Editing, Newspaper

Evolution of Editing

The word editor, first meaning the publisher of a book, originated in the 1600s and over the next 200 years took on the journalistic meaning we ascribe to it today. Editing as a profession began to take shape as the number of newspapers, magazines, and books increased, and as publications grew in both size and readership. The first editors were printers who reprinted articles from other publications (often from abroad), and sometimes added their own commentary. Printers took their role as editors seriously, however, even if they didn't call what they did editing. Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), for instance, published “An Apology for Printers” in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1731, saying, “Printers do continually discourage the Printing of great Numbers of bad things, and stifle them in the Birth” (quoted in Pickett, 30). He asserted his right to print controversial material, though, much as editors have done in the nearly three centuries since. That function eventually became known as gatekeeping, with editors deciding what to publish or not to publish, free of government control or outside influences.

Magazine editing was primarily a part-time job until the late nineteenth century, with clergymen or professors often doing such work in addition to their primary employment. Top editors at American newspapers were often (or worked closely with) politicians or civic figures. Publications retained [Page 468]their political or religious ties and editorial identities for years even as editing grew into a full-time occupation. Gradually, publications began actively reporting news rather than waiting for information to trickle in from outsiders and other publications. This broader role increased the importance of editors, who directed the coverage.

These changes took place as rising literacy rates in the nineteenth century helped create more demand for reading material, improved printing technology allowed newspapers and magazines to easily print thousands of copies, and improved transportation allowed for wider, quicker distribution. By late in the century circulations soared into the hundreds of thousands among big city newspapers and some national magazines. Many of the architects of these mass circulation publications, like Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911) (New York World) and William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951) (New York Journal), served as both publishers and editors, guiding both the business and news operations. Others, like Cyrus H. K. Curtis (1850–1933), hired editors like Edward Bok (1863–1930) (Ladies' Home Journal) and George Horace Lorimer (1867–1937) (Saturday Evening Post) and allowed them to shape their publications as they saw fit. A gap developed, though, between editors who ran large publications and those who ran smaller ones. Those in cities saw themselves as outsiders, of sorts, observers whose detachment allowed them to get closer to the truth. Small-town editors, on the other hand, saw their role as intimates of or voices for their communities. Hodding Carter (1907–72), editor of the Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, Mississippi, said in 1961 that an editor should be “the community's chronicler, commentator, and general hell-raiser,” but also a citizen “participating to the fullest in the life and aspirations of his town.”

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