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 Zones for 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: Poynter Institute 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 information in 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. GO FIGURE HOT ZONE — THE INFOGRAPHIC 35% 25% 45% 5% 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.

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