Copy editors are very important.  All you have to do is ask a blogger such as myself.  Blogs are normally solo endeavors, including this one.  That means I have one editor – myself.  Sadly, I make mistakes that would not happen if I had a good copy editor.

When you have a talented copy editor, familiar with your own community and the news operation, the finished product is high quality.  Sadly, with income falling for most newspapers, copy editors have been cut or done in geographic places far from the city where the paper is published.

This is a troubling trend for the news business.  Less good, quality copy editing means a product that is not as good.

I have heard many readers of the Indianapolis Star tell me they have detected a serious reduction in the quality of the copy produced by the newspaper.  Reducing the number of copy editors and placing them in other cities has contributed to the lowering of the quality.

Now, the Indianapolis Newspaper Guild, the union representing those on the editorial side of the Indianapolis Star, is sounding the alarm that the Star’s parent company, Gannett, is aggressively pursuing a change that would transform the copy editors at the Star from being company employees to independent contractors.

The Gannett management is threatening layoffs of five more journalists from the Star staff (the previous layoffs have dwindled down the number of journalists so much, Gannett is running out of reporters to layoff) if the Guild does not agree to changing the copy editors to contract status, the layoffs could begin next month.

On this issue, I side squarely with the Guild.  Switching the copy editors to independent contractors will make them less a part of the editorial team.  It’s just a bad idea.  And threatening to layoff more reporters is a bully tactic.

If you agree, spread the word.  You can read more about this on the Guild Web site at this link.