Keep the copy editors!

As many journalism companies consider consolidating copy editors (or even doing away with them all together), Andy Bechtel, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication, pushes for the localization of them.

Bechtel, a former copy editor for The News and Observer, was part of his paper's localization of copy editors - and felt it was one of his best experiences.

• I was able to work side by side
with reporters whose prior interaction with copy editors consisted of phone
calls from the Raleigh newsroom. I handled all of the stories that came out of
the bureau, writing the headlines and rewriting them as needed between
editions.

• I became the face of copy editing to reporters and the
assigning editor. They congratulated me on a job well done, and on occasion,
questioned why I edited a story a certain way or wrote a headline the way I did.
They called me with a late update or correction to the stories rather than
trying to track down an anonymous editor in Raleigh.

• I became an
expert in local copy, knowing the names and places that popped up in stories
such as the country road that had a funny name.

• I was a fill-in
assignment editor in the evenings, letting the Raleigh office know of breaking
stories. This came in handy, for example, when a school board member abruptly
resigned in a resume-padding scandal. I was able to notify editors in Raleigh in
time to get the story on the front page for the edition that went to Chapel Hill
readers.

This is a prime example of the importance of copy editors, especially as papers become more localized in an effort to survive. This is also a prime example of how copy editors are fighting to survive; they are working overtime to prove their worth.

Bechtel definately accomplishes that here.