Category Archives: Journalism

The digital copy desk

When I saw the new Ask the Recruiter post this morning, about making yourself more valuable as a copy editor, I had a hunch that the skills in question didn’t necessarily have anything to do with editing.

I was right, more or less.

The three main skills mentioned all have to do with Web content: search-engine optimization (SEO), tagging and analytics.

SEO is a skill that most copy editors possess even if they might not know it. Whenever you write a Web headline and are thinking of words that will make the story pop up in a search engine, you’re practicing SEO. Tagging is similar, although it’s more of a behind-the-curtain thing. And analytics basically breaks down your site traffic to determine what days, posts, pages and so on drew the most traffic.

The post reminded me of the shift in copy-editor education and workload during my last semester at the Kansan. For several semesters before, uploading Web content had been the domain of a nightly Web producer. Having done it myself, I can say that it was a pretty thankless job. Also, I kind of had to sit in the corner of the newsroom when I did it, something that kind of stung…

During my second semester as managing editor, we took a new tack and upgraded the Web producers’ jobs to more multimedia-based work, “hiring” students in the online reporting class. The job of uploading nightly Web content fell to the copy desk, which I’d worked on the previous semester.

Before the semester began, I typed up a (ridiculously minute) step-by-step guide for every copy editor. It was basically a crash course in Ellington, our CMS. I tried to think of every pop-up error and red flag that had ever plagued me, and gave troubleshooting instructions on how to fix it. How to set the time stamp? In there. Correcting a rogue ampersand? Done. Priority levels? Check.

The biggest issue was selling the idea to the copy editors. Why should they have to do this when someone else had always done it before? Cue my spiel about online priorities, well-written Web heads, the need to be flexible, the need to think beyond the print medium and, most importantly, the fact that they were going to do it as part of their grade.

After almost three straight weeks in the newsroom every night training the copy desk, I finally trusted them to help each other and fly solo. By the end of the semester, most of them had it down cold, several of them told me they preferred Web uploading to their actual editing duties and the midnight, panicky phone calls had stopped.

While I’m sure most of them saw the work as tedious (occasionally), difficult (when the system was pissy), beneath them (not really) or boring (guilty), they all left their editing class with something to add to their CVs: They had experience using a CMS, knew basic HTML and could write a Web head that would land on the top of a Google search. And I daresay those things will come in handy during their job searches, more so than even their (gasp!) print-based editing.

UDK Blues

I spent all four years of my undergraduate career working for The University Daily Kansan in some capacity. One year, I was more than 4,000 miles away from the newsroom, but never missed a column-submission deadline. I spent a year and a half on the editorial board and participated in the endorsements of two Student Senate coalitions. I’ve placed headlines, written headlines and posted headlines to the Web.

My most memorable experiences involved my friends. Press Club, Barn Party, LNOP, potluck night, trips to Power & Light, random meet-ups in coffee shops and crowding together in the editors’ office to eat a quick dinner before budget meetings are all memories that make me smile. Friends, more than anything, made the Kansan what it was.

Part of the reason I was able to devote so much time to the Kansan was because I was paid. I would’ve worked at the Kansan for nothing, but my $7.50 hourly wage helped me pay the bills without having to take on a second job. I’m honestly not sure I would’ve had time to take a second job. My senior year, as a managing editor, I was comped 26.5 hours per week. All told, my “real” hours were easily 35-40 hours. Combine that with 18 credit hours (I was a triple major) and non-paying newsroom shifts for my classes, and  I would not have been able to give the Kansan the attention it deserved without some compensation.

I’ve used my Kansan experience and clips to land three internships at large U.S. papers, and it was also beneficial in applying to graduate school. Beyond being fun, it was hands-on newsroom experience and a way to actually become a working journalist before I graduated. Limiting Kansan leadership to the sleep-deprived, the credit-hour-deprived or the independently wealthy would potentially rob School of Journalism students not only of their campus jobs, but also of future jobs.

So I admit to feeling incredibly angry and disappointed to learn that the Student Senate finance committee has voted to cut the Kansan’s money from student fees. Senate is under some delusion that “they” pay for the Kansan’s media fee, when actually it’s paid for by students and only funneled through Senate. Whatever bizarre reasoning has been posed, it all seems to boil down to Senate brass not liking the Kansan’s coverage.

The Kansan is not the New York Times. It’s a learning tool and a place to get our feet wet. The (incorrect) comparison was that it’d be akin to Congress funding the Times. I assume from that  rationale that Congress would also be OK with not receiving taxes from the Times. Right.

According to a Student Press Law Center official, what the Student Senate is doing is not only stupid but illegal. Tonight’s vote means that the proposal goes to full Senate later this month, despite the fact that the student body (which Student Senate purports to represent) has already voted by referendum to keep this exact fee. The money itself, when divided up among every student, is a pittance, roughly $.02 a day, which makes this exercise all the more ridiculous. It’s more about principle than money in the end: Student Senate is threatening to cut off a student newspaper because of dissatisfaction with its coverage.Anyone who values a free press should squirm at the thought.

However, it’s sad that so many of us who devote so much time and effort to the paper are going to have to suffer through salary, staff and content cuts just to feed someone else’ ego. I’m confident, though, that we’ll prevail in the end. The Kansan’s been around since 1904. What’s so special about these people?

Dear AP Stylebook

Dear 2007 AP Stylebook,

I was really worried that I’d lost you there for a second. You weren’t in my messenger bag or visible on my bookshelf, but luckily I found you. It’s not that I needed you immediately, but I like knowing where to find you. Sure, I had the 2006 AP Stylebook in front of me, but what if I had needed to know about the African Union, Asperger’s syndrome or Islamic holy days? I’d have been screwed. What if I had used “Baghdad, Iraq” in a dateline? I’d have looked quite silly.

I received you at Dow Jones training in May 2008. I was thrilled to have a NEW stylebook of my very own, and immediately wrote my name and phone number inside you in pen. I got to use you immediately during training, looking up all sorts of random stuff. Your sports section was quickly dog-eared, mainly because I always forget whether end zone is one word or two (it’s two).

While I mostly used the in-house stylebooks in Indianapolis and Columbus, you were always in my bag (along with my wallet, keys, phone, a snack and a bottle of soda). It was nice knowing you were there when I needed you. You also helped me out quite a bit when I edited at the Kansan. I remember at least one incident where, without you, Sarah Palin would have hailed from Wasilla, Ala(bama). And that time I pulled a stock-market crash headline out of my rear, your business section came through in the clutch.

My mother knows I use you, but I don’t think she really understands how. When I asked her if she’d seen you, she said no but she was “sure” you’d “turn up.” Luckily your spine is kind of hard to miss.

Sadly, you’re getting out of date, and I’ll eventually have to shelve you with your older brother and go for the sexy younger man — the 2009 AP Stylebook. Don’t worry, though. I think I’ll donate you to the journalism department at my old high school. You can help younger journalists appreciate the delicate mechanics of AP style. Hell, when I was 15 and in my first journalism class, I heard “style” and pictured stories in cocktail dresses and tuxedos.

You’ve been a good friend, and whatever happens next, we had a good run.

Love,

Kels

The “Race Beat”

Two weeks ago, I visited Little Rock, Ark., with my parents. The day after visiting Bill Clinton’s presidential library, we drove to a more suburban part of the city to see Little Rock Central High School and the accompanying little museum.

Little Rock Central High School.

Little Rock Central High School.

After Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, integration began in the nation’s schools. In 1957, nine African-American students attempted to attend Central High. Protests, threats and harassment were rampant, and Gov. Orval Faubus attempted to keep the students from the school. In the end, President Eisenhower had to call in the 101st Airborne to protect the students, while federalizing the state’s National Guard.

The museum had the displays you’d expect. A history of discrimination, photos and audio of protests and sit-ins. Video of news broadcasts and press conferences. It was a display in the middle of the museum, however, that caught my attention. This display was simply called “The Press.” It displayed headlines and front pages from the Little Rock crisis, and explained how in many cases, throngs of reporters and photographers took the brunt of protesters’ anger, acting as a buffer for the nine students.

I just started reading a book, “The Race Beat,” by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. I found it in the site’s museum. It’s a fascinating story about journalists’ role in the civil rights movement. In many cases, it’s not that these journalists “took sides.” It’s that they bothered to cover the movement and the inequality at all. It’s that they allowed civil rights leaders the opportunity to present their cases. The cause also showed up in staff editorials, when progressive editors, both black and white, called for change. It’s a powerful reminder of a free press’s necessary role in a democracy. One can’t exist without the other.

Reading about this time period reminds me of lessons I learned while in school. Journalists don’t exist in a vacuum. We’re not mindless automans, reading the weather and sports agate like robots. I also learned that while we should always strive for fair coverage, we should never think that fair automatically means equal. Or that equal automatically means fair.