I never thought I would see this, a newspaper eliminating its copy desk. Richmond, Va.-based Media General decided to consolidate the copy editing operations into one editing center, similar to the arrangement it has for many of its community newspapers. This led to the elimination of the copy desk at the Winston-Salem Journal. After watching the video and reflecting on my days as a reporter, a couple of moments resonate with me. Will someone with great skill and experience be at the editing center to catch an error that only someone familiar with Winston-Salem would know? For example, someone in the video said that Robinhood as in Robinhood Road is one word and not two. A good copy desk is the quality control department for the newsroom. Take that away and mistakes like spelling street names wrong happen. And, when a paper can't even spell the local street names correctly, what can it get right?
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