Editor

Managing people is like herding Cats- It’s difficult

- Anonymous

For me, working in the media is all about people- your staff, advertisers and most importantly, your audience. Working with people for the People is what being an editor comes down to.

The position of editor is incredibly interesting and diverse. It puts you into contact with a myriad of people and allows you to experience things you might not otherwise have the chance to.

It is also very demanding and you must be willing to dedicate a lot of time and energy to the job both inside and outside the office. At times people may attack you and the choices you have made in the newspaper, its quality etc. You must stand firm and remain calm even though you want to scream and shout.

In essence, the editor is the public face of the newspaper and therefore needs to behave as such. This ties in with a framework of accountability that sees the public holding the editor responsible if they like or dislike something. Hence you have to involve yourself in every editorial and administrative decision that you feel is big enough to warrant your attention- thereby trusting the staff to do their jobs and, in turn, the staff trusting you to lead them in a manner that does not undermine them.

Always remember that you are both the editor of a newspaper, which deals with what goes in the paper and how the messages get across, and the chairman of a society with limited resources and this falls under the more administration side of things.

You have to know when to be a facilitator to the process and when to be a dictator- preferably more of the former than the latter. My style of running the newspaper has been with a servant leadership outlook- what can I do to make the job easier and thus minimize the margin for error and maximize productivity and quality. The question I asked myself is: how can I add value to what we have?

Always remember your limits but don’t let those become a burden and don’t let the limits you see in others work against them. Rather let them be an opportunity to work with the people who have expertise in fields you are not altogether familiar with.

For example: I don’t know much about photography but I do know what I want- hence I trust Lauren to do her job and together we can discuss how best to use the pictures she has.

However, you have to do all this while maintaining an eye on the rudder of the newspaper and where it is being steered- at times you may need to step in and make a few adjustments but the trick of doing that is to make other people think that it was their idea, or that they had a hand in it. Hence, you must have a clear and coherent vision about what you want to achieve during your time as editor. A lot of this vision will be accumulated as you go along and learn things in the job, but you must have a good base to work off from the start, one that the staff can buy into and see themselves as part of so that they too can help improve the newspaper.

So, raw skills are not only what you need to be at the helm of a newspaper. Skills are important yes, but the ability to listen to people before acting, take in their ideas and use them while keeping your head and seeing the bigger picture is a challenge that must be met.

Being open to any story, any idea or any suggestion is important. Weigh everything you hear, see and experience with your own moral compass and the shared vision you have for the newspaper.

Lastly, and I know I am sounding like a stuck record here, stand by your staff as you stand by your decisions. You may be called into question for what has been in the paper and you must know that you can defend it and justify is to the gates of hell and back, because that’s where your staff should want to follow you.

The duties of the editor are as follows:

Editorial:

• To chair weekly editorial or diary meetings where content ideas for the paper are brainstormed. You need to therefore:
• Maintain a good balance between structured debate and ranting.
• Hear people out and make sure everyone who wants to have their input heard can do so.
• Make sure that the briefs are the stories are clear and understood before everyone leaves.
• Don’t forget about pics and graphics and facilitate discussion on the look of the newspaper not just the text.
• Once content is in, ideally have a meeting with the content editor who will report back on the copy submitted and thereby brining certain problems to your attention so that they can be sorted our before paste-up weekend. This is the time major changes need to be made and the rudder can be nudged a bit.
• Oversee the paste-up weekend by interacting with the chief designer and photographer. Make sure that the sub-editors have done their jobs and that the look and feel of the paper is coming out in the right way.
• Make sure you read over the final copy before it goes to print and that the print deadlines will be met.

Administrative:

• Chair a weekly executive committee meeting in which the following should be discussed:
• The budget and how much money is available/ is needed.
• The overall direction the paper is going- I like to use the exec meetings as a time to bounce ideas off the exec staff who ideally should all be (and in my case are) senior staff.
• Problems and challenges in general. For example: how can the paper reach a wider audience? How can we increase our funds? Is the equipment in the office working properly? How are the training programs going? Etc.
• Also staff problems and how to overcome them.
• In both meetings emphasis should be give to solutions and problems seen as challenges to be overcome.

In both meetings emphasis should be give to solutions and problems seen as challenges to be overcome. You must maintain your decorum at all times and ensure others maintain theirs.

At the conclusion of the paper cycle you must oversee the distribution process. Emphasis must be given to the fact that if the paper is not effectively distributed, all the work done before that is wasted as no-one gets to see it and the information doesn’t reach the audience.