Okuzeka
Journalism & Media vocabulary · Editing and the Newsroom

Copy

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

/ˈkɒpi/nounCommon term

In journalism & media, copy means: The text of a news story or article that a journalist writes and sends to be edited and published.

In Turkish: metin, haber metni, yazı

How it is used

Newsroom jargon: reporters file copy, editors check, cut and clean up copy, and copy can be clean or messy. Agency copy is text from news agencies. The word is uncountable in this sense.

Example sentences

  1. Your copy was clean; I only changed the headline.

  2. Please file your copy by eight so the subs have time to check it.

Common collocations

  • file copy
  • clean copy
  • agency copy
  • edit copy
  • copy deadline
  • copy editorAn editor who checks and corrects reporters' text for accuracy, grammar, style and length, and often writes headlines and captions.
  • editorA journalist who decides what is published or broadcast and checks, corrects and improves other people's work; also the person in charge of a whole publication or section.
  • deadlineThe latest time by which a story, photo or programme item must be finished and handed in so that it can be published or broadcast.
  • news storyA single piece of reporting about a recent event or issue, published in print or online or broadcast on radio or television.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Editing and the Newsroom

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: