Functions Of A City Editor In A Newspaper

 

In the home city of the newspaper and in its vicinity the news – gathering machinery is elaborate. Since the business life of the newspaper is sustained by the community in which it exists, and since the greater part of its circulations there, local news must be covered in great detail. For the same reason, a substantial part of the news that is printed is of local origin.

At the head of this part of the machine is the city editor. News judgment, executive ability and a store of information of names and events are his chief qualifications. He should know his city, not only its geography, but also its history; the masses of its people as well as its important residents. He need not have encyclopedic knowledge, but the background against which he views the world be broad and human. This is apart from his ability to know news when he hears of it. News judgment is not essentially a thinking process; it is an instinct built upon many things forgotten.

If a local disaster occurs, it is the city editor’s task to get his reporters to the scene quickly. Not only must they beat the spot, but also each also must have a clear idea of the precise part he is to play in gathering the details of the event. It is the city editor’s function to instruct each meaningfully and clearly, so that no confusion will result and so that every angle of the story will be covered. Not all the reporters will write what they see or the facts they gather. The editor must pick his best men for that purpose; the others will get information, investigate and report their findings to the men who will organize and write the stories.

For example, a train wreck would be divided into the following angles: the story of the accident itself; stories of eye witness or passengers; the engineer’s story; the list of injured, or of the dead and the injured; the color story of the scene; photographs of the scene. In addition, if any were killed, or if any of the injured or dead were important person, queries would be sent to various places for information regarding them. Here, then, are eight angles, each of which will require at least one reporter and some of them several. Other angles might crop up as information regarding the accident reaches the city editor. If the wreck is a serious one, another reporter would be assigned to write a story of past similar accidents.

The reporter who is to write the leading story of the accident should be set to scene if time permits; if time is short, he should remain in the newspaper office and take information by telephone from the reporters on the ground. It is his duty to organize the mass of detail that comes to him. The subsidiary stories are written by the reporters sent to the scene, if they have time to gather the facts and return to the office; otherwise they also telephone the facts to rewrite them.

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