud of the Pringles can that he designed that he chose to have his ashes buried in one. Talk about devotion to your work. Baur was granted a patent for the can design. Although that patent is too old to for the USPTO’s online database, a search for “pringles” finds 35 patents that mention the snack, including a chair that uses a “PRINGLES potato chip shape,” “Electron source for food treating apparatus and method,” “Method for preparing sauteed vegetables,” and “ Method and apparatus for vending food products from a roller-type grilling apparatus.” I think you might be able to find that last one at the Kwik-E-Mart. via Molly Stevens
