A Copy Editor's Eye

By Jeff Bailey
January 23, 2009 06:16 PM

No newsroom group has had its ranks thinned more than copy editors in recent years. A survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism said 42 percent of newspapers had reduced the number of copy editors during the past three years. That was more papers than reported cutting photographer jobs (31 percent), general assignment reporting jobs (30 percent) or graphic artist jobs (23 percent), the PEJ said.

No big deal, you say, since newsholes are shrinking too. Who needs all those copy editors? But the survey also pointed out that, even with less space for stories, nearly half of the newspapers in the survey had increased the number of stories they publish by cutting story length. So, we’ve got fewer copy editors but more headlines to be written. Headline quality being threatened just as newspapers are more desperate than ever to attract and retain readers - that’s a problem.

If you’re a business reporter, that means it’s time to start paying more attention to the headlines – and photo captions, and pull quotes – that accompany your story. The truth is – and this has always been the case -- no matter how good your story is, if it isn’t smartly advertised by the headline and other elements surrounding the text, it won’t get read.

The good news is that those poor copy editors are now so overworked that they’re more likely to listen to a headline suggestion. Sure, plenty of cranky rim rats have barked at reporters over the years – including me – to mind our own darned business. But I’ve found as you get to know the editors on the copy desk, and they come to appreciate your reporting and writing, it becomes a more consultative process. Many copy editors will happily share their working headline before they’ve sent it to the slot editor, and will welcome a suggestion on improving it.

At the Chicago Tribune, for instance, copy editors now handle 8-to-10 headlines on a typical night (they’re also copy editing each one of those stories), vs. half that number a few years ago, a news editor told me. They said ;“Some nights they’re writing 12. It all comes through the funnel at the same time.” Copy editors also have to write separate Web headlines for each story at most papers, so they really are doing double duty these days. This Tribune editor welcomes reporter suggestions, but says most of us writers can’t seem to think succinctly enough to be of any help. “They can’t seem to grasp the importance – and they give you two sentences. It becomes a joke, ” the editor said.

Right about now many reporters are thinking, no thanks, I don’t need one more thing to worry about. After all, during those same years that copy editors were being laid off, your newspaper, business weekly or other news outlet has been larding new duties onto your job description., It seems like reporters are being asked to become one-man bands these days.

And, truth be told, many of us reporters have long taken perverse delight in fielding complaints about inaccurate headlines and photo captions on our stories. I’m so sorry. But you must understand: I don’t write the headlines. The copy editors do that.

Still, I’d argue that it’s in your interest to get involved in headlines. Research over the last 20 years, putting gadgets on readers’ heads and watching how their eyes bounce around the newspaper page, has shown us that our wonderful story – the text – is the last place many readers look. They look at pictures, headlines, picture captions, pull quotes and graphics first. Basically, they’re checking you out to see if they want to commit to reading your story, even a little of it.

A dull headline? Turn the page. A caption – “Factory workers loading steel onto a ship” –states the obvious. Turn the page. And it’s no fun to write stories that don’t get read.

Reading about the original 1990-91 Eyetrack study and watching this video can really change how you think about the importance of headlines, captions and such. I think it can also make reporters more willing to give up space – yes, have our stories trimmed – to make room for photos and graphics. If it means your 800word story actually gets read, that’s got to be better than seeing all 1,000 words published and ignored.

Now, before we start telling copy editors how to do their jobs – actually, we never want to do that – we should probably try writing a few headlines. It’s really hard. Really, really hard. But worth doing. You can scribble on the newspaper itself – use the same number of characters and see if you can improve on lame headlines you see. Or, get a friendly editor to show you how to use the headline-writing part of your editing system and take a whack at it. If nothing else, you’ll appreciate how hard it is to write even mediocre headlines. But if you’re a conceptual thinker, you’ll get better at it quickly.

Once you start analyzing headlines, you’ll notice the really good ones and the clunkers.

There is another benefit to concentrating on headlines: it makes us as reporters focus our story, during the reporting and writing. Forbes magazine requires its writers, when pitching a story, to deliver a proposed headline deck. “If you can’t produce a sentence that summarizes your story, you probably haven’t thought heartily and comprehensively enough,” says Tom Post, a managing editor at Forbes. “You ought to be able to state the thesis on the back of a postcard to grandma.”

Captions are just as crucial. As eyes go bouncing around the page, they look at the photo and often then the caption. Does it manage to tell us something more than just what is in the picture? “They’re just doors into a story,” Post says.

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Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism