Editors
"Husband and wife drown days after their wedding" — today I read this headline on the website of one Arab news agency, and just moments later I came across other stories about the same incident on different sites. But I noticed the main headline was different on each one. For example, I found this headline: "Groom and bride drown at sea," and on another site: "Newlywed couple die by drowning." So why the difference in wording across these three headlines about the exact same event? It comes down to the fact that the three stories were published by media outlets from different countries. In Egypt, for instance, a newly married man is called "'arees," while in Tunisia he's called "me'ares." The first story, published by the news agency, used the word "husband" in the headline because it's linguistically more precise and understood by all Arabic speakers — and major news agencies always aim their coverage at Arabs everywhere, not the audience of one specific country. Various local and international newspapers, magazines, and news websites employ specialists called "editors," who are responsible for handling exactly these kinds of issues related to how news stories and articles are worded, and choosing the right headline for each one. An editor's job is to review journalistic material before publication and make sure the writing is high quality and linguistically sound, to arrange the paragraphs of stories and articles in the best possible way to make them engaging for readers, and to make sure the words used in the news and headlines are appropriate for the audience and easy for them to understand. The editor's hardest and most important task is making sure the information writers include in different pieces is accurate, because a news story, article, or any piece can't be published with even a single wrong fact — this kind of journalistic material is read by millions of people every day. People learn about everything happening in the world around them through newspapers and news sites, and it would be a breach of trust and credibility to feed them incorrect or inaccurate information.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.
- Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
- Plan the contents of publications according to the publication's style, editorial policy, and publishing requirements.
- Verify facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.
- Review and approve proofs submitted by composing room prior to publication production.
- Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal.
- Oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, computer typesetting, and printing, ensuring adherence to deadlines and budget requirements.
- Confer with management and editorial staff members regarding placement and emphasis of developing news stories.
- Assign topics, events and stories to individual writers or reporters for coverage.
- Read, evaluate and edit manuscripts or other materials submitted for publication, and confer with authors regarding changes in content, style or organization, or publication.
- Meet frequently with artists, typesetters, layout personnel, marketing directors, and production managers to discuss projects and resolve problems.
- Supervise and coordinate work of reporters and other editors.
- Write text, such as stories, articles, editorials, or newsletters.