Editors, Roles and Responsibilities

The word editor has many meanings across newspaper, magazine, broadcast, and digital journalism platforms. How it is used in job titles can vary with the size and ownership of a news organization, as well as across national boundaries. As a result, editors’ roles and responsibilities also vary by platform, news outlet size, corporate structure, and traditions in specific newsrooms. This entry examines editing roles in U.S. journalism, beginning with print media, the oldest of the platforms.

Newspapers

The highest ranking news manager at a newspaper was, for decades, called simply the editor, a title that designated ultimate control over journalistic content. In the late 19th century, as newspapers grew and needed multiple editors in charge of different types of news, some newspapers began using the term editor ...

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