The sub-editor has the power of life or death over all the newspaper’s material that reaches him. Thus, the responsibility of the sub-editor is really enormous. A newspaper receives its copy from a variety of sources like reporters, correspondents, telephones, news agency reports and verbal communications. All this information is filtered by the sub-editor. The sub-editor has to take into consideration the policy of his newspaper before allowing a news item to be published. He has to breathe life into some dead matter lying before him so that the story is made lively. Sometimes, he tones down a story, if it is too dangerous, to make it safe. There is no doubt that the make-up of a newspaper is the reflection of the sub-editor’s appreciation of news value.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF SUB-EDITOR
The principal test of sub-editorial capacity in the art of makeup is, of course, the appearance of the main news page. It is the page which the majority of the readers read first of all. Some very busy readers only read this page and no more—they simply turn the other pages.
• FORMAT OF THE PAPER
The sub-editor is actually responsible, more than any other person for what the paper looks like and stands for to the readers. The format of a paper is in reality determined by the sub-editor. The sub-editor has the nose for selecting the right type of news.
• DECISION-MAKING
It is the task of the sub-editor to decide as to what is going in for tomorrow’s newspaper and in what form. In fact, the sub-editor with a wide experience in his work is the most suitable person to become the editor in due course of time.
• VALUE FOR PHOTOGRAPHS
Sub-editing also involves responsibility for the use of pictures on pages. It would be difficult to over-estimate the value of pictures – or the skill required to use them to their best advantage. A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s only worth including them if they are relevant, chosen properly and appropriately displayed. The sub-editor should also be acquainted with the important photographers and photographic agencies which supply photographs of important events and news items to his newspaper in fact; now-a-days every big newspaper has its own staff photographers, who cover the special functions and events for their newspaper.
• WRITING HEADLINES
The next job for the sub is to write a headline – those vital words that attract the reader’s attention to the story. It is a skill which requires some understanding of typography – the choice and use of typefaces. The main purpose of a headline is to make the reader want to read the story. By knowing these sources of news as photographs, a sub-editor can contact them in case of any contingency without any difficulty.
• MAKING SENSE
The first task is to check the story for accuracy and to ensure that it makes sense. All names, dates, titles, figures, place names or any suspect point must be checked against the many sources of reference available; and spelling. Stories which have been well written will require only the minimum of attention: it is no part of the sub-editor’s job to re-write a story which does not require that kind of treatment; apart from the effect it will have on the writer who will quite rightly query why his style is not acceptable.
• COORDINATING REPORTERS AND WRITERS
It is the duty of sub-editor to maintain positive-relationship with the writers and the reporters as they are the backbone of the new-generating system. A good coordination allows credibility.
QUALITIES OF A SUB-EDITOR
A variety of knowledge and these skills are required so that the sub-editor can help every reader of the publication to understand quickly and easily what a story is about. The sub-editor is in the middle between the reporter or writer and the reader and if he is uncertain as to what the story means you can be sure that the reader will be too. A sub-editor needs to have:
• a very good command of English and spelling, and the ability to write clearly
• an obsession with accuracy
• a wide general knowledge
• an orderly mind
• a good working knowledge of typography and newspaper production
• the ability to work accurately at speed and under pressure
• respect for the writer/reporter
• a good knowledge of the law affecting publications
• the ability to visualise
• a sense of humour
To be a good sub-editor you'll need an excellent eye for detail, the ability to liaise with journalists and other editors and the creativity to write compelling headlines
CHALLENGES FACED BY SUB-EDITOR
WORD-DIFFICULTY
How can a sub-editor be sure that a word -will have meaning and above all, the meaning he intends to convey for a hypothetical average reader? One way of examining the question is the matter of word frequency. How frequently does it appear in the written language? Clearly this is a clue to word difficulty.
SENTENCE-DIFFICULTY
Sub-editors have been unanimous in identifying word difficulty as a basic source of reading difficulty. They have been equally unanimous in the matter of sentence difficult. Writing in which simple sentences predominated was more readable than the writing which included a high proportion of compound, complex, and compound complex sentences. The sub-editor can improve the readability of newspaper writing by converting long and difficult sentences into shorter and easier ones. He cannot perform this task arbitrarily; he must consider the total effect of such changes; he must realize that sentence length and/or complexity is not the only basis of reading ease.