Full-time employees on the news copy desk have told me they prefer to work the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift because on that shift they deal less with management. I chose to ignore it. There is always a certain amount of backstabbing and jockeying for position that occurs among editors who are competing for a livelihood. There is more of this than I've seen anywhere else at the Examiner. Problems with stories are easily resolved.
Reporters work well with copy desk.
Communication is only encouraged for the limited task of answering questions on stories. Most copy editors who have been at the newspaper less than a year know few editors on assigning desks or on reporting staff and vice versa. I think the feeling is it's not useful to get to know too many folks at the Examiner because of the high turnover. The reporting staff has dropped from about 100 to 40 in the last year, I was told. Only a select few get the chance.