Every now and then, someone will ask what I do for a living. That person might be a distant relative, an individual trying to make small talk during a personal-business transaction, or a friend of a friend inquiring during a get-together.
“Oh, I work at the newspaper, the TH,” I’ll answer.
“What do you do at the TH?”
“I’m a copy editor.”
“What’s a copy editor?”
“Well, I mainly write headlines, design pages and look for errors in stories.”
“That sounds exciting.”
It can be very exciting, but not always. It sometimes is cumbersome to cross-check a list of obituaries for the daily paper or lay out an array of mug shots for the People portion of the Sunday Business Section. And getting to the bottom of whether a person’s name was spelled right in a police item on Page 3A is not always easy.
However, especially during National Newspaper Week, I maintain that these tasks are extremely important. It’s essential for newspapers, such as the TH, to have accurate obituary information. People depend on that.
Likewise, our People in Business feature and the police items would not be as popular with readers if they were filled with errors. People who earn job promotions deserve to have accurate information in the items and mug shots describing their accomplishments.
Even if that part of my job is rather mundane, being a copy editor has many benefits. One is that you get to read the news before anyone else. Another is that it can be interesting to pick up the paper in the morning and see the front page that you designed, with your headlines. Or maybe the late wire story you made an extra effort to get in that day’s paper is being discussed on all the news channels.
And occasionally, your last-minute efforts prevent an erroneous or incomplete local story from being published until necessary modifications can be made.
I have been doing such behind-the-scenes work since becoming a news copy editor in 1998. Prior to that, I spent 13 years as a sports writer and sports editor for the TH and two smaller papers in Illinois. While in sports, I covered hundreds of local high school events, including Wahlert volleyball state championships and Senior boys cross country state titles. I greatly appreciate the local coaches and athletes who took the time to answer questions from me.
I also had the chance back then to exclusively interview many big-name college and pro athletes, including Ryne Sandberg, Greg Maddux, Richard Dent, Mike Singletary, Ernie Banks, Chuck Long and Michael Jordan. In fact, my wife and daughters hate watching sports documentaries with me, because too often someone will be on screen and I’ll say, “I once talked with that guy.”
When I mention that I used to be a sports writer, the Jordan interview is one that people have a tough time believing. I’m sure they are wondering why a global icon who was the focus of a recent 10-part documentary on ESPN would have talked at length with a guy from Dubuque.
All I can say is, things were different back in October 1986, when pro athletes were much more accessible. Jordan’s Chicago Bulls were playing the Utah Jazz in an exhibition game in Iowa City. Prior to that game, there was a University of Iowa basketball scrimmage, which grabbed the attention of every other member of the Iowa media. So, Jordan, who was practically by himself in the locker room, said “What’s up?” as I approached him. He then, among other topics, talked with me for the next 45 minutes about his 63-point playoff game the previous spring against Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics.
I wrote a column based on the interview with Jordan and a brief one with teammate John Paxson, who would go on to have quite a career himself as a player and executive, and didn’t think much more of it until a month or two later.
It turned out that Brian Cooper, then the executive editor at the TH, had sent an accuracy questionnaire to Jordan. Brian sometimes would (then)snail mail copies of stories to local sources who had been quoted and would ask if the story matched what they remembered saying and if something else should have been included in the report. Brian did not really expect a reply from someone who, even then, was a basketball superstar receiving hundreds of pieces of mail per day.
Jordan, though, did respond, writing that he was “very happy” with the column, the reporting was accurate and that I had been “very professional” in conducting the interview.
I will admit it’s not every day that you get to interview someone like Jordan, be there for the first night game at Wrigley Field or cover an NFL playoff game. But each day is different in the newspaper industry, and I am grateful to have been part of it for so many years.