Not entirely sure, but a deputy editor was once the news editor, and the executive editor takes a suspicious interest in the copy editing. Five years is a wild guess. We've expanded and added many new people in the last year. Great hardware, all Macintosh PowerPCs. QuarkXpress is used for pagination.
Some candidates work a couple of hours.
It's apparently not mandatory. Some copy desk veterans are helpful and good teachers, and some couldn't teach an elephant to eat a peanut. There is a day desk for feature sections. The night desk mostly works 4-12 p.m. A few come in earlier, and few stay later.