“Trust Me, I’m a Sub-editor”

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on one particular player in the newspaper production process, i.e. the sub-editor. I analysed the sub-editing process through participant observation in newsrooms in the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands. Looking at both the sub-editors at work (think-aloud protocol) as well as the articles in various stages of production, and informed by (retrospective) interviews, I have compiled a list of six of the sub-editor’s “production values”. These values guide sub-editors whenever they intervene, and help them to transform a news story into an appealing, correct and credible newspaper article. I took the lead from Östgaard’s “factors influencing the flow of news”, but also from Galtung and Ruge’s “news values” which help reporters to determine which “events” are transitioned into “news”. In doing so, I go beyond the limitations of previous research, in which the types of interventions carried out in the sub-editing stage of newswriting were categorised. By identifying the guidelines driving the alterations made by the sub-editor, I aim to move one step closer towards uncovering the intricacies of the sub-editing process. Moreover, I demonstrate how “the rewrite men” add journalistic value to their newspapers, as perhaps their brand’s strongest ambassadors.

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