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Connecting With the News Culture:
Trade-Press Readership Among Copy Editors and Their Supervisors

INTRODUCTION
This study examines the use of a profession's media - trade journals and magazines - among new and established members of that profession. In particular, the research focuses on two subgroups of workers in the newsroom, newspaper copy editors and editors who supervise copy editors.
Newspaper copy editors, called "God's children" by one newspaper executive,1 perform a critical - and traditionally unsung - role in the newsroom.2 They are information gatekeepers, guardians of the newspaper's factual accuracy and linguistic precision, the so-called "last line of defense" against libel.3 Typically they write headlines, those all-important points of entry, and often they design the pages they fill. Copy editors - "the folks in the newsroom trenches who need to know more than anyone else how the whole operation works"4 - play a particularly important role in the production processes of news. They are seen by some industry observers as critical to the credibility, and therefore profitability, of the newspaper industry.5
Copy editors also are known as a group isolated from the more-celebrated newsgathering routines of the newsroom; separated from reporters and line editors by the shift schedules they work and sometimes by interpersonal tensions that result from their roles as the newsroom's police officers.6 Trade press reports consistently document that copy editors feel undervalued and deprived of training and development opportunities,7 and much of the literature of media training focuses on reporters, not copy editors.8 Moreover, theirs is a job that is changing as new technologies,9 newsroom reorganization,10 and job reconceptualization brought on by media convergence bring new tasks and responsibilities to the copy editor.11
The changing nature of copy editing has brought new attention to copy editors. Poynter Institute, the American Press Institute, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors have signaled the greater importance of copy editing with new training programs and forums for discussing copy-editing issues, and by giving greater visibility to copy editors and their work. The American Copy Editors Society, founded in 1997, continues to grow in membership and in the number of training opportunities offered its members.
Given their critical role and ability to determine what readers see in the news and, in turn, the world that readers see, it is important to investigate what guides copy editors in their work and how they naturalize values, norms, and behaviors that shape their performance and the news. The purpose of this research is twofold:
1. To examine the trade-press reading habits of two groups of newsroom workers: new copy editors, who, it is posited, might be expected to turn to trade press for professional socialization and skill development, and their supervisors, who might be expected to rely on professional magazines and journals for training aids concomitant to their leadership responsibilities.
2. To encourage a systematic examination of external, professional influences on the culture of newsworkers. Taking their cue from Breed's 1955 study,12 the few investigators to study how journalists work and what guides them in their work have focused virtually exclusively on internal, workplace factors. More understanding is needed of external influences, including trade press, on newswork.
Why Study the Trade Press?
Despite studies that indicate that journalists receive most of their socialization in the newsroom, there is ample evidence that in-house communication and feedback, not to mention "formal" training, are inadequate,13 and that therefore journalists' continuing learning must come from other sources, if it comes at all. The Freedom Forum reported that nearly all respondents in a 1992-93 survey said they wanted professional training, but most reported that they receive very little continuing education.14 In part, this demand has fueled an increase in the number of off-site workshops and conferences for journalists around the country.15 However, faced with staff and reader demands for more training, and with less - rather than more - human contact being reported in newsrooms across the country,16 newspaper managers need to draw on a wide variety of training materials for continuing in-house development.
One potential source of continuing training and professionalization is the trade press and publications devoted to discussions of journalism performance. However, the literature on newsroom socialization and the work culture of journalists either makes no reference to the function of trade press and professional journals,17 or appears to assume an influence without testing or examining what that influence might be.18 For instance, Gans acknowledged that "Like all professionals, journalists are also under some pressure from members of their own profession, especially media reviewers and critics."19 That pressure, he said, is exerted through local and nationally circulated professional publications and chain and house newsletters that offer readers mini-case studies that:
[I]dentify villains and celebrate journalists who have clearly behaved heroically in struggling against often overwhelming pressure. Most case studies deal with local villains and heroes, and are thus of little direct relevance to national journalists; but they reinforce journalistic ideals, which journalists can use to inspire themselves to greater effort or to demonstrate to management that journalistic autonomy must be preserved.20

However, Gans gives no examples of that occurring.
A number of magazines and journals for and about journalists are widely known in the newspaper profession; some existing for many years. Besides job postings for which publications like Editor & Publisher have long been known,21 these publications offer analysis and commentary on leading issues in journalism, forecasts of trends, and critiques of press performance. A number of these publications also regularly contain discussions of reporting, writing, editing, and managing that offer reporters and editors insightful tips for improving their job performance.22
Some, such as the publications of the organizations Accuracy in Media and FAIR,23 and, increasingly, individuals and groups working exclusively online,24 evaluate journalism from a particular political perspective and are likely to be discounted or ignored by journalists.25 Others are published by professional groups such as the Society of Professional Journalists (Quill) and the American Society of Newspaper Editors (until 1995, The Bulletin, and since 1995, The American Editor), while some are published by universities with journalism programs, notably the University of Maryland's American Journalism Review, Columbia University's Columbia Journalism Review, and Webster College's St. Louis Journalism Review. A smaller number are published privately, such as Copy Editor. These publications seldom carry the scholarly research found in Newspaper Research Journal, the publication of the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, AEJMC's
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, or the National Communication Association's Critical Studies in Mass Communication, although material in these journals may be adapted for publication in the trade publications.26
Articles appearing in the trade press are quoted or cited in many journalism texts but one seldom sees in these texts the trade press mentioned as a source of journalists' training and development.27 Nevertheless, the trade press does have heuristic offerings of value to readers. Speaking of broadcast trade publications, Daniel Brenner wrote that "the trades give the reader a satisfying and accessible entry to the broad array of what is going on at the FCC and in the production centers. ... (telling) the tales, large and small, of the age of communications in a manner that befits an industry in a hurry."28 However, a less-favorable view on broadcasting's trade press was reported by Dane Claussen.29
Although there is little scholarly literature on the subject, anecdotal evidence suggests that people who hire for the newsroom want candidates who understand the profession's values as well as specific job skills. One tipsheet for copy editor candidates mentions the need for broad understanding of the profession.30 Moreover, Becker, Fruit, and Caudill reported that "the teaching of journalism principles" was mentioned by a number of hiring supervisors as something journalism schools were doing correctly.31 These may be indications that the local newsroom's socialization of the new employee is focused chiefly on local job skills, rather than professional norms and values.
Except for the role of university journalism programs, the organizational research in media has tended to focus on in-newsroom socialization and has excluded or largely overlooked the role and influence of external influences on newswork. But, as colleges and universities strive to tailor programs to provide the skills graduates need in an age of high technology and incipient media convergence, editing educators find themselves hard pressed to emphasize professional values and norms and still teach HTML, QuarkXPress, and PhotoShop, particularly in mixed-sequence classes where news-ed majors, much less students interested in copy editing, may be in the minority.
Trade Press Circulation Trends
Despite their potential value to practitioners, there is evidence that journalists do not attend the trade press. Compared with the 56,200 daily newspaper journalists working in 2000,32 the paid circulation reported by the leading journals for that year showed a disparity between the number of subscribers and the number of working journalists. Table 1 shows the circulation reported by four leading professional magazines. Not included in the list are the scholarly journals, whose primary audiences are academics, not journalists, or trade press directed to particular work groups (e.g., copy editors, chief news editors).33
Table 1: Trade Press Circulation, 200034
Magazine
Circulation
American Journalism Review
26,892
Columbia Journalism Review
22,999
Editor & Publisher
19,851
Quill
12,000

Few scholars have investigated the influence of the trade press on journalism, and those who have generally conclude that readership of the trade press tends to be low among journalists. Weaver and Wilhoit have inquired about trade press reading in their several surveys of American journalists. In their most recent report,35 they saw a sharp drop in journal and trade publication reading, with 79 percent of newspaper journalists saying in the 1982-83 study that they read Editor & Publisher at least sometimes, in contrast with about slightly less than half in the 1992 data reading the magazine at least sometimes.36 The researchers concluded "a common body of professional literature reached only a minority of journalists. ... [and] There is little doubt that a majority ignored important literature that could nurture a critical mass of intelligent thinking on timely questions of journalistic practice."37 However, the Weaver and Wilhoit studies have not presented readership data by wor
k roles, and thus it is not clear whether trade press reading is different among subgroups in the newsroom (e.g., Is trade press usage greater, less or the same for copy editors vs. reporters? For entry-level personnel vs. experienced journalists?). One study, while reporting distinctly higher rates of trade press readership than Weaver and Wilhoit found, concluded nevertheless that the influence of the trade press, in this case on ethical judgment in the newsroom, was small.38
Why Expect Readership?
The organizational communication literature provides an argument for predicting higher trade-press readership among new copy editors and their supervisors. The dearth of scholarly literature on the influence of professional organizations and their media on craft members invites extension of what is known about the dynamics of internal influences in the workplace to the external factors,39 and many parallels are intuitively inviting. Investigating socialization tactics used by organizations, Jones found support for the contention that "reducing uncertainty is the major goal of newcomers to organizations and that the methods of socialization that organizations use can influence the way newcomers respond to their organizations."40 Miller and Jablin contend that "new hires (especially those just entering their chosen profession) are likely to experience considerably higher levels of role-related and career uncertainty when entering a new environment than at any other time during their organizational tenure."41 They add that this "leads newcomers (1) to be conscious of values and behaviors to be learned and (2) to often think about what they do not know and how to obtain the information they desire."42
It is not unreasonable to suggest that initiates into a profession might seek guidance not only from the workplace but also from organizations and media outside the immediate workplace. Unable to find information on previous responses to a similar coverage problem, the journalist might seek guidance in the archives of the trade press. Moreover, a journalist eager to progress in the newsroom might prepare for future coverage demands by attending the trade press rather than asking colleagues, much less superiors. As Miller and Jablin point out, newcomers "are very concerned with negative relational consequences/costs associated with observable information-seeking requests."43 There is reluctance by the new employee to ask too many questions for fear of annoying colleagues or tipping off supervisors that they may have been bad choices for employment. All the more reason for the employee new to the profession or the job to seek information from external sources, such as trade press.
Newsroom Stress
It is not unreasonable to expect that copy editors new to the job would seek a wide range of information to help them master the demands of their work. The organizational literature frequently mentions anxiety as a motivation to seek more information about how to get along in a new organization or new role.44 Anxiety, or its more common term, stress, run high in newsrooms for neophytes and veterans alike.
Despite the efforts of individual workers and their organizations to harness the spontaneity and unpredictability of news by routinizing news production,45  one can argue that professional tenure or organizational seniority notwithstanding, journalists spend much of their careers in a boundary-role status. Unlike workers whose inputs and outputs remain constant over time, journalists' working conditions are shaped by raw materials that often are unreliable in terms of quality, quantity, availability, and predictability of arrival, thereby testing the journalists' skills, values, and judgment many times each day. Theirs is an unstable environment at best, and one in which their credibility is under constant threat from a plethora of criticism from the community and from sources, not to mention other newsworkers.46  Journalists must continually define and redefine their roles in ways most other workers do not.
Thus, newsroom managers might be expected to read trade magazines and journals for discussion and analysis of issues affecting the profession as a whole, and to discover training aids that could improve the performance of reporters and editors in their newsrooms. Attending, at least occasionally, to the trade press of their craft would help new copy editors learn without risking the costs of knowledge acquisition in the newsroom, while it could offer managers a relatively low-cost tool with which to socialize and train their staffs.
Research Question
Men and women in the beginning of their careers or in new jobs might be expected to be particularly zealous in acquiring specific job skills and professional perspectives that will advance their careers. Supervisors might be expected to read the trade press to stay abreast of important issues affecting their craft and also to acquire tips and information that can help them be better managers. Moreover, they might find in the trade press a good, inexpensive source of quality advice for staff development. Both groups might be expected to read the trade press simply out of interest in their profession.
Thus, the research question is: What are the trade press and journal reading habits of new copy editors and their supervisors? The organizational and management literature gives rise to two hypotheses:
H:1 - New members of the copy desk will be regular readers of the trade press and journals.
H:2 - Supervisors of copy desks will be will be regular readers of the trade press and journals.
The question is significant in that it contributes to an important overall understanding of how external, professional forces influence the practice of journalism.
METHOD
Using the Editor & Publisher International Yearbook and state press association membership lists, a mailing list was created that included all 350 daily newspapers in six states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.47
Top editors, as identified by the Yearbook or press association membership lists, were each sent two packets containing survey instruments and asked to give one to the newspaper's newest copy editor who has been on the job at least six months but not longer than two years. The survey asked a series of questions designed to identify specific activities being performed on the job, and included questions that asked about trade-press reading habits.
The second packet was to be given to the person who supervises copy editors or is directly involved in hiring and evaluating copy editors at the newspaper. This questionnaire asked, among other questions, about the trade-press reading habits of these supervisors.48
Each group was asked, among other questions, whether the respondent regularly, occasionally, or never read each of seven well-known trade publications: Editor & Publisher, American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review, Copy Editor, The Quill, ASNE Bulletin/The American Editor and Newspaper Research Journal. An open-ended question asked whether the respondent read any other journalism magazines and journals and, if so, which ones.
RESULTS
A total of 111 copy editors responded to the survey, for a response rate of 31.4 percent. A total of 128 supervisors of copy editors responded, for a response rate of 36.5 percent. Copy editors ranged in age from 22 to 65 (mean, 32.3077 years of age; median, 30.0000 years of age; mode, 24 years of age). Males comprised 47.6 percent of the sample and females, 52.4 percent. They represented 111 newspapers whose circulations ranged from slightly more than 1,000 to more than 600,000. Mean circulation for this group was 50,754, the median was 23,000, and the modal class was 10,000. Copy editor supervisors responding to the survey ranged in age from 33 to 73 years of age (mean, 56 years of age; median, 56; modal class, 56. Males accounted for 70.9 percent and females, 29.1 percent. Newspapers represented in this group ranged in circulation from 2,708 to more than 600,000, with the mean size of 49,794, median of 23,000 and mode, 20,000 circulation.49
Using readership as a measure of value and importance to the respondent, results for both copy editor and supervisory editors were analyzed and the seven publications were ranked by their means.50 (See Table 2.)51
Table 2: Trade Press Rankings by Readership

Copy Editors (Mean)


Supervising Editors (Mean)
1
Editor & Publisher (1.000)

1
Editor & Publisher (1.2205)
2
American Journalism Review (.5644)

2
American Journalism Review (1.0407)
3
The Quill (.4141)

3
Columbia Journalism Review (.6417)
4
Copy Editor (.3750)

4
ASNE Bulletin/American Editor (.5862)
5
Columbia Journalism Review (.2887)

5
The Quill (.4655)
6
ASNE Bulletin/American Editor (.2680)

6
Copy Editor (.3534)
7
Newspaper Research Journal (.1263)

7
Newspaper Research Journal (.05)
Note: Spearman's rho for rank correlations was .714.
Responses to the seven trade publications are in Tables 3-10.
Table 3: How Often Do You Read Editor & Publisher Magazine?

Copy Editors
N=103
Supervising Editors
N=127
Regularly
19.4%
32.0%
Occasionally
61.2%
58.6%
Never
19.4%
9.4%
Mean Readership Score
1.000
1.2205
X2=.026, p<.05      t=-4.416, p<.05

Both groups were more likely to read Editor & Publisher than any other journal in the study, with supervisors reading the magazine at higher rates than copy editors. Independent sample T-tests were performed and differences in the readership patterns were found to be significant at the .05 level.

Table 4: How Often Do You Read American Journalism Review?

Copy Editors
N=101
Supervising Editors
N=123
Regularly
8.9%
21.8%
Occasionally
38.6%
60.5%
Never
52.5%
17.7%
Mean Readership Score
.5644
1.0407
X2=.000, p<.05         t=-2.699, p<.05

Both groups ranked American Journalism Review second in their ranking of trade publications, but the copy editors were considerably less likely to read the magazine than were supervisors. Differences in the readership patterns were found to be significant at the .05 level.
Table 5: How Often Do You Read Columbia Journalism Review?

Copy Editors
N=97
Supervising Editors
N=120
Regularly
4.1%
9.1%
Occasionally
21.6%
47.1%
Never
74.2%
43.8%
Mean Readership Score
.2887
.6417
X2=.000, p<.05      t=-4.363, p<.05

Columbia Journalism Review, ranked third in reading preference by the supervisors and fifth among the copy editors goes unseen by a large percentage of copy editors in this study. Nearly as many supervisors never reported they never read the magazine as see it occasionally, and slightly more supervisors than copy editors are regular readers. Differences in the readership patterns were found to be significant at the .05 level.

Table 6: How Often Do You Read Copy Editor?

Copy Editors
N=96
Supervising Editors
N=116
Regularly
8.3%
6.8%
Occasionally
22.9%
23.1%
Never
68.8%
70.1%
Mean Readership Score
.3750
.3534
X2=.935, p<.05       t=-25, p>.05

Copy Editor ranked fourth among the copy editors and sixth among supervisors. Nevertheless readership among both groups is low, and differences in the readership patterns were not found to be significant at the .05 level.
Table 7: How Often Do You Read Newspaper Research Journal?

Copy Editors
N=95
Supervising Editors
N=116
Regularly
1.0%
0.0%
Occasionally
8.3%
5.1%
Never
90.6%
94.9%
Mean Readership Score
.1263
.05
X2=.180, p<.05         t=1.648, p>.05

Ranking a distant seventh among the seven publications for both groups was Newspaper Research Journal. Differences in the readership patterns were not found to be significant at the .05 level.
Table 8: How Often Do You Read Quill?

Copy Editors
N=99
Supervising Editors
N=116
Regularly
9.0%
6.0%
Occasionally
23.0%
31.6%
Never
67.0%
62.4%
Mean Readership Score
.4141
.4655
X2=.396, p<.05       t=-.559, p>.05

As with most of the publications, readership of Quill by both groups was low, with considerably more respondents in each group reporting they never read the magazine. Differences in the readership patterns were not found to be significant at the .05 level.
Table 9: How Often Do You Read the ASNE Bulletin/American Editor?

Copy Editors
N=97
Supervising Editors
N=116
Regularly
3.1%
11.1%
Occasionally
18.6%
36.8%
Never
78.4%
52.1%
Mean Readership Score
.2680
.5862
X2=.001, p<.05         t=-3.813, p<.05

A publication for a specialized worker subgroup, editors and managing editors, the magazine not surprisingly is more likely to be seen by supervisors than copy editors. Differences in the readership patterns were found to be significant at the .05 level.
Table 10: Do You Read Another Professional Publication?

Copy Editors
N=103
Supervising Editors
N=127
Regularly
5.3%
18.3%
Occasionally
6.4%
3.2%
Never
88.3%
78.6%
X2=.000, p<.05        t=-2.321, p<.05

By far the greatest percentages of copy editors and supervisors alike reported they do not read other trade publications,52 although copy editors were less likely to read another publication than their supervisors, a difference that was significant at the .05 level.
To further examine the readership of journalism magazines and journals, an overall score was computed and the scores for individual publications were summed. The mean of the combined overall readership was 3.6219. Results are shown in Table 11.
Table 11: Overall Trade-Press Readership

Copy Editors
N=93
Supervisors
N=108
Overall Readership
2.8495
4.2870
X2=.000, p<.05                  t=-4.417, p<.05

Although supervisors are more likely to read the trade press than copy editors, overall, the data show readership of the trade press of journalism is low. Indeed, there was no support for either hypothesis in this study. Moreover, the data suggest that the picture of low trade-press readership holds across several demographic variables. No statistically significant differences were seen in analyses of readership by gender, by circulation size, or by age. The prevailing pattern is one of low readership of journalism's professional press.
DISCUSSION
In Making News, Martin Mayer talks about the importance for journalists to be constantly educating themselves.53 His comments argue for continuing self-education in the newsroom, a process that could be facilitated by reading relevant articles in the trade press. However, survey results showed lower readership of trade press than had been predicted for two important subgroups in the newsroom based on their roles and from analyses of previous studies.
Even for two groups of workers predicted by theory to be likely readers of professional journals and magazines, the data from this study support Weaver and Wilhoit's finding of low readership among journalists as a whole. In examining the nature of a professional culture among journalists, Weaver and Wilhoit analyzed their 1992 and 1982 survey results with those of Johnstone, Slawski, and Bowman54 and concluded that the professional culture of journalism is relatively weak in comparison with those of accounting, law, and medicine.55 They suggested that "the dynamics of the newsroom appeared to be the cauldron in which news values and attitudes were shaped most directly,"56 adding that: "Of the various factors that shaped the professional values of journalists in 1992, the newsroom environment was the most important. ... On balance, the newsroom environment was even more powerful in 1992 than ever."57 Indeed, many journalists actively resist the professional culture, fearing loss o
f autonomy that might be imposed by uniform professional standards, such as codes of ethics.58
Nevertheless, the question remains: Just what influence does the professional culture and its trade literature have on journalists?
This study did not attempt to determine what journalists do read if they read the trade journals, why journalists do or do not read the trade journals, and the broader question of just what influences, if not trade press, are powerful in building and maintaining the professional culture. However, these questions offer questions for future research as well as possible answers to what might account for low attention among new copy editors and their supervisors to the professional journals and trade press? Consistent with other investigations in organizational communication,59 research on media organizations suggests that on the job, one learns the ropes of journalism by observation and interaction with other newsworkers, with little or no post-graduation learning obtained from other sources external to the workplace. The literature suggests that socialization often is initiated by the individual through role-model selection, rather than by deliberate, purposeful training by the orga
nization. Anecdotal evidence suggests there is little pressure from news organizations for their employees to be regular readers of trade press articles. Although it was not asked in this study, the question of who pays for subscriptions to the trade press might influence readership. One reason that journalists might not be regular readers of the trade journals is their cost.60 If that, indeed, is a factor, newsrooms might provide free subscriptions to various worker subgroups (e.g., the copy desk, the city desk). Distributing photocopies of relevant articles would be another way around the individual cost factor.
Available time and energy are related factors that also must be taken into consideration. After a full night of reading news copy, many copy editors report they have no interest in recreational literature, much less the profession's journals. Anecdotally, there is little evidence that top newsroom management has enthusiasm for copy editors reading magazines, even the trade press, on company time.
Also, studies have shown copy editors to be among the most disaffected work groups in the newsroom.61 Thus, it would not be surprising to see a disaffected worker spending less time with the trade press, and to date no research seems to have asked about this in journalism. It is also possible, though not probable,62 that the copy editors studied here are seeing the literature in online versions.
CONCLUSION
The low levels of trade press readership among new copy editors and their supervisors raise several important concerns for rank-and-file journalists, newsroom supervisors, and journalism educators.
There is general agreement within the newspaper profession that the quality of the work performed in the newsroom is directly correlated with success at the newsstand. Concern over the credibility and viability of newspapers63 has led to major initiatives to analyze problem areas and recommend solutions.64 It appears that important, valuable, and economical tools for training and developing the new editor are going unused. One consequence, if the newsroom is the site for much training and socialization, is that the journalist and, by extension, the newspaper, will not rise above a certain level of competency available within the organization.
Certainly other external influences exist for the socialization and development of staff. These include journalism organizations, such as the Society of Professional Journalists, various state press associations, and national organizations that may be craft-specific (e.g., the American Society of Copy Editors), role-specific (e.g., the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors Association), or ethnicity-specific (e.g., the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists). All such organizations offer a combination of off-site training, online workshops and discussion groups, and newsletters that promote professional values and skill improvement. Furthermore, socialization and professionalization can be influenced by books about journalism, even by works of fiction, such as novels and motion pictures.
Journalism educators might also examine how they use trade press and professional journals in their teaching. Mayer's comment about the importance of self-education speaks to an important pedagogical question: As we teach the tools and skills of journalism, do we also teach students how to continue their educations on their own?
Making A Difference?
Does trade press and journal reading make a difference? There is virtually no literature that deals with this question directly, but some scholars get at it inferentially. Weaver and Wilhoit have contended in their studies that while trade literature reading among journalists is not great - and appears to be declining - the situation may not be much different from the readership of professional journals in law and medicine.65 However, the rules of performance and sanctions of the established professions provide a kind of socialization and professionalization that do not exist in journalism.
Maier's ethics study did identify a small tendency for trade-press readers to be more ethically sensitive than non-readers.66
Moreover, in a study of news-ed students as they were graduating and again after their first year on the job, Becker, Fruit, and Conduit found a softening of ethical values and a greater tolerance for such behaviors as reporters accepting gifts from sources, "evidence of an erosion of an idealistic view of the media even during this first year away from the university."67 The study likewise found declines in pride in their careers and commitment to remain in the field.68 One analysis might be that the ethical value system instilled during their university years was weakened upon entering a work environment that did not give continuing training and socialization in professional principles. If so, there seems to be ground for arguing that newspaper supervisors should provide external sources of professional socialization and development to augment, even counteract, the more rough-and-tumble socialization that goes on in the newsroom. The trade journals and magazines represent a copier-ready training subsidy that appears underused.

NOTES
1 Seth Prince, The Secret (Did He Say Weird?) Life of the Copy Editor, Chipps Quinn Scholars Online, September 1999. http://www.chippsquinn.org/news/1999/990903copyeditor.html.

2 See, for example, Bill Connolly, It's a Terrible Time to Be a Copy Editor. Or Is It? Poynter Institute, http://www.poynter.org/Research/copy/ce14.html; Gene Foreman, ACES Takes on Copy Editor 'Disconnect,' American Society of Newspaper Editors, July 1998, http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/98.july/foreman1.htm.

3 Bill Walsh, The Lot of Journalism's Noble Misfits, http://www.theslot.com/copyeditors.html; Anne Glover, In Search of the Perfect Copy Editor: 10 Copy Editor Traits that Guarantee You Success, http://www.poynter.org/Research/copy/10copy.htm.

4 John Russial, "Re: Nontraditional hires," note to NEWSCOACH-L, the training editors listserv, <<a href="/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind0109b%26L%3DAEJMC%26E%3D8bit%26P%3D7808947%26B%3D--%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D%253D_171707232%253D%253D_%26T%3Dtext%252Fplain%3B%2520charset%3Diso-8859-1" >[log in to unmask]</a>>, December 4, 2000.

5 Gilbert Cranberg, Help Wanted: A Few Good Proofreaders, Editor & Publisher, October 30, 2000, p. 38; L. Carol Christopher, Speaking Up: ASNE Study Emphasizes Need for Credibility, Amplifies Copy Editors' Longtime Cry for Help, Quill, Vol. 87, No. 5, July/August 199, p. 27; Nancy M. Davis, Honor Thy Copy Editors, Presstime, November, 1997, http://www.naa.org/presstime/9711/copyeds.html.

6 Betsy B. Cook, Steve R. Banks, and Ralph J. Turner. The Effects of Work Environment on Burnout in the Newsroom, Newspaper Research Journal, Summer & Fall 1993, pp. 123-136.

7 See, for example, Hank Glamann, Survey Looks at How Copy Desks Are Doing, The American Editor,  Vol. 75, No. 2 (March 2000), p. 22; Gene Foreman, ACES Takes on Copy Editor 'Disconnect,' The American Editor, Vol. 73, No. 6 (July-August 1998), p. 23; John McIntyre and Pam Robinson, And Now a Word from the Copy Desk, The American Editor, Vol. 73, No. 5 (June 1998), p. 10.

8  For example, a recent article on media convergence and the training of journalism students to enter a changing workplace makes no mention of editing skills or copy editors. Cynthia Gorney, Superhire 2000, American Journalism Review, December 2000, pp: 22-25.

9 Ann Auman, Design Desks: Why Are More and More Newspapers Adopting Them? Newspaper Research Journal, Spring 1994, pp. 128-142; John T. Russial, Pagination and Digital Imaging, Newspaper Research Journal. Fall 1995, pp: 42-56.

10 John T. Russial, Topic-team Performance: A Content Study, Newspaper Research Journal. Winter/Spring 1997, pp: 126-144; John T. Russial, Goodbye Copy Desks, Hello Trouble? Newspaper Research Journal. Spring 1998, pp: 2-17; Leland Buck Ryan, Goodby Copy Desk, Hello Display Desk. ASNE Bulletin, April 1991, pp. 7-12.

11 See, for example, Allen R. Andrews, Dumbing Down the Press: The Disappearing Copy Editor, The American Reporter, Vol. 6, No. 1407, August 29,2000. http://www.american-reporter.com/1407/226.html; Dorothy A. Bowles and Diane L. Borden, Creative Editing, 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth , 2000; Davis, Honor Thy Copy Editors; Martin Kaiser, Cooperation Logical, But Challenging, The American Editor. July 2000, pp. 10-11; Wayne Robins, King of Convergence, Editor & Publisher, October 16, 2000, pp. i12-i20; Gil Thelen, Convergence: Tampa's Experience, The American Editor. July 2000, pp. 7-9; Joe Strupp, Three-Point Play, Editor & Publisher, August 21, 2000, pp. 18-23.

12 Warren Breed, Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional Analysis. Social Forces 33(4): 326-335.

13 See, for example, Frank Quine, What People Think of Their Jobs, Newspapers and Bosses, in The Changing Face of the Newsroom,  Lee Stinnett, ed., Washington, D.C.: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1989.

14 Eric Newton and Richard Thien, No Train, No Gain. Continuing Training for Newspaper Journalists in the 1990s, Arlington, VA: The Freedom Forum, 1993.

15 Joe Strupp, From the Newsroom to the Classroom, Editor & Publisher, Vol. 132, Issue 25, June 19, 1999, p. 34.

16 Robert H. Giles, Professors Find They Make Grade in Newsrooms, The American Editor, No. 778, September 1996, p. 2.

17 See, for instance, Warren Breed, Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional Analysis, Social Forces, 33(4): 326-335; Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980; Gaye Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality, New York: Free Press, 1978.

18 Herbert J. Gans, Deciding What's News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time. New York: Vintage Books, 1980.

19 Gans, p. 266.

20 Gans, pp. 267-268.

21 See, for example, Lee B. Becker, Jeffrey W. Fruit, and Susan L. Caudill, The Training and Hiring of Journalists, Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1987.

22 See, for example, regular columns on writing and editing skills by Paula LaRoque in Quill, Don Fry and Gene Foreman in The American Editor. Until BPI Communications purchased the magazine in September 1999 and discontinued several standing features, one of the best-known columns on news writing was Jack Hart's Writers Workshop in Editor & Publisher.

23 Accuracy in Media, a conservative media watchdog chaired by Reed Irvine and including actor Charlton Heston on its national advisory board, produces several regular critiques of journalism performance, including the twice-monthly newsletter, AIM Report; a daily radio commentary, Media Monitor; and a weekly column written by AIM's chairman. FAIR criticizes media from a liberal perspective through such sources as Extra!, a bimonthly magazine; CounterSpin, a weekly radio program; and ACTION Alerts distributed on FAIR's listserv.

24 Online publications such as SmarterTimes at http://www.smartertimes.com, founded, its Web site says, on the proposition "that New York's dominant daily has grown complacent, slow and inaccurate," or JaxMedia Watch at http://www.unf.edu/jaxmedia, which asks "News divisions espouse the 'people's right to know,' but then instead of news we get health stories about fat-substitution products and trend stories about a new bra style. This is news?" give periodic critique and comment on the performance of specific publications and the media in general. This is an emerging and, as yet, unstudied phenomenon.

25 See, for example, Gans, pp. 266-260-276; Marion Tuttle Marzolf, Civilizing Voices: American Press Criticism, 1880-1950. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1991.

26 For instance, Daniel Riffe reports that a series of Journalism Quarterly articles on editorial cartoonists and editorial-page editors in 1985-1988 resulted in articles in Editor & Publisher, The Masthead, and Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly. (Personal communication, March 2001). Another possibility is that press coverage may result from scholarly research, such as newspaper stories reporting results of a study on editors' news selection (Joseph P. Bernt, Frank E. Fee, Jacqueline Gifford, and Guido H. Stempel III, How Well Can Editors Predict Reader Interest in News? Newspaper Research Journal, Spring 2000, pp. 2-10). Perhaps counterproductively for encouraging practitioners to read the scholarly research findings, academics occasionally have taken to the trade press to criticize academic research (See, for example, John C. Merrill, Lessons Learned: Evaluating J-Education, Quill, June 2000, pp: 36-37, in which Merrill says of the research generated in journalism and mass communication schools, "80 percent of it is useless.").

27 One study did look at the readership and the presumed influence of trade press on journalism educators and found professors do use material found in the trade press. Daniel Riffe, Julie K. Hedgepath, and Elizabeth B. Ziensenis, "The Influence of Journals on Curriculum and Instruction." Journalism Educator, Autumn 1992, pp. 54-60.

28 Daniel Brenner, "No, But I Read the Magazine Article." Media Studies Journal, Spring 1992, pp. 93-103: 103.

29 Dane S. Claussen, Broadcasting & Cable Magazine: Serving Readers and/or Advertisers? In Ginger R. Carter, ed., Proceedings of the Southeast Colloquium, Milledgeville, GA: George College & State University, 1998.

30 Glover, In Search.

31 Becker, Fruit, and Conduit, p. 127.

32 American Society of Newspaper Editors, Minority Journalists Make Small Gains in Daily Newspapers, April 12, 2000. http://www.asne.org/kiosk/diversity/2000Survey/2000CensusReport.html.

33 It must be noted that total circulation is not a particularly accurate measure of journalists' reading habits. Pass-along readership would increase the number of journalists actually seeing a given issue. On the other hand, the professional publications are read by people outside the profession. Columbia Journalism Review, for instance, has reported that more than a third of its readers are outside the profession, and that of the 62 percent of its subscribers who are media professionals, only 48 percent work for newspapers <http://www.cjr.org/contact/contact-media_pros.asp>.

34 Statement of Ownership, American Journalism Review, November, 2000, p. 61; Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation, Columbia Journalism Review, November/December, 2000, p. 75; Statement of Ownership, Editor & Publisher, October 9, 2000, p. 38; personal communication, Jeff Mohl, editor, Quill, December 5, 2000.

35 David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist in the 1990s: U.S. News People at the End of an Era. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996, p. 131.

36 Ibid.

37 Weaver and Wilhoit, p. 32.

38 Scott R. Maier, Do Trade Publications Affect Ethical Sensitivity in Newsrooms? Newspaper Research Journal, Winter, 2000, pp. 41-50. Maier's secondary analysis of data collected for a 1996 ethics study (M. David Arrant and Philip Meyer, Changing Values in the Newsroom: A Survey of Daily Newspaper Staff Members. Nieman Reports, Fall 1997, pp. 55-62) reported, "Nearly 80 percent of the survey respondents said they routinely read at least one trade journal and many report reading virtually every issue of several journalism publications (p. 45)." He added in an endnote, however, "Perhaps journalists overstate their reading habits. Even in anonymous surveys, it is common for respondents to say they've done their civic duty when they haven't (p. 50)."

39 Some organizational researchers make the distinction between organizational socialization  and occupational socialization, "the inculcation of occupational values and skills which may generalize across organizational settings in which an occupation may be practiced." Cynthia D. Fisher, Organizational Socialization: An Integrative View. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, Vol. 4, 1986, pp: 101-145: 102. However, most of the organizational communication research focuses on the former.

40 Gareth R. Jones, Socialization Tactics, Self-Efficacy, and Newcomers' Adjustments to Organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 29.2, pp. 262-279, p. 274.

41 Vernon D. Miller and Frederic M. Jablin, Information Seeking During Organizational Entry: Influence, Tactics, and a Model of the Process. Academy of Management Review, 16.1, 92-120: p. 93.

42 Miller and Jablin, p. 93.

43 Miller and Jablin, p. 97.

44 Fisher (p. 124) notes that "Most writers maintain that some anxiety is useful in socialization. Individuals are motivated to reduce the unpleasant state of tension by learning their way around in a new setting."

45 There is a considerable body of literature on news routines, written from a variety of perspectives. See, for example, Charles R. Bantz, Organizing and Enactment: Karl Weick and the Production of News, in S.R. Corman, S.P. Banks, Charles R. Bantz and M.E. Meyer, eds., Foundations of Organizational Communication: A Reader. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1990; Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980; Gans; Gaye Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality, New York: Free Press, 1978.

46 Gans, p. 266; Marion Tuttle Marzolf, Civilizing Voices: American Press Criticism, 1880-1950. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1991.

47 The findings reported here were derived from research that was part of a curriculum study at Ohio University. Enrollment data suggest that most students at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism resided in these six states, and anecdotal evidence indicated these were the states in which students were most likely to find their initial jobs.

48 Because of the research design, the actual names of copy editors and their supervisors were not known, making follow-up mailings problematic. However, post-card reminders were sent, followed by a final letter seeking participation from each newspaper where one or both of the editors failed to respond.

49 As predicted by Auman and Alderman, some newspapers at the extreme low end of the circulation range reported that they were too small to have a division of labor that included copy editors as a discrete work group. (Ann Auman and Betsy B. Alderman, How Editors and Educators See Skills Needed for Editing, Newspaper Research Journal, Winter/Spring, 1996, pp. 2-13.) Nevertheless, seventy-five percent of the copy editors and supervisors responding worked at newspapers of less than 45,000 circulation.

50 Means were computed by assigning numerical values (0=never, 1=occasionally, 2=regularly) to responses in the survey.

51 These rankings correlate at the top and bottom with the findings reported by Weaver and Wilhoit in ranking Editor & Publisher first in all groups and Newspaper Research Journal last (Weaver and Wilhoit, 1996, p. 131; Weaver and Wilhoit, The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986, p. 110).

52 As Table 11 indicates, readership of other publications was negligible for reporters; somewhat higher for supervisors. In both groups, the publications most often read regularly or occasionally were Brill's Content, followed by state press association literature.

53  Martin Mayer, Making News. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1993, p. 61.

54 John W.C Johnstone, Edward J. Slawski, and William W. Bowman, The News People: A Sociological Portrait of American Journalists and Their Work. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.

55 Weaver and Wilhoit, 1996. p. 169-170.

56 Weaver and Wilhoit, 1996, pp. 127-128.

57 Weaver and Wilhoit, 1996, p. 171.

58 See, for example, Marianne Allison, A Literature Review of Approaches to the Professionalism of Journalists. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Vol.1(2), Spring 1986, pp. 5-19; Lynn Wickham Hartman, Standards Governing the News: Their Use, Their Character, and Their Legal Implications, 72 Iowa L. Rev. 637, 639-642, (1987); Daniel C. Hallin, Commercialism and Professionalism in the American News Media, in Mass Media and Society, 2nd ed. James Curran and Michael Gurevitch, eds. London: Arnold, 1996; John C. Merrill, The Imperative of Freedom: A Philosophy of Journalistic Autonomy. New York: Hastings House, 1974.

59 Fisher, p. 132.

60 For instance, in first-quarter 2001, Editor & Publisher cost $4 per copy, or $79 for fifty-one weekly issues. American Journalism Review published monthly except for January/February and July/August editions and cost $3.95 per copy or $24 per year. Most expensive was Copy Editor, published bimonthly, at $69 per year.

61 See, for example, Lee Stinnett, ed., The Changing Face of the Newsroom, Washington, D.C.: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1989.

62 A separate set of questions on the survey instrument asked about the use and value of the Internet and World Wide Web in their jobs. Use and value were reported low by most respondents.

63 Examining Our Credibility: Perspectives of the Public and the Press, Reston, VA: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1999.

64 Examining Our Credibility: Building Reader Trust, Reston, VA: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 2000.

65 Weaver and Wilhoit, 1986. p. 112.

66 Maier, p. 47.

67 Becker, Fruit, and Conduit, p. 144.

68 Ibid.

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Connecting With the News Culture