Yes, consensus is that the printed word is deader than dead. But before we get to the funeral and turn this whole mess over to the blogosphere, dig this sharp list of 10 songs about print journalism -- compiled by Charlotte writer Mark Kemp.

ADDENDUM (7/28/09): Three reasons music mags are dying.

A handsome coffee table book arrived in the mail today. It is the Poynter Institute's collection of the best front pages of newspapers published on November 5, 2008. That, of course, was the day after America's historic election of its first African-American president.

The News & Observer's page is one of 100 from around the world selected by Poynter, a St. Petersburg, Fla. nonprofit devoted to journalism education, for this book. Our sister publication, The Charlotte Observer, is also included. A team of journalists contributed to this page, but we are especially proud of news designer Jennifer Bowles, a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, has designed many News & Observer fronts and special projects.

The print newspaper has sometimes been undervalued in the age of the Internet. "Election Day, November 4, 2008, was different," cartoonist Garry Trudeau, writes in his introduction to the book. He describes an election evening of boistrous celebrations around the globe. "And then the next day, after the street parties were over, people went out and did something many of them hadn't done in years. They bought newspapers. Yes, newspapers. By the trainload, actually."

The printed paper was not for the purpose of information, Trudeau notes, rather to the people who stood in long lines, it was a tangible keepsake "that can forever evoke and refresh a deeply consequential memory."

Prior to election, we mostly saw this reaction with sports championships.

Here's to the ink-stained, bird cage fillers, fish wraps that we love.

The Poynter book is available here.

Linda Williams

I ran across the word "doorstepped" in a story about a British
journalist today. I didn't understand what it meant even in context. So I looked it up.

I happened across a copy of John B. Bremner's "Words on Words" on a bookshelf in The N&O's computer training center last week. It had been left behind in an editor's office. I was excited to find this copy in good shape. My own copy at home is a bit worn, and the book is out of print. Now I have an extra copy to keep on my desk at work and to share with my fellow copy editors. Subtitled "A Dictionary for Writers and Others Who Care about Words," the book was published in 1980, but it still serves us well when we need a solid reference on usage.If you ever have a chance to get a copy, you should.

Bremner was a teacher at the University of Kansas. He is a legend in copy editing circles for his teaching and his book. The William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at KU has a section on its Web site devoted to Bremner. Try his editing test here. You can read Bremner's obituary in the New York Times here.

I've heard a few journalists refer to Barack Obama and Sarah Palin as part of the post-baby boom generation. In fact, Obama, born in August 1961, and Palin, born in February 1964, were born during the baby boom years, 1946-1964. The baby boom, of course, is mostly made up of the children of the people who lived through World War II. Perhaps, Obama, born to a woman born in 1942, doesn't qualify as a boomer under that criteria, and Palin was born in the very last year of the boom. (I haven't been able to find whether her father was a World War II veteran or was born too late for that generation.)

Still, it's worth noting that Obama and Palin are identified more with the post-boomer generation and that their partners on their respective presidential tickets are not boomers. John McCain was born in 1936 and Joe Biden was born in 1942 (the same year as Obama's mother).

Update (9-18-2009): As an alert reader pointed out, I erred in this post when I used "criteria" as singular. The word should be "criterion," of course.

I ordered the new version of the Associated Press Stylebook for my home use (we expect to get them in office soon). The book has a summary of the changes right after the foreword on a page titled "What's New." One of the most interesting changes for grammar geeks is the "collective nouns" entry. Here is a part of the entry:

Collective nouns: Nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns: class, committee, crowd, family, group, herd, jury, orchestra, team. ...

Team names and band names, however, take plural verbs. The Miami Heat are battling for the league's worst record.

That team and band names are to be treated as plural is a change. I am glad that the stylebook finally spells this out. Although we had been treating singular-sounding names as singular (The Who comes to mind), I agree with this rule. It's easier to apply it consistently.

P.S. I guess that should be "The Who come to mind." 

A current story in The News & Observer makes a passing reference to a "prison trustee." I thought the term was "trusty." So I checked online first and found this reference in the Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Then I checked the Associated Press Stylebook. Indeed, a trustee is a "person to whom another's property or the management of another's property is given," the stylebook says. A trusty is "a prison inmate granted special privileges as a trustworthy person."

I wonder if correction department lingo has changed over the years or if it's just a matter of mixing up two spellings. I did a quick search of the N&O's archives since 1990 and found a few references to "prison trusty." One story in our archives from The Fayetteville Observer about the Cumberland County jail has this passage:

"We refer to them as 'inmate help,' not trusties," said Deputy Sheriff John McRainey, the chief jailer. "We don't use the term 'trusty' any more."

Why not?

"In here, we don't trust anyone," he said. Though McRainey smiled, his tone affirmed that he wasn't kidding.

Gene Weingarten's Under the Beltway column in the Washington Post has a funny take on copy editing. We copy editors appreciate Weingarten's humor.

The New York Times' Editorial Observer by Lawrence Downes has an eloquent Elegy for Copy Editors. The piece begins with a lament that the Newseum in Washington has no exhibits about copy editors. In the changing word of online journalism, Downes worries, the time for thoughtful copy editing is vanishing. He lays out succinctly what copy editors do. Here is a quote:

The copy editor's job, to the extent possible under deadline, is to slow down, think things through, do the math and ask the irritating question.

 
A colleague at The N&O once said, "Copy editors are roadkill on the information superhighway." That was a funny line, and sometimes we feel that way. But the truth is that every piece of copy ever published in any form could benefit from a copy editor's eye. Even if the copy editor comes to the piece after it is published for the first time, he or she can still improve the next version.