The Night News Editor’s work may not be as arduous as that of his opposite number, but it is performed under conditions of much greater difficulty. He is always working against time and big news has a nasty habit of breaking around the edition time.
He and his assistant must gather preliminary news on the telephone, and one of his first tasks in the event of, say, a big railway or air disaster, must be to see how quickly reporters can be got to the spot. Members of the public should never be troubled unnecessarily on the telephone during the night but, there are occasions of sudden emergency when this cannot be avoided, and this has to be done.
The Night News Editor and the Chief Sub-Editor work hand in glove. There are times when the former is apt to tear his hair if he discovers that an important piece of news is lying on the sub-editor’s desk and that he had not been told. But there is of course, the other side of the picture, when the Night News Editor has omitted to tell his colleague that he is working on a big news story that may require a fair amount of space which has not been provided for. Most of the news during the night will come in by telephone and a thoroughly efficient copy-taking department is essential.
The importance of its work is not always fully appreciated even in the newspaper office, although the mishearing of a single word on the telephone may be disastrous. Thus both the copy-taker and the Chief Sub-Editor always keep their fingers crossed to guard themselves against any undetected error.