The primary concern of the copy editor in the organizational chart of his newspaper is, of course, the editorial department. Here the description is not so easy, since very marked differences are discernible from one newspaper to another. However, a typical organizational scheme would go something like this:

The editorial department actually has two sides, and usually these are separately responsible to the publisher. They are “news” and “editorial”. The news side is usually under the supervision of a managing or executive editor. The editorial page crew consists of editorial writers and is directed by a “chief editorial writer,” and “editor”, or “editor-in-chief”, or sometimes an “editorial page editor”.

(i) The News Desk:

All stories destined for the newspaper, whether they come from the typewriters of reporters and rewrite men or from the several wire services, teleprinters and other sources-require editing. This duty falls chiefly on the copyreader who sits on the horseshoe shape table called the desk. The city editor and other editors read all the copy.

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In the old days there was what was called the universal desk system under which the desk editor handled everything that came in. Nowdays, even in small dailies, the work is usually divided between the city desk and the teleprinter’s desk. Between them they edit the copy and write headlines for all spot news-everything except sports and financial coverage.

The independent or separate desk system in operation on a large scale allocates the news of different readers, each of whom has his own team of copyreaders. The editors with a crew of men edit the news designated as cable, teleprinter, city beats, society, business, finance, sports and reserve news. In larger newspapers there is a separate desk for international news.

Where the system is the universal desk or separate desk, the process of editing runs along similar lines, in which case the story goes to a ‘slot man’ who sits at the head but on the inside rim of the horseshoe desk.

This editor, called the news editor, glances through the copy quickly, gauges its relative importance, determines the space it should occupy-200 words or a half or three-quarters of a column- and decides the type on the copy and passes it on to one of his copyreaders who sits on the rim of the horseshoe.

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This copyreader, also called the desk man, rim man or ‘mechanic’ of the editorial room, is the anonymous and frequently unappreciated collaborator of the writer. Newsmen or correspondents who see his blue pencil flay their cherished prose, have no words of praise for him. Neil Mac Neil in his book “Without Fear or Favour” indicates the newsman’s true worth. He says that the reputation of many a star reporter rests partly on the work done by rim man in the green eye shade who comes out the reporter’s cliches and trims them, to pieces.

Only where the copyreader happens to be a former reporter, driven to the horseshoe desk by the dint of seniority, does the correspondent feel encouraged.

Copyreaders are generally paid higher than reporters. The work holds out attractions for men with editorial ability. The chances for advancement are good as the copy desk is a recruiting ground for office executives. The work is mainly two-fold: the editing of the story and the construction of a suitable headline for it.

The amount, of this work varies with each paper and even at different timings on each day. On a big desk the copyreader may edit from 10 to 15 columns. His editorial function is to bring each news that comes to him up to par. As he picks up the copy and reads; he forms general conclusions about the story in hand.

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Has it news value? If it hasn’t, then it is not worth printing.

Is it accurate and fair? Inaccurate and uncertain items are no; wanted by a good newspaper. If at all he selects anything which is dubious or doubtful, he takes the responsibility for published inaccuracies.

Is it libellous? An item that contains words or implications that may get the paper into legal difficulties has to have the danger spots eliminated.

Is it complete? Is the treatment fragmentary and partial? Will it lead the reader up in the air? If so, its details must be rounded, with or without the help of background materials.

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If the item meets these qualifications, the copyreader starts his editing to fit his paper’s requirements. These requirements may vary but, as a general rule, we take it that the paper requires.

(i) Clearness:

The reader must have no difficulty in finding out what the story means.

(ii) Condensation:

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The copyreader must cut and condense each story to the length assigned to it. Condensation applies to words and not to ideas. Verbal frills may go but the meaning must remain. Condensation is done by substituting short words for long ones-even smaller words tor bigger ones; for example, ‘try’ in place of ‘endeavour’.

(iii) Arrangement:

The copyreader’s notion of arrangement differs from that of the literary man. It is based on the convention of the Mead’ which puts the important parts first and the least important parts last. It also makes for the sequence of ideas.

(iv) Style:

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The copyreader’s style has nothing to do with literary quality. It refers to particular rules which his paper has laid down for spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, abbreviation, use of numerals and the like.

The copyreader edits his copy along the foregoing principles by means of a set of standardised copy reading symbols, which tell the typesetter what section to omit, when to transpose, when to spell a word out and when to contract. He then proceeds to check the copy paragraphs and if the story has sufficient length, supplies sub­heads.

The subhead is a line to be printed in a type which differs from the body of the story/article and is used to break up the too solid look of a long column. The best rule is to paragraph for ideas and not for mechanical reasons. Copyreaders try to avoid being mechanical when it comes to the subhead.

The look of the column demands a sub-head every two sticks or a stick and a half at least, or say about every 300 or 350 words.

The copyreader aims to have his subheads make divisions in the subject, each division meant for something new, and not merely for repeating what has been already told.

The copyreader usually faces three problems: (i) to tighten up the story and thereby speed up the action; (ii) to cut out the excess matter and bromides; and (iii) to reduce the story so that a telegra­phic editor could splash it in a page-one box if he chose to handle it that way.

The Art of the Headline:

Although the copyreader works anonymously, when he constructs a good headline, he feels the pleasure of a creative artist. With short words and in short compass, he can tell a whole story. He knows that the headline must fulfil two requirements-it must attract attention to the story; it must announce the story’s main facts. He sees to it that each headline he concocts does both.