Editing in Online News Organizations

As the news media catches up with modern times there is one obvious fact that is being yelled across the world: print journalism is dying.

With the Internet being used as the main source of news to most people information has become easily and, most importantly, readily available. "Breaking news" has been replaced by constant updates and to-the-minute reporting. Now a reader can be on the scene of their news story as it happens.

While these innovations can be a source of comfort, the constant errors that are made in online journalism makes this media unreliable and sometimes inaccurate. Mistakes in news reporting can be disastrous, and these mistakes are seen more and more in online reporting. Immediacy replaces accuracy in most situations. While some errors are not as destructive as others, they are still clear and take away from the viewer's experience.

I believe that with the revolution of online news there should come a new business strategy for those media outlets. Where I see flaws are in the ways those outlets handle their news staff and their deliverance. There can be immediate news, but there can also be immediate and accurate news. Personally, I don't take up-to-the-minute news stories as the full truth. When I see a story like that I will either research other sources or wait an hour or so to get a clear story. If I do read a full story and there is a spelling error or other flaw, I think the sources credibility flies out the window. It is as if I am reading a first draft of a writer's work, and no first draft is ever perfect. I don't think any of this is acceptable in today's online media. For online news organizations to succeed there needs to be a new, cleaner way of handling stories so that readers understand and trust their organizations.

If I were in charge of a major news organization I would implement a new form of staffing to ensure news accuracy. I would create time zoned staffs, meaning a set of staff that functions at only their allotted times. For example, I would have one zone working from 8 am to 4 pm, then a new zone working from 4 pm to 12 am, then one final zone working from 12 am to 8 am. Each zone would have an editor, several staff writers, and several copy editors. When a story would be received it would be written by the writer, checked by the copy editors then approved by the final editor before being published. This could be accomplished quickly and be posted accurately. Because this is their only task on hand immediacy will be unavoidable. If anything the publication might lose ten minutes in the extra process, but this will be nothing compared to the accuracy that will be produced.

It is time for online news organizations to clean up their act and begin delivering fast, reliable news. After all, without reliability what is the point of news media?