Greenslade: The Sub-Editor is Redundant

Roy Greenslade, writing on his *Guardian *blog, paints a far harsher picture of the future of the sub-editor than Karl did in his post:

So I stand by what I said yesterday that we should accept that the current level of subbing numbers could be drastically reduced. In some cases, a layer of the editorial process can be eliminated altogether.

Meanwhile, subbing can also be outsourced in order for hard-pressed newspapers groups to reduce their overheads. The financial facts speak for themselves: hardly any serious national newspaper makes money.

It is therefore sensible for publishers to consider whether to cut costs by having the task done by a centralised collective of skilled journalists elsewhere, be it in Australia or India. And it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Britain’s own Press Association, which already produces thousands upon thousands of ready-to-publish pages every week were to take up that challenge here.

Blimey.