“THE ROLE OF THE EDITOR”

Professor: Dr.D.Kamaras
Tziliou Charis-Artemis
COMM-221
 The editor is a person responsible for the editorial aspects of publication; the person
who determines the final content of a text, especially of a newspaper or magazine. In
a newspaper, the editor is the person who counts most, and it is the editor alone who
can control content. The administration side of the newsroom is usually delegated to a
deputy editor r a managing editor. Although the editor is such an important person in
the hierarchy of the news gathering organization, newspapers must have editorial
delegation and good communication. Communication occurs at the daily news
meeting, where everyone finds out what everyone is doing. (In class notes)

The characteristics of a good editor

The editors have some general characteristics such as confidence, objectivity,
awareness, intelligence, questioning nature, diplomacy, ability to write and also sense
of humor. (Bowles and Borden, 7)

The duties of a copy editor

The duties of the editor is to improve stories by making dull or verbose copy
interesting and concise, to correct errors of grammar, spelling and style in all
copy,inclunding informational graphics. To correct errors of facts and emphasis, to
judge news values, to guard against libel and other legal programs, to protect and
exchange the publication’s reputation and image, to write headlines that summarize
stories and capture reader’s attention, to select, crop and size photographs and other
arts, to write illustration captions, to use computer codes to designate the headlines
and body type style, size, width, and leading, to lay out pages, to exercise news
judgement,and to keep up with the newest technology.(Bowles and Borden,5)

Professional tasks
The editors tasks include first planning which isvital,since the industry is always in
crisis and in the midst of some change or other, organizing which is vital since media
facilities and characterized by internal, structuralization,departmentalism and the need
to delegate.fird staffing which is constant turnover trough staff burnout, competition
and there is usually great turnover in media industries. Fourth is directing and fifth is
controlling that is using preset objectives to users corporate and employee
performance appraisals. (In class notes)
TODAY’S GLOBALIZED MEDIA MARKET

The media market has changed very fast. The nineties have been a typical fin de siècle decade.
Since 1990 there has been a huge growth in information and communication
technologies, the realm of media is on the brink of a profound transformation. Whereas
previously media systems were primarily national, in the past few years a global commercial-
media market has emerged (www.thenation.com)

The global media market is rounded out by a second tier of four or five dozen firms that are
national or regional powerhouses, or that control niche markets, like business or trade publishing.
About half of these second-tier firms come from North America; most of the rest are from
Western Europe and Japan. Each of these second-tier firms is a giant in its own right, often
ranking among the thousand largest companies in the world and doing more than $1 billion per
year in business (www.thenation.com)

For example there are now more mobile than fixed telephone subscribers around
the world than it used to be. In 1990, 11 million people world wide had a mobile
phone, not only adults but young children too. We can see children 8-9 years old carry
on a mobile phone. By the end of 2004 this grew to 1.8 billion with an annual growth
rate of 44 per cent. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

One other example is computers. The estimated number of personal computers rose
from some 120 million in 1990 to 777 million in 2004. Just 27 countries had a direct
connection to the internet in 1990 - by the end of 2004, virtually every country in the
world was online and there was an estimated 864 million internet users
worldwide (www.esrc.ac.uk)

DIGITAL DIVIDE: PHONES

The digital divide describes the differences between people's access to new
computing and communications technologies in developed and developing countries.
In the past, it was said that "Manhattan has more telephones than Africa» whilst this is
no longer true, the divide remains but is shrinking in terms of numbers of fixed phone
lines, mobile subscribers and internet users. (www.esrc.ac.uk)
 In 2004, the developing world had only a quarter of the number of fixed telephones
as the developed world. Of Africa's 26 million fixed lines, over 75 per cent are found
in just 6 of the 55 African nations. Africa has an average of 8 fixed line and mobiles
per 100 people compared to the developed world's average of 130 per 100 people
(www.esrc.ac.uk)

Great hope has been pinned on a 'technological leapfrog', whereby people in

developing countries jump from no telephone to mobile telephone without ever
needing fixed telephones. Mobile phones do not rely on a permanent electricity
supply or physical connection to a telephone network. However, the developing world
had 4 times fewer mobile subscribers per 100 people than the developed world in
2004. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

DIGITAL DIVIDE: INTERNET

In 2004, less than three out of every 100 Africans use the Internet, compared with
the an average of 1 out of every 2 inhabitants of the G8 countries (Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US). While the G8, home to just 15 per
cent of the world’s population, have almost 50 per cent of the world's total internet
users. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

CINEMA: BOLLYWOOD AND HOLLYWOOD

The Indian film industry, known as ‘Bollywood’, is located mainly in Mumbai

(Bombay), India, while Hollywood in California in the USA is central to Western
cinema. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

In 2005 there were 7.45 billion admissions to the cinema worldwide. Recent years
have seen a decline in cinema ate ndances as other forms of entertainment such as
gaming or internet use become more popular. In 2005 DVD and video-tapes
generated $24 billion in sales in the USA. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

In the UK in 2005 there were 165 million cinema admissions and total box office
receipts were £770 million.

NEWSPAPERS

According to circulation figures Japan publishes the five most popular daily
newspapers in the world. The most popular is Yomiuri Shimbun with a circulation of
14,246,000. The Japanese buy more newspapers than any other nationality. From a
thousand Japanese adults, on average 649 buy a daily newspaper. In Britain, which is
second in the world to Japan in terms of newspaper readership, only 393 adults per
thousand buy a newspaper. Out of the UK's newspapers, The Sun is the seventh most
popular newspaper in the world with a readership of 3,461,000. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

MAGAZINES

As we know the United States publishes many of the world's most popular
magazines. Reader's Digest is the most popular consumer magazine with a circulation
of 12,078,000 in the USA and 907,000 in the UK. The most popular magazine in
the world for men is Playboy in the USA with a readership of 3,215,000 and the most
popular magazine for women is Better Homes and Gardens in the USA with a
readership of 7,605,000. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

B OOKS

We also gave increase I books. For example in 2005 in UK there were 1.6 million
book titles available for sale and 206,000 new and revised titles in 2005 compared to
161,000 in 2004. The total books sold in the UK consumer market in 2005 was 306
million; of which 234 million were adult books and 72 million were children’s' books.
The total UK consumer book market was worth £2,360 million pounds in 2005.

The USA also has increased sales of books .the bestselling book of 2005 was J.K.
Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The penultimate Potter tale saw
first-day sales of 4,106,000 million units However; the second best seller was less
predictable: James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. (www.esrc.ac.uk)

GLOBAL MEDIA COMPANIES

Google is the world's biggest media company by stock market value. This internet
search company was founded in September 1998 by former Stanford University
computer science students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Google started it used
to receive only 10,000 queries per day; but now it receives over 200 million and has
380 million unique global users. Despite far lower annual total sales Google is worth
more than traditional media companies such as Time Warner and Walt Disney.
(www.esrc.ac.uk)

THE CHANGING ORGANIZATION OF THE NEWSPAPER

NEWSROOM

Newsroom are complex places, places of creative conflict, of fast decision-making,

where egoistical individuality and competition sit side with teamwork and high speed
production values. They are also becoming increasingly complex technologically due
to technological change. (In class notes)

Organization structure and culture

Management of newsroom tends to be personal, newsrooms need to be managed,
and reporters need to be able to work in them freely and creatively. Managers need to
be able to control the creative process without squashing it. Management control
comes from the top and is exercised through a number of executive or working
directors, each responsible for separate departments in the newspaper. It is essential
for there to be communication between these separate departments, not constant
fighting over who gets the biggest share of the resources and favors (.in class notes)

The manager leader

At the top is the editor or executive editor. The editor reports to the publisher,
board of directors and managing directors.
Managers have 3 categories:
 Top
 M i ddl e
 supervisory
The directors of the newspaper exercise control by initiating and imposing budgets
and taking decisions, within the overall policy guidelines, on such things as:
x Expenditure on capital equipment
x Preparing trading statements
x Statistics
x Controlling departmental activities

According to John Herbert” They also exercise control by making the main and
senior appointments in their area and to the whole newspaper. These directors and the
managing director are usually the final court of appeal in departmental disputes.
Budgeting and financial forecasting by departmental directors are helped by daily
checks and reports from line managers. Below the director level comes the senior
management, which might include a general manager who is involved more with the
mechanical production and administration and with the workforce, never with
editorial matters. “(Herbert,23)

Top management
Top managers are most influential. They make policy. The editor or the executive
editor is the person who is most influential in this area of management, and is
responsible for overall news management, news policy and style. The editor also
cooperates with other members of the top management team, the advertising director,
circulation director, production director, personnel director and promotion director.(in
class notes)
Middle management
Middle management is usually headed by the managing editor, the person who is
the day to day boss of the news operation.(in class notes)

First level managers

In newspapers there are varioussupevisory editors such as politial, finance, city,
sports, chief arist, graphics editor, photo editor. Their main tasks include the
supervision and the direction of reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists, etc.(in
class notes)
All three levels of management carry out the basic management functions of:
 Planning
 Organizing
 Staffing
 Directing
 Controlling

Decision-making
All newsroom managers have authority that means the right to make decisions. In
general, all newsrooms staff has some authority. Photographers make decision about
which picture to shoot, and reporters make decisions about how to write a story. In
journalism authority does not come with the title. One has to earn the respect of
his/hercoleages and subordinates.(in class notes)
Newsroom managers have also responsibility that is the obligation to direct work of
the staff and accountability which ties together authority and responsibility.(in class
notes)

The job
As a manager moves up the newsroom ladder, the job becomes more conceptual
and less technical. Supervision means that, for full accountability for the performance
of staff, tie manager must be able to control hiring and firing, work assignments,
performance assessments, performance rewards, assignment of resources and
decision- making.(in class notes)
Assistant editors
Assistant editor heads, such as the news editors and the features editors. They
usually have complete responsibility for specific areas or the newspaper with titles
such as: assistant editor (news), assistant editor (features), assistant editor (special
products)
Their job is to initiate news ideas with individual reporters and co-ordinate stories.
They have also other titles such as city editor, political editor, foreign editor, sports
editor, and leisure and lifestyle editor(in class notes)

The modern editor

The modern editor is also a negotiator combining the technical and creative
operations. Also, successful news media managers have to have basic technical,
human and conceptual skills. Technical skills are needed because the media is built on
foundations of technical operations. Interpersonal skills are needed to lead and motive
creative and often competitive and difficult individuals. Conceptual kills are required,
intelectuall, analytical, and judgmental abilities to make difficult decisions extremely
quickie.(in class notes)

News conferences
Daily editorial planning and decisions about the contents and plan of the paper
occur at a twice-daily news conferences, usually held in the morning and afternoon.
Subjects are discussed and decisions taken about the news and future features. At the
conference, the various editors present their story ideas which the reporters have
already given them, and the balance of the newspaper isdiscused. An important
function of the news conference is for everyone to find out what the others are doing.
This provides the all-important interparmental ommunication, and communication
between editors and reporters.(in class notes)

Communication in the newsroom.

Communication is when an editor briefs or discusses a story with a reporter. people
each have their own style of communicating, some are blunt to the point direct, others
are vague and reporters have to work out what they are trying o say, some are
compulsive memo, some are talkers and others are meeting people(in class notes)

Newsroom communication takes two forms:

 Communication between individuals
 Organizational communication that flows up or down through the various
levels of authority(in class notes)

2 kinds of editorial managerial planning

Strategic planning involves the whole news operation, and requires co-operation of
individuals at all levels. It needs thought, analysis, imagination, and judgment
Tactical planning involves the goal. The plan must be pursued in a systematic, well-
organised manner that converts a plan into action. The tactical planning follows from
the strategic plan(in class notes)

DIFFERENT TYPES OF INFLUENCE ON NEWS PRODUCTION

PROCESSES

According to Shoemaker + Reese (1991), the evidence of influence on media

content should be traced inside and outside media organizations.

Internal factors
The internal factors should be first, news values and the role of the journalists
themselves, their personal ideology, as well as the stock of knowledge and
professional training on which they build upon. Second, the professional routines and
practices employed either by journalists themselves or dictated by the various media
in general and newsroom rules and habits in particular. Third, the organizational
structure and culture of the news media (internal hierarchy and allocation of
power)and the influence and control which spring from media ownership, as well as
news executives; and fourth, the professional ethics prevailing in the exercise of
journalism itself. (In class notes)
External factors
The external factors which are first, the role of sources and their power on
determining the dominant journalistic views; second, the role of advertising and
competition as pressures on journalistic work and finat output; and third, the socio-
political environment within which journalists work and profess journalism, as well as
the dominant culture and ideology that pay an important role in determining news
values. (In class notes)

THE RAPID EXPANSION OF THE INTERNET, ITS EFFECT ON

NEWS PRESENTATION, AS WELL AS ITS IMPLICATIONS ON
THE TRADITIONAL GATEKEEPING FUNCTION.

According to a study by European Journalism Centre (1999), “the internet is a

perfect medium for the distribution of news and information services.Given the rapid
pace of digital revolution, the extent to which this argument will hold over times
remains to be seen. However, certain particularities of the technical nature inherent in
the new medium lead to an initial understanding of the internet’s unique capabilities
to carry news in most effective ways. In general, the internet is theoretically limitless.
The specificities of the new medium allow it to escape the traditional restrictions of
space (newspapers) and time (broadcasting).”(Kamaras,277)
According to Dr. D. Kamaras”The internet offers to the public an infinite volume
of original information, like documents, legislation, opinion articles and
commentaries, as well as statistical databases and business and academic surveys. As
regards news presentation, news pieces may be spread across numerous web pages,
cut in sections and bulletins sent out by mainstream online media. In those tragic
moments’ contributions by the public, either in the form of eyewitness accounts, or
amateur videos or emotional and unexpected photograph sots was posted on various
websites. the rapidly growing digital environment serves everybody who needs to post
their opinion online, either through the various one-person “me-zines” or journalistic
“web-logs” being developed even in mainstream news websites. The extent to which
in the future established journalism will have to fight for its existence, and against
whom, is beyond the scope of this thesis.” (Kamaras,284)

In conclusion newspapers are a very high-cost industry. The biggest single cost is
newsprint, at between 28 and 33 per cent of the operating costs. Newsprint costs have
reduced as new methods of providing it have risen. All other news costs have
increased constantly, the main increases being in salaries. Good newspapers keep a
balance between advertising and editorial content. Managers and editors have to fight
over this target, which ideally should be about 40 per cent advertising to 60 per cent
editorial. (In class notes)

According to John Herbert” In a newspaper, the editor is the person who counts
most, and it is the editor alone who can control content. Editors traditionally run the
editorial function as a separate department of the newspaper, but their responsibility is
usually the greatest of all department heads. The administration side of the newsroom
is usual delegated to a deputy editor or a managing editor. Editors pride themselves on
having great independence, and use it for the good of the newspaper and
newsroom.”(Herbert,24)
 WORKS CITED

 Herbert, John (2000)Journalism in the Digital Age: theory and practice for
broadcast, print and on-line media.Focal Press:Oxford.

 Kamaras, D. (2004) News production in Greece: Journalists, Newspapers and

the Internet (Unpublished PhD Thesis, City University, London).

 Bowles, D. and Borden, D.(2004)Creative Edting.Australia:Thomson

Wadsworth

 Robert Mc Chensey.”The New Global Media: it’s a Small World of Big

Conglomerates.”29 Nov. 1999 [last
update].<http://www.thenation.com/doc/19991129/mcchesney>

 Esrc society today. » Global Media and Communication.” 30 June 2007[last

update]<http://www.esrc.ac.uk>