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When news breaks, as everybody knows, reporters race to call their sources, confirm the facts and get the story.
But it is then that the real clock begins to tick: the race to type it all up. Translating the scribbled notes and audio recordings into words on a page, arranged in a coherent fashion, on deadline.
We recently decided to put New York Times journalists’ keyboarding skills to the test. About 80 reporters and editors accepted our challenge to take an online typing trial, with results ranging from 35 words per minute (for a veteran reporter who covers the legal system) to 134 (a data reporter).
The fastest fingers in the newsroom belonged to the Upshot section, The Times’s data journalism desk, where the several journalists who took the test averaged 99 words per minute. The Express desk, which covers breaking news, also had an appropriately strong showing: The newsroom’s second-fastest typer, at 124 words per minute, was an Express editor.
“Writing on my laptop always feels as close to stream-of-consciousness as I can get,” said Madison Dong, 27, a graphics and multimedia editor on The Times’s weather team, who types 111 words per minute.
The average speed among the participating Times journalists was about 80 words per minute — double the average typing speed in the United States, according to the American Society of Administrative Professionals. (The newsroom still has a ways to go, and copious finger calisthenics to do, to make it to the big leagues: Professional transcriptionists and stenographers can easily hit 300 words per minute, using special keyboards that allow them to type whole words and phrases in single strokes.)
Typing in the 21st century, in many professions, is a skill as fundamental as writing by hand once was. For journalists, being able to type fast is crucial, whether they are covering breaking news, churning out a 10,000-word draft of an investigative story, or even just taking notes.
Francesca Paris, a data reporter and our newsroom typing champion, transcribes all her interviews in real time, even when she is recording the conversation.
“Usually I can type without really putting any thought into it and still focus on the substance of the conversation, and then I have an immediately searchable transcript,” said Ms. Paris, 29, who learned to type in an elementary school computer class using the SpeedSkin orange keyboard covers that were standard for a generation.
How and when someone had learned to type varied widely by age. Many baby boomers and Gen X-ers took keyboarding classes in high school, while some millennials had learned as early as third grade.
Eric Morse, an editor for The Times’s Flexible Editing desk, remembers his high school typing teacher playing vinyl records with “cheesy music,” and a voice reciting the letters students were supposed to type.
“Since shifting from typewriters to computers, I’ve gotten a bit sloppy; I’m always having to backspace,” said Mr. Morse, 60, who types 62 words per minute. “But the positions of the various keys were basically muscle memory by the time I finished the typing class, and have stayed that way.”
Christopher Mele, 61, a breaking news editor who types 46 words per minute, learned how to type during his freshman year of high school. He remembers an illustration of a keyboard projected onto a classroom wall, and a typewriter with blank keys at each desk.
“I seem to recall that I performed poorly in those drills,” Mr. Mele said.
Andrew LaVallee, the editor of The Times’s Sunday Arts and Leisure section, learned to type with a PC game called Typing Tutor — picture a cross between Space Invaders and Tetris, with words raining down from the top of the screen, which had to be typed before they hit the bottom.
“Much of my life as an editor is attempting to do 20 things at once, so being able to write quickly and accurately means that I can, hopefully, get things done a little faster and help others get what they need a little quicker,” said Mr. LaVallee, 49, who can hit 112 words per minute with 100 percent accuracy.
That precision can be a lifesaver on deadline. Often, a reporter must juggle doing research, conducting interviews and writing a story — simultaneously.
“When I do phone interviews, I transcribe them in close to real time, and just use the recording as a backup to double-check quotes before publication,” said Maggie Astor, 36, a reporter who types 114 words per minute. Her speed has come in handy for live coverage, when she’s weighed in on both campaign speeches and Olympic gymnastics routines.
That’s not to say, though, that there aren’t some tortoises among the hares. Among them is Adam Liptak, The Times’s chief legal affairs correspondent. He types 35 words per minute, the slowest among the around 80 journalists who took the test, though he said he has never felt the need to become faster.
“I don’t think it’s hindered me all that much,” said Mr. Liptak, 65, who said he took a typing class in high school. (“Mrs. Mullen was a good teacher, and I was a poor student,” he confessed.) He’s become “very deft,” he added, at copying and pasting quotations from legal briefs and court opinions.
The overall typing speed in the newsroom may be trending downward. More Gen Z-ers, having grown up on tablets and smartphones, are accustomed to two-thumb texting. Many didn’t learn typing skills until middle school.
Rylee Kirk, 27, a breaking news reporter in The Times’s fellowship program, types 66 words per minute — not exactly slow, but well below the newsroom average. She said she had only a few weeks of typing instruction, in the fifth grade.
“I find I write faster than I type, and keep notes by paper and pen instead,” she said.
