Bulks of stories at daily newspapers should move to morning news editors by late afternoon/evening; Late breaking stories/front page stories should be completed by now as well.
CP provides “front advisory” to inform editors across Canada of what stories major dailies are placing front page.
The Story Conference
Wire Editors usually prepare for morning story conference/budget meeting, while they process news-service copy for the first edition.
CP sends member newspapers alerts on developing stories.
CP sends member newspapers alerts at 1 P.M of the day’s main stories. At 3 P.M the first write-thru is sent, updating the first advisory, and then again at 7:30 p.m.
Depending on paper’s manpower, editors of their respective sections attend story conferences.
At this time editors discuss stories that are ready/will be shortly ready for the day’s editions and decide which stories get front page coverage.
Decisions of which photographs will be used are also made.
During and after the Crunch
Deadlines between multiple editions of a morning newspapers are usually no more than an hour apart. Wire editors must work quickly and work closely with the news editor to put successful follow0up for the first edition.
The wire editor will frequently check with the news editor to see what requested stories the news editor had sent to them by other editors. The wire editor will update the news editor when stories are updated to see if they should be edited, if the changes are minor, they are usually not minded.
By 11 P.M the bulk of the wire editor’s work for the day’s editions are usually done; by midnight, the wire editor should have all the queues clean. They then take out advisories intended for editors and printing copies for managing editor, assistant managing editor and the news editor.
Copy editors are responsible for sorting out/distributing news-service material to different newspaper sections, for avoiding duplicated published stories, for choosing the best version of a story from various news services and merge these several versions into one story, as well as deciding top national/international stories for the day.
The wire editor works closely with those in charge of the publication’s computer systems to find the most efficient way to retrieve, sort, and store vast volumes of variety of news-service material transmitted day to day.
Editing For The Web
Editors and publishers in the 90’s predicted websites would result in the demise of traditional print media.
Instead, the internet has proved to be an ally to print media, allowing newspapers/magazines to directly compete with broadcast media as the public’s primary source of information.
The web moves beyond just plain text that comes on a page with a 24 hour lag. It allows news groups to cover stories greater in depth with greater speed than before, and allows the employment of multiple media to tell the story in ways neither print nor broadcast media can.
Online journalism has its setbacks. Accuracy is threatened in competitor’s rushes to post stories seconds earlier; the print press no longer determines breaking news deadlines.
Everyone and anyone with the ability to blog is the competition on the web; however, readers and viewers who want to be certain of their information still rely on the familiar brands: Globe and Mail, The Times, Edmonton Journal, etc;
News websites are a fusion of different features; They resemble wire services in that stories are constantly updated with new info by editors, they also resemble bulletin boards as all content from a particular day’s print edition is herein posted. Finally, they also resemble their parent brand as reporters are still sent out to report for stories that will be posted online.
News websites are more than a wire service; they combine text, graphics, and video and audio into the ultimate form of info delivery, which requires technologically literate readers.
Newspapers often use their online sites as teasers into their daily stories, in attempts to entice viewers to buy that day’s issue to get the full scoop.
On the other hand, newspapers use their print editions to advertise online service that may even offer their readers additional insight and information into stories that are unavailable for updated in the printed medium.
Newspapers also gain additional advertising opportunities on their online sites, allowing for additional revenue which is a requirement in today’s economy, in which printed mediums are lagging.
Online, websites that contain web, graphics, animations and other multi-media applications still attract a fair amount of attention, but sites that mainly use just text are still the staple form of online news delivery.
The web’s hypertext structure, along with the glut of info it offers, requires copy editors to give special attention to these considerations to make the story as efficiently planned out as possible, for optimum scanability, search engine optimization, and the careful placement of images, bullets and links within the story .Placing links within the story, which link to other sites that may act as further background information, keeping sentences short, as well as paragraphs, use the inverted pyramid approach, and keep the overall story short and sweet. Smart headlines, and constantly updates (as much as possible) are key for online.
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Editing For Print and Online
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