Destined for the spike - sub-editors will struggle to survive in digital age

Roy Greenslade
02.07.08

My overriding ambition as a cub reporter in the mid-1960s was to become a Fleet Street journalist. For reasons I now forget I became convinced that the quickest way to get there was to become a sub-editor, a supposedly unglamorous backroom job that often led on popular newspapers to the editor's chair.

The pop press revolved around the skills of subs. Though they didn't have their names in the paper, they wielded enormous unseen power over what was published. They rewrote and cut reporters' copy. They sorted out the legal problems. They put reporters under pressure with queries about their stories. Most importantly, they were the creators of memorable headlines.

I was proud to join their number and I can still recall my first Fleet Street night in 1969 sitting among men - yes, all men in those days - with rolled-up shirtsleeves tearing furiously at screeds of paper, spiking unwanted wire copy with one hand and brandishing a paste brush in the other. There were no green eye shades by then, but that image best conjures up memories of us desk-bound hacks in the days of hot metal.

Needless to say, the relationship between the people who originated the material - the news reporters, feature writers and assorted columnists - and us subs was often less than cordial. Within offices there was somewhat of a demarcation line between the two camps.

The separation of functions persisted once papers adopted computer technology in the mid-1980s. Though several unnecessary barriers between the reporters and their published stories instantly disappeared with the removal of linotype operators, compositors, block makers and their sundry printing cronies, the internal journalistic split remained, as it does in most newspaper offices today.

But this final frontier is beginning to crumble. The London-based business freesheet City AM announced this week that it is planning to dispense with the services of its eight sub-editors. That is far from a rogue decision. It chimes with the view of David Montgomery, a former national paper sub who now runs Mecom, a company that publishes 300 titles in five European countries. He told a House of Lords committee in March that "the age of the sub-editor" was over. In the digital era, he said, such skills have been made redundant because journalists - meaning reporters and writers - can now transmit their material ready for instantaneous publication, cut to length and sensibly headlined.

Montgomery, who never courts popularity, also spoke of subs performing "humdrum tasks". That was deliberately provocative, of course, but it did not negate his substantive point. Is it time to cut out the middle man (and middle woman) and let writing journalists do the honours instead?

That may work well enough when writing for websites but, at a practical level, it doesn't appear likely to occur in the newsprint versions of most national papers, both popular and serious.

Casting headlines (in common parlance, making them fit) can take time, not to mention skill. However, some regional papers and freesheets employ designs that are no more than templates and there is no reason why writers-could not do the job.

Lawson Muncaster, City AM's managing director, says: "Having looked at how things work on the Continent, and drawing on my experience at Metro International, I believe the sub-editing function is obsolete. I believe writers can take responsibility for filing copy that is readable and correct with a headline. That's why we're going through the process [of letting subs go]."

On the other hand, his paper has hired more page designers, and they are sure to play a crucial role in easing the sub-editorial tasks for writers.

All written work, whether it be a novel, a poem or a news story, often benefits from a second, even third, eye. But the removal of subs doesn't mean that copy will be published unread. Executive editors will still act as quality controllers.

I doubt that this radical step will happen overnight. Indeed, I think there will be a lengthy transition phase which is likely to involve some form of outsourcing.

The Irish-based Independent News & Media, owner of The Independent in England, has pioneered the outsourcing of sub-editorial work at both its Irish and New Zealand titles. Its chief executive, Tony O'Reilly, believes all newspaper-production can be both centralised and outsourced.

Several American papers appear to be on the verge of taking a similar route. This week marks the start of a monthlong trial by a daily paper in California, the Orange County Register, which will see an Indian company assuming some of its copy-editing duties. The same firm, Mindworks Global Media, will also be responsible for designing one of the Register group's community papers.

Another Indian company, Express KCS, is now designing newspaper adverts and producing the finished copy for more than 300 US titles. It does the same for some British papers too, such as the Brighton Argus. Two years ago it was employing 20 people. Now it has 450 employees with a starting salary of just £250 a month.

Though the business is located outside New Delhi, its chief executive, Robert Berkeley, works from Britain and his ambition is clearly to move on from advertising to editorial. It has already carried out trials by producing editorial page connected to advertising, known as advertorial. "Obviously, reporting cannot be outsourced," he says. "But copy editing is no problem. It can be accomplished efficiently by our staff. There is no language problem."

It's lucky subs no longer use spikes or I rather fancy this news would lead one or two to impale themselves.

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