Not to be flippant, but as a copy editor and page designer for most of my career, we already went through this a decade ago without AI because we were deemed “doesn’t generate content.”

And frankly, I hate the term “content.” We were committing journalism, not posting to OnlyFans (at least, none of the people I worked with).

But my point is, I got all the “it can’t be that bad” and “bootstraps” bullshit that now other creatives are getting hit with. Accuracy was deemed too expensive more than 10 years ago. And trust me, editing is an art. You won’t get the same final copy and heds and layouts from two different copyeds at the same pub. It’s as much intuition as knowing the rules.

We were mocked (not necessarily by those finding themselves in the crosshairs now, but there’s a Venn diagram there that isn’t separate circles) for thinking we brought value to the table alongside the institutional gravitas.

Well, let’s see how trust in the media has gone over the past decade. Look, I’m not saying the desk disappearing is the sole cause of declining trust, as that would be absurd, but it sure as fuck didn’t help.

So, welcome to the club of “why pay you if we don’t have to?” It’s a fun ride. I was a graphic artist before things completely fell apart in print journalism and we became rectangle wranglers, a pair of hands implementing someone else’s decisions.

Y’all got an extra decade, having seen the decimation of print design and were like, “Well, that won’t happen to me.” And here we are, shocked Pikachu face and all.

First they came for …