Nowadays all you hear is about how print journalism is dying, and though I don’t necessarily buy that notion (I think it is just changing, but I don’t claim to know what that change will result in), I follow such news closely, mainly via Romenesko.
Christopher Ave, the political editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote a song about layoffs, specifically about copy editor layoffs because they are so valuable to news organizations in helping keep both embarrassing and serious errors out of print.
It is a lovely homage to the word mavens who regularly bail reporters out by correcting their errors.
You can read the story about it here.
The song is funny and quite poignant. It really hits on what is going on and how valuable copy editors are.
Here is the song for your enjoyment:
If you liked this, I urge you to check out his blog. He is a musician and a journalist, and he wants journalists to understand how music can help multimedia productions. It is very interesting stuff.
