The Ingredients for an Excellent Editor

Front-line editors are the first line of defense in the attrition wars that are striking not just newspapers these days but all industries.

The newsroom trainers mailing list that connects more than 240 newsroom training coordinators has been sizzling with questions and comments about the critical role of good editors.

After a recent Poynter Institute conference on the state of newsroom training, I posted the question of editor training to the Listserv, which was created by and is maintained by the Freedom Forum.

John Miller, professor of journalism at Ryerson Polytechnic University and a former senior editor at The Toronto Star, stated in his posting the problem better than I:

"Why do people get disillusioned with newspaper journalism today? Why do they want out at mid-career or before? I believe it is primarily because they see nothing ahead of them but endless one-day assignments covering the same old thing. . . . Good training in a newsroom needs to include training editors to get the most potential out of their staff, so that those reporters and editors can see a life beyond and a real prospect of getting better and drawing more out of themselves."

The training editors are spinning several message threads off that issue. The longest has to do with the qualities of excellent editors.

The two worlds of the excellent editor:

Editor as Word-Keeper

1. Keep the language lively.
2. Police the true meaning of each word.
3. Protect the language, especially from doublespeak and cliches.
4. Mean what you write; conclusions must equal facts.
5. Make time to write. Yes, editors need to write.

Editor as Trainer

1. Keep your hands off the keyboard: Read the entire story before editing.
2. Sail each story through a sea of questions.
3. Talk before, during and after the story is written.
4. 1 + 1 must always = 2 in everything you do.

5. Get out of the newsroom. As Robert Mitchum says in The Longest Day:

"There are only going to be two people: dead and those who are going to be dead. Now get up off your butts, you guys are supposed to be the Fighting 29th."

-- Tom Silvestri, Media General Inc.

The best editors:

• Have strong technical skills, and management and leadership skills.
• Lead by example.
• Are excellent communicators; are able to communicate the paper's vision, as well as their own vision of beat coverage.
• Are able to communicate well their bosses' concerns and make suggestions to their reporters so reporters are clear about what is expected of them.
• Are able to communicate what a story needs in a way that is specific and useful.
• Are creative problem solvers, whether it's figuring out beat coverage or smoothing things out with an upset reader or reporter.
• Are self-confident and clear about their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Have intellectual depth and dexterity. They have a natural curiosity that can spark excitement in those they supervise.

-- Yvonne Lamb, The Washington Post

A good editor:

1. Has the technical skills of a wordsmith, the tangibles of a good journalist, and the intangibles of a good leader.
2. Has a positive "story-side manner" by respecting writers.
3. Edits confidently but judiciously.
4. Edits in the writer's voice.
5. Knows when not to edit.
6. Has vision to see beyond the computer screen, to envision excellence and help devise steps for achieving it.
7. Treats both the details and the big picture.
8. Serves as a resource for ideas and sources.
9. Runs interference.
10. Makes others' ideas and copy better, not worse.

-- Carl Sessions Stepp, University of Maryland/American Journalism Review