The Contra Costa Times, which operates as an edition of the Mercury News, is gutting the ranks
of its copy editors. A memo to staff from executive editor Dave Butler, as obtained by Poynter (read the
memo) says 10 to 12 staffers will be eliminated and that responsibility for editing stories will be shifted to the editor doing the initial story read. (Memo to readers: Prepare for the goof rate to shoot way up.)
Add: It’s apparently part of the future vision of perpetually-downsizing MediaNews Group under new CEO John Paton. A similar copy desk purge was announced last week at the Denver Post.
More: The memo says there’s to be a “desk meeting” with the “news production team” at 4 o’clock Thursday in Walnut Creek and that “we will accept volunteers to leave the company from this group until May 9.”
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