The sports teams are Pro Sports, Amateur Sports, Outdoors. This varies widely because of the team system. I work on the Night General Assignment team, which has two reporters who cover spot news and features. Our copy editors also work on copy, headlines and cutlines from topic teams. When I slot I handle upward of 70 or more slugs on a busy night.
Some teams handle an enormous amount of copy, while others do very little.
I would say that most of the copy editors here are copy editors because they want to be. A few are former reporters. From what I've heard from people at other papers, I'd say that copy editors at the Star Tribune are treated very well. Usually, but not always, the assignment editor, reporter and copy editor are all on the same team, so, unless there's an problem, the relationship is good. I am a rimmer who does a full slot shift two to three times a week.