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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   31839 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025

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I’ve mentioned it before but my former journalist friend (working for a major newspaper, but think BBC news site not the NYT) was required to write 8 articles a day. There just isn’t the time for more than

  1. Find source
  2. Rephrase with spicy take.
  3. Send for edit.

That might be true on average - i.e. space-padding articles that are forgotten they moment you're finished reading. I doubt that's how narrative-setting ones about hot CW issues are written.

Probably - my understanding is that the top NYT writers might get weeks, which is why I specified that he wasn’t one of those. I just think it’s an interesting fact that deserves to be more widely known.

Yeah when you write features you get a set amount of time you work out with your editor based on the estimate of the amount of time and work you'll have to put in. It can range from anywhere from 24 hours (usually a group project) to years (although that's more for when a publisher wants to hire a well respected author so they'll go to to their dinner party). When you write copy, you slam it out as fast as you can. Copy used to be a path to feature writing or correspondence, but nowadays it's just a molochian devourer.

Right, that’s why my friend got out of it. That, and the fact that editors tend to be so heavy-handed you can’t recognise what you wrote when they’re done with it.

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