Comments on: Is Editing a Lost Art?

By: Juno Web Design

Juno Web Design — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:31:40 +0000

I totally agree with you that editing is a must. I have stumbled a lot of blogs with poor grammars and thought that they have not paid much attention in editing their work. Even personal blogs should be given time to edit primarily because this reflects their personality and the business they are offering.

By: Christian

Christian — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:21:19 +0000

Editing certainly is essential if you are concerned with quality and getting results. Unfortunately most people don’t seem to be concerned with it! If they were, they would take some care in what they post. I think editing needs to be tempered in the name of efficiency though. I don’t expect my blog posts, for example, to measure up to the same scrutiny as something in print media. However, I do wholly agree with the sentiment here. Unedited content is pervasive and out of control

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:33:07 +0000

It seems editors are a dying breed, I second the frustration felt when crawling through endless image galleries to only find cheesy or low quality photographs.

By: Jamie Allsop

Jamie Allsop — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:30:53 +0000

This is a really good post. I agree with Gaby, it really annoys me when you are looking for images and you get lots of similar ones. Alright take a lot of the same image but don’t display them all just select the best one.

By: Steve Harlow

Steve Harlow — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:51:21 +0000

It is unfortunate that in this day and age the traditional standards of value and quality are being severely compromised. Our language is changing at a rapid fire pace. More and more “Slang” is finding its way into everyday acceptance.

This is also the problem as you stated in your post, with the advent of “easy” technology, everybody and their brother out there with a cheap cell phone, is now suddenly a professional photographer. They simply have to share with the world 75 pictures of their little brother picking his nose. It is simply a sign of the times.

I also agree with Fredrik Naumann who commented: “This is what happens when the market expect pictures for pennies, and reward the amateur/citizen/crowd-sourcing websites by buying from them rather than the traditional picture agencies.” This indeed is a contributing factor to the problem.

By: Dan Haley

Dan Haley — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:38:07 +0000

I have a hard time believing that editors will soon be a hot commodity, or even that they’ll enjoy an increased demand, simply because we continue to face a content deluge.

For years now, few in the web industry–and thus, their clients–have taken content seriously enough to consider content professionals an essential (or even necessary) part of the design and development team. Consequently, clients have largely failed to properly consider content development for site launches and beyond.

I agree with your point–that web publishing needs good editors now more than ever–but am deeply skeptical that anything will change. I’ll try to be hopeful, though.

By: 30 delicious content strategy and content marketing links « new media mentality

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:36:57 +0000

[...] http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/04/managing-the-content-cascade/ [...]

By: Megan Green

Megan Green — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:01:30 +0000

I completely agree! Too often I go to an executive’s blog and find that they have misused the word “their,” or something else as equally elementary. It’s time to go back to grammar school!

By: Diane

Diane — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:08:15 +0000

And I work with developers who fancy themselves writers and editors! I guess because I can cruise the Internet, I should be able to write code as well.

By: Fredrik Naumann

Fredrik Naumann — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:53:40 +0000

This is what happens when the market expect pictures for pennies, and reward the amateur/citizen/crowd-sourcing websites by buying from them rather than the traditional picture agencies.

Even pro photographers often need a second opinion on their editing, which is done at the (ever fewer) “old fashioned” picture agencies, where they still have editors. However the extra time and employees will of course lead to extra costs, so the pictures become more expensive from such agencies.

But as you choose not to spend the extra money, YOU will have to spend the extra time wading through heaps of unusable material. I don’t know your hourly rate, but perhaps it is worth doing the calculation for the time you spend doing this research, versus asking an “old fashioned” agency – with pro photographers and editors – to find what you are looking for, then pay their rate. It may actually be cheaper in the in end. And apart from price, you’re likely to get better quality. That could benefit the product you are making too, right?

You can choose to buy a needle in a shop, or hope to find a free one in a haystack. The choice is yours..