Basically, a friendly veteran copy editor takes the new hire under his wing, so his output suffers until the new hire is up to speed. However, when we started paginating, a few editors got formal training and trained others. This went smoothly. All but 2 or 3 have at least one weekend day off. Two people, due to rather unique circumstances, work 4-day weeks.
Extra pages are okay.
Quality of the desk is clearly better than the rest of the newsroom and the paper itself, but there is much room for improvement. Like the rest of the paper, the desk needs to pay more attention to substance and less attention to graphics and gimmickry. I don't want to poison the well, but I must warn copy editors interested in a job at the Times Union about our new management. One of our top editors has been described as a petty tyrant and a micromanager. He punishes his enemies and rewards his friends.