Contemporary Copy Editing

Before the digital era, copy editors used to take a red pen to a piece of paper to point out errors
and inconsistencies using a markup language made up of symbols universally known by copy
editors. The traditional copy editor was once defined as editing for grammar, spelling,
punctuation and other mechanics of style.
Copy editing symbols can no longer be used when editing digitally because they are not
supported on digital platforms such as track changes. With more posting online and less printing
on paper, this means current publishing processes are faster. Hard copy is no longer able to
keep up with digital publishing. For a publisher to hire copy editors to print hard copy, make
edits, and then make changes is no longer the most efficient process. The position of copy
editors is at risk because time demands quicker results that can be done by automatic
correction software that catches all grammatical errors. Transferring the responsibility from
human copy editors to digital software has been adopted by some publishing companies
because it is available free of cost.
Professionals feared that the introduction of digital editing software would put an end to
copyediting careers. Copy editors are still employed and needed for heavy editing, such as factchecking and content organization, which software is not yet able to do. With grammar software
and journalists that can edit, copy editors are seen as a luxury in publishing. The potential for a
company to use editing software may also require the copy editor to only perform heaving
editing and querying. Though the steps for copyediting are the same, the execution is what has
been changed due to the introduction of digital environments.
The technological development of Cloud storage allows contemporary copy editors and writers
to upload and share files across multiple devices. Online word processors such as Google
Docs, Dropbox, Zoho, OpenGoo and Buzzword allow users to perform a number of tasks. Each
processor has its advantages and disadvantages based on the users preferences, but primarily
allow users to share, edit and collaborate on documents. On Google Docs users can invite
others via e-mail to view, comment and edit any file of their choosing. Those invited can view
and edit the document together in real time. Unlike Google Docs whose files can only be shared
through the web app, Dropbox shares from a desktop app. Dropbox users can share documents
as links or as shared folders. Users can create shared folders and add others to the folder. Files
in a shared folder will appear in the other users Dropbox and all involved users receive
notifications when edits are made to a file in the folder. Adobes Buzzword allows users to share
files, with the users choice from varying levels of editing access, and includes a Version History
feature which tracks changes made to documents and lets users revert to earlier versions.
Useful in many word processors, a Track Changes feature allows users to make changes to a
document and view them separately from the original document. In Microsoft Word users can
choose whether to show or hide changes by clicking Track Changes under the Review ribbon.
Those editing documents can leave comments by clicking wherever the user desires to leave a
comment and clicking New Comment under the review ribbon or by highlighting text and clicking
New Comment. Users can select the revision of specific users whom they have allowed to
revise their work and choose which level of mark ups to view under the Show Markup dropdown

menu in the Review ribbon. Users can also choose to accept or rejects changes by clicking
either Accept or Reject in the Review Ribbon.

The Contemporary Copy Editor

The modern readers desire for quick, if not edited, content doesnt render the field of
copyediting obsolete just yet, however. Teresa Schmedding, president of the American Copy
Editors Society (ACES) and a deputy managing editor at the Daily Herald in Chicago, thinks that
copyeditors are a natural fit for digital journalism and social media because though publishing
has been made available to almost anyone, quality and credibility is brought to content only by
copy editors.
When editing a piece, copy editors now have to consider multimedia aspects of the story. The
inclusion of video, images, SEO, and audio are just some of the components that are now
created and included to digital publications by copy editors. Digital journalism has created many
new roles for a copy editor, such as editing on the Web. Digital editing now requires copy editors
to become familiar with search-engine optimization, understanding HyperText Markup
Language, Cascading Style Sheets, and RSS feeds. In addition to Web-based skills,
contemporary copy editors must also obtain a larger skill set, having knowledge of and the
ability to operate software such as Adobe Illustrator for generating graphics or Adobe
Dreamweaver for designing web pages.

Issues in Contemporary Copy Editing

With the digital publishing era came an increased demand of information. ReadWrite, a popular
technology news site, faced issues. Andrew Hyatt watched his site go from about 5 million page
views a month to under 3 million. Hyatt credited at least part of the reason to the sites decision
to hire two new copy editors. This decision was driven by an old-school journalism mindset
that the audience wanted super clean copy. Because it slowed story production, however,
viewership went down. In order to keep the site afloat, he laid off the copy editors and
implemented a much more loose editorial process in order to keep publishing rates up,
including getting rid of up-front story pitches and front-end editing.
As the news industry debates the future of copy editing, critics and audiences are left wondering
whether new online audiences care as much as print audiences would about things like
grammar, punctuation, and accurate usage and phrasing.
Web-based publications, such as BuzzFeed and Slate do not have enough room in their
budgets to keep a sufficient amount of staff to edit their massive, daily rushes of content.
Because of this, copy chief Emmy Favila says lower-priority posts are published without copy
edits at Buzzfeed. Slate does not edit its blog posts before publication, but all of its news articles
are copy edited before publication, says Slate copy chief Lowen Liu and deputy editor Julia
Turner.

In response to such high demands for fast-produced content, some online publications have
started publishing articles first and then editing later, a process known as back-editing. Editors
prioritize stories to edit based on traffic and whether the content was originally reported for
needing edits.