Production and the page
Copy
The text of a story as written by the journalist, the raw material that editing turns into a finished page.
Copy is simply the words: what the reporter files, what the sub edits, what the page is built from. "Filing copy" means sending your story in, "clean copy" is text with few errors, which editors love, and old roles like copy-taster and copy-taker were built around it. Get your copy clean and in on time and you make everyone downstream your friend.