Editors sound off

Here are two brief interviews with editors from the West Valley View newspaper. The paper is based in Litchfield Park in the West Valley; it serves Litchfield Park, Buckeye, Tolleson, Goodyear and Avondale. The privately owned newspaper publishes for Tuesday and Friday to about 80,000 readers. The staff has eight reporters, three photographers and four editors.

Jim Painter, Managing Editor
West Valley View Managing Editor Jim Painter has more than 30 years of newspaper experience in the Valley. He began in 1977 as chief photographer at the News-Sun (now the Daily News-Sun) in Sun City. Eventually he would work at the West Valley View — first as a reporter, then an editor — a week after it published its first issue in 1986. In 1996 he took a job as senior photographer/reporter for the Arizona State University News Bureau, after which he did another stint at the Daily News-Sun before finally returning to the View as managing editor in 2000. A graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Painter also served in Army from 1971 to 1973 as a military policeman and medical photographer.

RIMRATS: Do you notice any trends in newspaper design? Or maybe in copyediting?
Jim Painter: I really haven’t noticed any new trends in design or copyediting. Copyediting will probably never change. English is English and while the rules of grammar and style may vary depending on which style the newspaper adheres to, copyeditors will always push for consistency in language usage among the writers on their staff.

RIMRATS: How has the paper’s page design changed since 1998?
JP: We went through one major design change after I returned to the paper in 2000. We added the rail along the left side of Page A1, changed the look of a lot of the headers and feature logos, and improved the quality of photo reproduction by increasing the line count (resolution) of the halftones.

RIMRATS: How does the Internet factor into the way news is delivered to your
readers?
JP: I think this question and the next one are related. Newspapers everywhere are looking at new ways to use the Internet and the Internet is probably where the future of newspapers lies.
The Internet allows non-daily newspapers to compete with daily newspapers in getting news to their readers in a more timely fashion. The Web also allows newspapers to use multi-media formats. Now, newspapers can act almost like radio or TV stations by posting audio and video recordings on their Web sites. Personally, I think that as time goes on and newspapers become more sophisticated in their use of the Internet, each paper — including small community weeklies — will become like extremely localized TV news stations, with lots of video news reports and even Meet the Press-style talk shows with local elected officials and other community leaders as featured guests.

RIMRATS: What do you think the future of newspapers looks like?
JP: Fewer and fewer people read ink-and-paper newspapers, while more and more people get their news online. I think newspapers are increasingly going to turn to the Internet as their vehicle for disseminating the news.

Cary Hines, News Editor
West Valley View News Editor Cary Hines has worked at newspapers for nearly 15 years, but not always at the editing desk. She started as a page designer in the composing department at the Oakland Press, a large daily in Pontiac, Mich. When she moved to the Valley in 1995 she worked for the Luke Air Force Base newspaper, what was then called the Tallyho, as the lifestyles editor. After taking some time off to raise a child, Hines joined the West Valley View staff as news editor in 2001.

RIMRATS: What are the most common style mistakes you notice reporters making?
Cary Hines: Some of the most common style mistakes are with addresses (such as abbreviating “road”); using “pour” instead of “pore” (such as “she will pour over the papers later”); using “compliment” instead of “complement” (such as “the colors compliment each other”); going hyphen crazy (such as “The girl is 3-years-old); and using “underway” instead of “under way.”

RIMRATS: Are there any entries in the AP Style Book you disagree with, or maybe your paper has different rules about?
CH: Every newspaper has its own style, but overall they all must conform to some sort of style to ensure continuity so that you can pick up a newspaper anywhere in the country and read it with the same ease you would your hometown newspaper.
Specific AP entries I would change if I could: “Adviser” (I just think it looks weird); “Cactuses” (come on, everyone calls them cacti); the whole “Cancel, canceled, canceling, cancellation” entry (just put a double L in all the words, why just the last one?); and the dateline section (Why doesn’t Orlando stand alone? Same goes for Albuquerque).

RIMRATS: Do you find that most reporters understand how to use grammar correctly, especially ellipsis, the dash and semi-colons? Or do you notice reporters not using these kinds of punctuation because they don’t understand how to use them?
CH: One of the most common grammar mistakes is the misplaced modifier. For example: “Because of its rich history, the family chose Washington, D.C., for their summer trip.” “Rich history” is modifying “family,” not “Washington, D.C.,” so therefore, the sentence is saying the family is rich in history, which could be true, but probably isn’t the intention of the writer.
Recognizing gerunds is another tough one for most writers. (Wrong: “The team moving to Goodyear will promote economic growth.” Right: “The team’s moving to Goodyear will promote economic growth.” The team itself won’t promote economic growth, but the team’s moving will.