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Editors and how they work

(Based on a lecture by Ross Collins, professor of communication, North Dakota State University)

When I was a reporter, I often, like most reporters, had to get stories done in a hurry. Sometimes deadlines were literally minutes away. I often had to write stories in one take--from beginning to end, no revisions, no time. Sometimes that got a little messy. But we had a phrase for our worry that we'd made a few grammar errors, written something perhaps not as effectively as we would have liked. That phrase was "the desk'll catch it."

The desk, in newspaper terminology, means the copy editors. We relied on editors to fix up all the things we missed, in effect to cover our butts before our stories reached print. This is probably not the best way to look at copy editing, because the editors expect the reporters to do it right, and they also are under tight deadlines. Nevertheless, it is true that often the desk did fix the mistakes, tighten the lead, catch things that might even have been embarrassing or worse. The desk did, indeed, "catch it."

That in a nutshell is the basic job of an editor--to be the final gatekeeper, that last person who looks at the publication before it meets the eyes of readers. Whether it be a newspaper, a magazine, booklet, brochure, or direct mail letter, someone is needed to carefully read the entire document before it's published, to make sure of, well, of many things. What kinds of things does an editor need to think of when looking through an article?

1. Accuracy. A good editor will question spelling of every name, every date, and have a telephone directory and other references right there to make sure it's right. Good editors, like good trivia game players, keep a lot of this in their heads. For instance, is it:

Farmer's Union? Or Farmers Union?

Colin Powell? Or Collin Powell?

Brittany Spears? Or Britney Spears?

Most editors know without a reference book.

2. Trimming unnecessary words. Many periodicals get many more articles every day or month than they can use. The Chicago Tribune, for example, represents an average large daily that receives about 1.7 million words a day--but prints about 100,000. To print as much as possible, stories must be trimmed of unnecessary words. What's left is usually more readable, more inviting, less time-consuming to read. For instance, if I wrote that this class is "very interesting," an editor might delete "very," and just say "interesting," because "very" is overused to the extent that it's about meaningless. "At the corner of Seventh Street and Main Avenue" is not better than "At Seventh Street and Main Avenue."

3. Watching grammar and spelling. Most of us think this is just about all copy editors do all day. Hardly! But it's an important part. You'd think with the advent of computerized spelling and grammar checkers we'd be seeing fewer and fewer problems in print. But we don't seem to. Perhaps it's because writers rely on their spill chucker (like I did here) and neglect old-fashioned proofreading. Sometimes words are spelled right and used wrong, such as "the man if still at large." My MS Word spelling and grammar checker did not flag either of the mistakes in this graf (journalese for paragraph). A good editor would.

4. Correcting inconsistencies, missing facts. Here's where the good editor really shines. Some people can really nab those spelling and grammar errors--your high school English teacher, perhaps. But to catch a name spelled two ways, fact errors, missing facts, "slow" leads--that takes a well-tuned mind! If I write in one graf, "The building will cost $5.5 million," and later write, "The $5.6 million complex will house an animal research program," will you catch the difference?

Editors often ask themselves this question: What would the readers want to know?

Recently I saw a television news report of a high school geography contest. Kids were asked geography questions described by the announcer as "tough." A curious viewer might well ask, "so what is an example of a tough question?" But we never were given an example.

5. Build strong leads. The first sentence or graf needs to be compelling, yet accurate. Mass media editors realize they must compete with a world of attractions out to snare a reader's attention, from television to computer games to the web. Slow leads are commonly produced by writers on tight deadlines. Good editors don't like to change a lead without consulting an editor, but if that's impossible, the editor needs first to think of attracting readers. What's the point of producing a publication no one reads?

6. Questions of style. "Style" as it relates to mass media editing usually does not mean what it does in creative writing, that is, a writer's way of putting words together. Instead it means conforming to a consistent guideline regarding usage. For instance, do you write 8 p.m., 8 pm, 8 PM or eight o'clock in the evening? The president or the President? None are wrong, but consistency assures credibility and readability. Most mass media editors conform to guidelines of the Associated Press, compiled in a softcover book familiar to everyone in the print media business: The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. Many organizations add their own style sheets with exceptions to AP style, or peculiar concerns common to their business.

7. Questions of libel and fairness. The editor familiar with libel law protects not only the writer, but the entire organization. Editors who know the law--and you often don't have time to consult a lawyer--can save a publication loads of dollars and embarrassment. Even if the article doesn't cross the libel line, good editors usually need to make certain it fairly presents the story, with input from more than one side. Of course, that doesn't apply to opinion pieces.

8. Questions of taste. What is good taste? It depends on the publication. Most college newspapers will print the occasional obscenity, based on their assumption of an adult audience. Many community publications aiming to a different audience will not. Some will publish edgy jokes or photos. Some won't. It's up to the editors to understand what the publication defines as "edgy," and what that publication's readers will expect.

9. The boss man. Many editors also supervise staff. Coaching writers, hiring and firing, knowing when to edit and when not to edit--the good editor orchestrates a happy staff and a profitable, well-read publication.

10. And the rest of it. Many editors, particularly on small publications, don't work only with articles. They write headlines, choose photos and illustrations, design pages, squeeze the copy onto the pages, and handle all those little things you don't think about. Who makes sure the pages numbers are correct? Who changes the date on the nameplate? Who proofreads the cover "teasers?" Someone does. And her or his title usually is "editor."