CLEAN up your COPY GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION

1. CLEAN up your COPY GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION

2. CLEAN COPY Today’s host MIKE TURLEY Content team manager — Central Region GateHouse Media News & Interactive Division 585.851.9696 mturley@corp.gatehousemedia.com Twitter: @ml_turley • Audio: 877.411-9748; Code: 630-956-8834 • Please silence your phones • Do not hesitate to ask questions

3. THE AGENDA • Remember when … Where have all the safety nets gone? • The transition Moving from in-house to Design House • Online copy Have our standards really changed? • Hot Zonesfor errors Avoid embarrassing mistakes

4. THE TRADITION 150 years of copy desks The need for copy desks developed as newspapers grew in size. 1949: The copy desk at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

5. THE TRADITION • Safety in numbers • local copy desk • proofreaders • prepress or composing department • press room • hard copy Source: The Underground

6. THE TRANSITION The local news site will: • edit stories and other content for local knowledge • write headlines and cutlines • continue Web management and online editing Design House will: • give a final read to all copy, but no rewrites • design and layout news and special section pages

7. THE TRANSITION • Clear, clean and concise: Whose job is it? • Reporters • Assignment editors • Copy editors • Anyone who sees the story before a reader. Bottom line: Everyone is responsible, and it starts with the reporter. Quote “Don’t work in a vacuum. Be aware of what is going on and be prepared to sacrifice your work at the moment to help out in a crisis.” — BILL MITCHELL, Poynter Institute

8. COPY EDITING TIPS • The quest for clean copy • Don’t assume: If in doubt, leave it out. • Follow your instincts: If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong. • Err on side of caution: Better to be safe than sorry. • Double entendres: Recognize red flags. • Double-check the math: There is a reason journalists are not engineers. • Use spellcheck, but don’t completely rely on it. • If time allows, write the story and step away for a few minutes before reviewing it.

9. COPY EDITING CHECKLIST Check, and then check again • First name on first reference • Unusual spellings of names, places, etc. • Titles and positions • Addresses, telephone numbers and URLs • Streets, avenues, roads, drives, boulevards • Personalities, events tied to community • Facts, figures, dates • AP and local style • Bylines, credit lines, tag lines

10. ONLINE • Do not compromise our profession’s values, standards and expectations. • If your website is riddled with errors, credibility will suffer. • That said, you need to be quick to post online. • Empty your notebook: Publish what facts you have and let readers know more will come.

11. ONLINE • Web readers scan rather than read. • Copy should employ reader-friendly techniques such as bold words, subheads, bullet lists and deep links to Web sites. • Use the inverted pyramid style. • Use simple declarative sentences and keep the adjectives to a minimum. • Use active voice and active verbs. Source: PoynterInstitute Quote “Solid news judgment can’t be replaced by bells and whistles, and we still strive for accuracy and credibility.” — JOE MARREN, The Craft of Online Editing

12. ONLINE • Provide key background or contextual information with links. Editors should link to previous stories on the same topics. They also can link to original documents. • Online, the headline may be the only element readers see. Tell them as much as you can about the story to draw them in. • Be specific and direct in headlines. Clever may not work online. • Source: SUE BURZYNSKI BULLARD / American Copy Editors Society

13. ONLINE Credibility at stake Mistakes made online can be quickly fixed, but the damage already is done. SOURCE: CRAIG SILVERMAN / Poynter Institute

14. HOT ZONE — THE HEADLINE • SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT • A copy editor works and reworks a headline until the right words are found and the correct message is conveyed. Changing and rearranging words and sentence structure often lead to grammatical errors that slide through on deadline. • MEAN WHAT YOU SAY. WAIT … SAY WHAT • YOU MEAN • There are Arabs who are Muslims, and there are Muslims who are Arabs. But the words are not synonymous.

15. HOT ZONE — THE HEADLINE WHEN FACT MEETS FICTION How many times have you read a name, title or number in a headline that does not correspond to the same informationin a story? CHARLES APPLE / The Visual Side of Journalism

16. HOT ZONE — THE CUTLINE • NAME GAME • Similar to working with headlines, do not make the mistake of spelling a person’s name one way in the cutline and another way in the story. • IT SEEMS OBVIOUS TO ME … • Then most likely it is obvious to the readers. Please give them a little credit … and some information they do not know. The State Journal-Register

17. HOT ZONE — THE INFOGRAPHIC GO FIGURE Do not assume numbers in a bar chart are correct or the figures in a pie chart total 100 percent. Do the math. If the figures are in a story, cross-check those as well. 5% 35% 45% 25%

18. HOT ZONE — THE PULL QUOTE • ‘YOU CAN QUOTE ME’ • Use caution when pulling a quote from a story and running it in 12-point type so it catches a reader’s attention. Suddenly, those spoken words nestled halfway down in a story may be taken out of context when standing on their own or resting near a headline. • WHO SAID THAT? • Keep an eye on the name and title lines in a pull quote. They often are typed in a rush … and incorrectly.

19. REVIEW • There are fewer safety nets in today’s environment, so restructure the newsroom to get as many eyes as possible on copy. • Online copy: The thought process and format may differ from print, but the standards and expectations remain the same. • Hot Zones: The bigger the type; the bigger the problem. Quote “You can’t be cavalier about it. People get vocal if they think the level of editing has dropped.” — EMILY INGRAM, THE WASHINGTON POST

20. CLEAN up your COPY GATEHOUSE NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION