1. Employment Profile: What exactly does a news editor do? |
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 What field is your job in?
journalism
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What is your job title?
news editor
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Please provide a brief description of the firm or organization that you currently work for
(size and general description of what type of organization it is)
I work for a daily newspaper in a suburb of a large city. Our circulation is ranges from 30,000 to 55,000 daily
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How long have you been employed in this position?
Three at this paper, 10 at papers in our chain
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How many hours do you work a week on average?
45 to 50
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Please provide a BRIEF description of your duties and responsibilities. (job description)
I edit articles, assign stories to reporters, design news pages, copy edit stories and oversee the copy desk.
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What was your gross income last year? Please include any bonuses or incentives received.
$53,000
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What is your expected gross income for this year? Please include any bonuses or incentives you expect to receive.
54000
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Please
list any benefits you have (Please include number of weeks vacation,
sick leave and type of health insurance, retirement plan 401k)
Three weeks vacation, four sick days per year, PPO health insurance and 401(k) with profit sharing.
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Do you feel you are under/well/over compensated at your current position?
I receive more than the norm so that I make slightly more than the union employees I oversee.
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2. Work environment! |
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Does
your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this
something you like/dislike about your job? Explain
I oversee our team of copy editors and designers, check their work, schedule them, etc. I enjoy the editing and design aspect of the job more than the day to day management items. I also work with reporters to make their stories better and discuss how stories should be handled, which is satisfying when we see eye-to-eye. Similarly, I'll work with photographers to give my opinion of which photos best suit the stories. That's satisfying too, because when we work together, we end up with a better newspaper.
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Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
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Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
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Describe
your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what
you like/dislike about working in it
As with any job that is a "craft," the people on the creative side occasionally see editors as the enemy out to stop them from doing things the cool way. But then we do things that make what they do better, and they usually come to begrudgingly accept that we're all here to do help each other. It's rare to run into someone who is out to make the product worse or to sabotage co-workers.
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Please rank in order of importance from 1-8 (1- most important 8- least important) Assign each number once.
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2 Income
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3 Work Environment - co-workers
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1 Work Environment - supervisors
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4 Benefits
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5 Hours
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1 Level of responsibility
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1 The actual "work" you do at your job
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5 Job Title
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3. How should someone new to the workforce get a J-O-B like yours? |
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If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Get your foot in the door any way you can. It's not going to be the way you want it. You're not going to apply for a news editor position without journalism experience and get it.
Offer to write a free column, apply for an internship, do what you need to do. Newspapers need people, but they don't know they need YOU until you're already there. You can usually work your way up quickly if you're competent, kind and ready to work.
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What
skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a
position like yours? Please be specific and explain why (e.g., social
skills, organization skills, technical skills)
Technical skills: You need to be very computer and Internet savvy. Video and audio skills are a plus. Newspapers are put together on computers, and communication has move to e-mail. Newspaper companies are becoming online media companies. If you're not Net savvy, you'll get left behind.
Organization: You'll need to be able to balance work being done on multiple pages, coming in at different times, in a deadline environment.
Social skills: You'll need to get along with your writers, editors and photographer and you'll need to be able to mollify angry customers who call. Being nice to one customer on the phone can save several subscriptions.
Graphic design and photo skills: You should know the basics of design, what looks good on a page, and have the know how to get it done in Quark or InDesign. Gone are the days where an editor can sit back and not be involved in production. You should also be familiar with digital photo basics: how to check photo size, etc.
Grammar skills: You need to be a star at the English language and the ins and outs of writing that make other people quiver. You should hate misplace apostrophes and openly malign the fact that no one seems to know how to use quote marks any more. If you're iffy on punctuation, this isn't the one for you. You should be very well read so that you know what makes a story flow well.
'Trivial' skills: You need to catch errors reporters make. This includes knowing that a year is wrong in a story that mentions a World War II battle or knowing the show is called "Today," not "The Today Show." It seems trivial, but knowing these things with help save the stories. Being well read and familiar with pop culture is a must.
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Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
I think you do need a degree in journalism, English or communications to have a good grasp on what we're doing and where the field is going.
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What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Be organized and work to surround yourself with people who can help you. Build a dream team, because this is a job that requires many people to work together to get it done. And on deadline, tempers can flare.
Learn to forgive yourself for errors before you start. You need to take mistakes seriously, but you can't become paralyzed by errors you've made or mistakes you might make.
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