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Journalism & Media vocabulary · Editing and the Newsroom

Copy tasting

Meaning in journalism & media, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In journalism & media, copy tasting means: Reading incoming news reports to judge their importance and suitability for publication.

In Turkish: gelen haberleri seçmek için okuma

How it is used

A traditional newsroom expression, especially British; the focus is selecting material rather than correcting every sentence.

Example sentences

  1. Copy tasting revealed a regional agency report worth following up locally.

    Selection can identify promising leads within a large flow of incoming copy.

  2. During copy tasting, the editor set aside routine announcements and flagged the court ruling.

    The task involves judging relative news value before detailed editing.

Common collocations

  • do copy tasting
  • copy tasting duties
  • copy tasting at the desk
  • copyThe text of a news story or article that a journalist writes and sends to be edited and published.
  • newsworthyInteresting or important enough to be reported as news, for example because it is new, unusual, local, surprising or affects many people.

More terms: Editing and the Newsroom

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