Newspaper Editors

News editors are among the most experienced workers on a newspaper. They should be skilled at assessing story angles and ideas, fine-tuning others’ writing, and creating headlines that will grab readers’ attention. News editors need a solid background in planning content for publication in a variety of media, including print, blogs, and Web sites. Editors should have experience overseeing others in a fast-paced environment. They must be patient as reporters flesh out details of stories and have a proven track record in meeting deadlines. Oftentimes they act as mentors, motivating and encouraging their reporters.

To be a successful newspaper editor, you must have a love of learning, reading, and writing. You should enjoy the process of discovering information and presenting it to a wide audience in a complete, precise, and understandable way. You must be detail oriented and care about the finer points of accuracy, not only in writing, but in reporting and presentation. You must be able to work well with coworkers, both giving and taking direction, and you must be able to work alone. Editors can spend long hours sitting at a desk in front of a computer screen.