Editing for Today's Newsroom: A Guide for Success in a Changing Profession

Editing for Today's Newsroom provides training, support and advice for prospective news editors. Through history, analyses, and anecdotes, this book offers a solid grounding to prepare potential editors for the full range of their responsibilities in today's newsrooms: developing ideas; evaluating and editing copy; working with writers; determining what is news; understanding presentation and design; directing news coverage; managing people; making decisions under pressure; and coping with a variety of ethical, legal, and professional considerations, all while operating in today’s multimedia, multiplatform news arena. Author Carl Sessions Stepp focuses on editors as newsroom decision makers and quality controllers; accordingly, the book features strategies and techniques for coping with a broad spectrum of editing duties. Covering basic and advanced copyediting skills, it also provides intellectual context to the editor's role, critically examining the history of editing and the changing job of the contemporary editor.

Author Carl Sessions Stepp is professor of journalism at the University of Maryland, where he has taught since 1983. He is senior editor of American Journalism Review and worked a reporter and editor for 12 years with the St. Petersburg Times, Charlotte Observer and USA Today. Stepp has served as visiting writing and editing coach at dozens of newspapers and news organizations and frequently conducts writing and editing clinics for newspapers, journalism groups and other organizations.

Contents

Preface xi

1 The Changing World of Editing

The Chronic Shortage of Editors 6
Lifestyles of the Nonrich and the Nonfamous 7
The Changing Nature of Journalism 11
Conclusion 14
Sidebar 1—Experiences in Editing 15

2 The Rise of the New Editor 21

The Editor in History 22
The Editor As Businessperson 26
The Editor As Planner 29
The Editor As Manager 30
The Editor As Journalist 31
Conclusion 33
Sidebar 2—Defining the Typical Editor: "How Come So
Many of Them Tend to be Geeks?"
by David Barry 34

3 What Is an Editor? 38

How Writers See Editors 39
How Editors See Themselves 43
What Makes a Good Editor 45
Sidebar 3—Gifts
by Charles McCorkle Hauser 51

4 The Editor As Decision Maker 54

Making Decisions: The Foundation 55
Properly Equipping the Newsroom 56
Strategically Allocating Time 57
Setting a Tone for Good Communications 60
Shaping a Personal Decision-Making Model 61
Conclusion 62
Sidebar 4—Human Perversity
from Editor & Publisher 63

5 Making Decisions About People 64

Managing in Today’s Newsroom 64
Leading Other Journalists 76
Conclusion 79
Sidebar 5—Editors Muse on Their Management Style
from the ASNE Bulletin 80

6 Making Decisions About Coverage 83

What News Is and Isn’t 84
Organizing Coverage 87
Conclusion 92
Sidebar 6—Sure Ways to Become
the World’s Worst Editor
by Carl Sessions Stepp 93

7 Making Decisions About Copy 95

A Model for Editing 97
Conclusion 114
Sidebar 7—10 Steps Toward Better Editing
by Carl Sessions Stepp 114

8 Making Decisions About Design 116

Headlines 118
Photos 121
Graphics 123
Layout 125
Conclusion 129
Sidebar 8—The New Age of Graphics
by Bill Steinauer 130

9 Making Decisions About Legal Issues 134

Libel 137
Invasion of Privacy 141
Courts and Contempt 142
Plagiarism and Copyright 145
National Security 146
Conclusion 148
Sidebar 9—An Editor’s Reading List 149

10 Making Decisions About Ethics 151

The Ethics of Day-to-Day Journalism 153
The Ethics of Newsroom Policymaking 158
The Ethics of Upper Management 162
Conclusion 165 Sidebar 10—Excerpts From "Newsroom
Policies and Guidelines"
from the Seattle Times 165

11 Toward Excellence in Editing 169

Developing New Editors 171
Nurturing Editors 175
Some Specific Starting Points 178
Conclusion: To the Future 179

Appendix: Helping Writers With Form 180

Spelling 180
Grammar and Punctuation 181
Usage 183
Helping Writers With Style and Form 185
A Checklist 187

Index 188