Copywriting vs. Journalism

Back home in Phoenix, yes here in sunny Arizona, I’m currently writing copy at NextStudent. It’s a lot different from reporting and writing for magazines and newspapers. I needed a change after many years in journalism and turned to copywriting for the student loan funding company.

At NextStudent, I work with a team of highly qualified copywriters from different work backgrounds. Some were journalists and some did work in marketing or advertisting. Bringing us together to form the copywriting team at NextStudent was a great idea. There’s now a combined effort of different types of writing styles that blend well together. We’re all able to brainstorm and bring forth different ideas and ways of creating important copy to bring it to students and parents looking to fund a college education.

Speaking of college education, to me there’s nothing more important. In this day and age a college education helps in so many varied ways. It allows people to open their minds to new ideas, to learn new subjects, and to basically expand their horizons. It also helps people in the job market.

So my work here at NextStudent truly is different from previous writing and editing positions I had in New York. The deadlines are there, but different. The topic is different and geared toward a different audience: people looking to get to college, which is a good thing. And I get to work with others in a cool and oftentimes fun environment. I also don’t have to work until the wee hours of the morning, and that’s a huge plus.

No Respect on the Copy Desk

After working in New York at a publishing company as an editorial assistant for about six months, I finally was promoted to working on the copy desk, sometimes a thankless job. I learned so much though. I was eager to learn and find out the ins and outs of the world of the reporters, writers and editors. But I got more than I bargained for, which was a big plus. I learned how the magazine got put together: from story starts, art and layout to closing each issue and sending it to the printer.

I met everyone in just about every necessary department: editorial, art, production and sales. And by copyediting everyone’s work, I learned what to do and what NOT to do when writing my own stuff. It was a fabulous learning experience.

The problem was, and still is in many instances, that when you worked on the copy desk, oftentimes you were seen as low man on the totem pole. The reason: I’m not quite sure, especially since the people on the copy desk are extremely important for many reasons.

The copy desk employees make sure the stories are readable and make sense. There are great writers who can’t spell, and there are wonderful reporters who can’t put a story together to save their lives. The copy editor oftentimes saves them and their stories.

A good copy editor typically is a whiz at English grammar and can “fix” a train wreck of a story and make it look like great prose. Or that person can take a good story and make it better. This person also can help cut a story or lengthen one to fit the space alloted for it on a page. The people on the copy desk will lay out the story, add some relevant, cool or funky art to go with it, and then write a snappy, catchy headline.

Let’s not forget research. These overworked and underpaid workers also research facts and check to make sure words, people’s names and titles are correct. And they do it all under tight deadline pressure, only to be looked upon as underlings. However, if these people didn’t exist, newspapers and magazines and the like would be filled with a lot of gibberish and unprofessional looking pages.

So, let’s hear it for copy editors and the copy desk. These folks put in a lot of hard work, stay late, and don’t hear enough thank yous for helping all those writers and reporters look good!

Sales vs. Editorial

I found out early about the differences between sales and editorial with regard to the publishing world. There sometimes were problems and sometimes not. Things sometimes even got heated.

Obviously the world of sales in publishing means selling the ads, which brings in the money. And the bottom line always is the money in just about every business. On the other hand, editorial typically is about journalists striving to report on and write the best stories they can. Pitching editorial sells ads. But when it comes down to it, sales usually wins. If the ad space isn’t sold, then there’s no magazine. If there’s no magazine, everyone on staff has a big problem.

Things actually can get held up because of advertisers. That oftentimes doesn’t sit well with editorial. Writers, reporters, copy editors, managing editors and editors work on “deadline.” With these people, and I’m one of them, deadline is “king.” Our lives revolve around deadline, and most of us hate to miss a deadline. Many of us live our entire lives, personal and professional, with the word “deadline” hanging over our heads. It’s ingrained in our souls, like a sickness.

I found out pretty early on in my career that deadlines would be missed — not due to errors on my part, but mostly due to sales. Didn’t like that at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know our magazine had to make money. But you can’t tell me to be “deadline-oriented,” which I accomplish, then tell me to forget the deadline! That drove me absolutely bonkers.

There were never any actual knock-down, drag-out fights. But we sometimes came close. I think there were quite a few times when I sat at my desk at 10:12 p.m. clenching my teeth in anger. The stress level certainly was high. I guess many of us in the business thrive on that type of stress.

After a lot of late nights, the editorial team closing the issue easily got “punchy.” Laughing for no reason. Typing in a headline after your fingers are on the wrong keys can bring about some funny stuff. Maybe not that funny, but when you’re going on two hours of sleep, you sometimes laugh at just about anything. Heck, you’ll even laugh with the salespeople.

In the end, after an issue closes, everyone makes friends. Then it starts all over again for the next issue.

The Early ’80s and Typesetting

Boy things really were different back then. Not that it’s so long ago in the scheme of things. But in the early ’80s there was no Quark or InDesign. Not even Pagemaker. There was old-fashioned typesetting and cutting and pasting.

When I began my career in publishing as an editorial assistant, I ran around and wore many hats. Since I desperately wanted to truly be in the editorial department, I watched, learned and did anything and everything I could and that the higher-ups would allow.

Much of what I did entailed going to the art department. At that time there were a number of artists doing everything manually. You really got to see a lot of talent at that time. Drawings done by hand and from scratch. Things like that now are rare.

The art department also was in charge of getting the magazine’s pages down on boards. Everything written and edited was done on an old computer program with a black or blue screen. Then when everything was edited and ready to go it would be “shipped” via these old computer systems to the typesetting department. What came back to us were the actual “pages” that would be put on the boards in the art department.

When the pages came in the copy desk would do final copy edits and proofreading. Any mistakes were marked up and brought down to the art department where “magic” would occur, the old-fashioned method of “cut and paste.”

It really was fascinating to watch. Sometimes full sentences had to be cut out, and letter by letter an artist would correct the sentences or words and paste them onto the board. You had to have patience and a steady hand.  Kind of like a type of surgeon.

As editorial assistant I often ran down to the art department, especially on deadline days. I would have to run and get this or that and make sure everything went out to the printer on time.

It truly was exciting at times, and exhausting. There were tons of late nights during deadline. Everyone on staff would become this close, stressed-out family all working toward the same goal. On days and nights like this, you would get a real adrenaline rush.