Essay on the Role of a Lead Writers of a Newspaper

A leader writer is neither a gatherer of news, like a reporter, nor a presenter of news, like a sub-editor. His work is to comment and to present the viewpoint of the paper on the whole. He must be able to come to a reliable judgement in a short time.

He has to write leading articles on different topics. His style of writing should be gripping and interesting and easy to understand for a layman who has no special knowledge of the subject he is touching in his article. But, at the same time, he has to handle intricate and difficult subjects for mature and intelligent readers who already know something about the problem which he is discussing. Only then he will be able to create a good image of the paper he is serving.

His views on the whole have to be in conformity with the general policy of the paper. But he can only write convincingly and forcefully if his personal views also tally, more or less, with those of the management.

The Cartoonist:

He makes sketches of comic or satirical type on political, economic and cultural events. His vehicle of expression is drawing rather than words. A good cartoon can convey more than written words. A cartoonist must possess a keen sense of humour, cari­cature and satire. He should have the knack of drawing topsy-­turvy situations to achieve the effect.

The Artists:

In a newspaper or magazine, he draws sketches and pictures to illustrate incidents in a story and articles in journals and maga­zines. He may also design the get-up of a newspaper or magazine. He may present stories in pictures. An artist working in a news­paper has to work with speed, as he has to keep pace with the publication of the newspaper. He cannot afford to work at leisure like many self-employed artists.

The Photographer:

In a newspaper or magazine, a photographer takes pictures of current happenings. His work is much more arduous than that of a photographer who works in a studio. He has to take pictures at all sorts of places and situations. He may take pictures of a procession, when it is hurling stones on the police, burning some building or bus, or when it is being lathi-charged by the police. Sometimes he may be required to take photographs at the battle front. His is, in fact, a very difficult but rewarding job.

The Rewrite Man:

Perhaps our reporter hasn’t the time to bring his notes to the office and bang out his story on the typewriter. The paper’s dead­line may be too near. Or perhaps he is a “leg man” covering one of the city’s police districts-a reporter whose chief ability lies in getting rather than in presenting the facts. In each of these cases he phones his story into a rewrite man.

These rewrite men are usually experienced reporters who after years of covering various beats have demonstrated facility in news writing. Equipped with earphones, they take down, frequently on the typewriter, what the reporter at the other end of the line has to tell them. They check the spelling of all proper names; they check all addresses given; they get him to enlarge on all details that may add colour or significance to the write-up.

Although the rewrite man in building his story lacks first hand acquaintance with the scene and the personalities involved in it, his work frequently turns out to be a story so expert and vivid that the reader would never guess that it had been compiled at long range and at second hand.

For one thing, the rewrite man has had long practice in writing to the newspaper pattern. He knows the tricks that a reporter can inject to arouse interest and to hold it. He can give life and move­ment to a descriptive bit that sounded static enough when the reporter mentioned it. He can add background to meager facts, for he has his paper’s morgue right at hand to serve him.

He can write, and he can write quickly. In fact, his ability to write quickly forms one of his chief assets. As Robert B. Peck, a famed rewrite man himself, puts it in Late City Edition, “The rewrite man’s value lies in his ability to turn out a lucid story to fit a given space in as short a time as possible”.

In addition to his creative job of taking the reporters’ facts and whipping them into a story, he, as his name implies, frequently has to rewrite. That is, the copyreader tosses on his desk a clumsy or hurried piece of copy that no amount of editing can redeem. It calls for revamping from start to finish. The result is a readable story.

Second thought may not always be the best, but its rare piece of copy that cannot profit from rewriting, either by its author or some editor.

The rewrite man is often asked to perform a highly useful but tedious chore; he has to wade through the voluminous reports of governmental departments-federal, state and municipal and discover aspects of newsworthiness.

He does the same with annual reports of social agencies. Frequently, the result of this tedious digging stands out as a highly readable story of local interest-Why? Simply because the rewrite man has supplied the home-town angle to the Metropolitan compendium. He has shown in the items or the statistics he selects for his story how the finding of the report he has gone through will affect the health, the happiness or the pocket of the people in the community served by his paper.

When finished, all stories, whether typed by the reporters who cover them or compiled by the rewrite men, are handed into the copy desk where the process of editing then begins.