Hey...who said Editing is uninteresting?

Journalism Lectures, Day-13

I had been told a number of times about the dull work that an Editor of a newspaper or magazine is expected to perform. "Editing is one of the most thankless jobs", one of my friends was told when she applied for a job with one of the national dailies that operates from the Eastern part of India. "Do you really want to take this up?" the person-in-charge of the hiring process asked my friend.

Of course, she was up to the challenge and soon joined as a Sub-editor with the national daily. It's been a few months and she's yet to complain about her daily work routine. But doubts still lingered upon my mind on whether editing could make for an exciting career. As far as being an Editor of a newspaper is concerned, I think there's loads of excitement to look forward to.

The lecturer had carried the morning edition of "The Statesman" to class. He used the newspaper quite beautifully to guide us on matters related to the basic principles of editing. He "tickled" our brain to come up with ideas about what role an Editor could enact in the creation process of a newspaper.

The Editor must understand what is News, then only would he be able to priortise stories filed by the reporters. His understanding of News should be much more superior than that of a reporter. "It's a myth that Editors are not journalists", the lecturer informed the class. "An Editor is as much of a journalist as a reporter, if not more", he further continued on the topic.

An Editor, besides selecting the News that needs to be published, is also responsible for layout, providing headlines to a story, selecting photographs, providing captions for selected photographs, creating essential blurbs, tables, charts and lots more. And on top of it, an Editor has stiff deadlines to meet on a daily basis!

Phew! I don't know about uninteresting, but an Editor's job is surely hectic. At least now I know, why my Sub-Editor friend has made it a habit to send a delayed response to my phone calls and SMSes!