“Web monkey” work might not be glamorous or all that fun. It might be really early in the morning or really late at night. But I resent any implication that it’s not important.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be waking up just before 4:30 a.m. to do some of that monkey work. And I contend it is legitimate journalism.

Headline writing is extremely important online. The one line of text needed to make someone click is often not the same as the line needed to make a single-copy sale.

Writing good summaries to lure people into stories takes thought. The Poynter Institute has done eyetrack studies on how people read these things, for Pete’s sake.

Making sure all of a story’s elements – the headline, subhead, photo, caption, fact box, links, extras – are presented in a professional and usable way requires knowledge of what is usable.

These are the basics of good online journalism. And professors and students should not deride this type of work simply because it is repetitive.

The morning update isn’t part of my job anymore; just filling in tomorrow. But my first job was cutting and pasting every story from the newspaper into an online content management system. I worked well past midnight until it was done. And each day, before starting my cutting and pasting, I worked on improvements to the site. I learned about coding. I did other stuff.

As I said on Journalistopia, employees should not resign themselves to becoming only a cut-and-paste expert. And managers should respect them enough to provide new challenges. But let’s not forget what is learned by doing the so-called “monkey work.” Let’s not pretend a monkey could actually do a good job.

Here's a worthwhile internship, if you're looking.