What Is Editorial?
The editorial department is the group that produces news articles, stories, features, and other content for a publication. Its responsibilities include reporting the news, making decisions about what is newsworthy and how it will be presented, and creating reader-friendly copy.
Editorial departments also post news and articles to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As a result, it is increasingly important to have employees who can write and edit copy that transfers to digital platforms.
It’s primarily responsible for reporting the news
The editorial department is responsible for everything in the paper that’s not advertising. Whether it’s a front page story, opinion piece or article about an event, the editorial department has to make sure that it’s written in an accurate and reader-friendly way. The staff also updates social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as maintains the newspaper’s digital publication.
Depending on the size of a newspaper, the editorial department may be divided into city desk, news/copy desk (where stories are edited and decisions made about what goes into the main news section), editorial page, opinion page, features, arts and entertainment, business and financial, real estate, sports, graphics (picture desk, photo department, art department), obituary or Sunday magazine. The editorial division is under the supervision of an editor, often an executive editor or an managing editor. The editors oversee the work of many reporters, and they’re tasked with keeping the paper’s content up-to-date.
When an advertiser approaches the editorial department and says that they have a story about their business that would be newsworthy, be extremely careful not to give them any guarantees that it will get published or let them pressure you into writing the story. While it’s true that the advertising revenue paid to the editorial staff will pay their salaries, it’s important for the writers to stay on the right side of their ethics and not compromise their integrity just to please an advertiser.
It’s not responsible for advertising
Although editorial is a large part of what makes a newspaper or magazine a success, it’s not necessarily responsible for what’s on the page. As the name implies, it’s tasked with reporting the news in a way that readers will understand and enjoy. In many cases, this means presenting news in a visually interesting and fun way that will keep them coming back for more. Today, most newspapers and magazines are publishing in more than just print form, and the editorial department has a hard time keeping up with the competition. In addition to producing the best possible news coverage, they must also find ways to engage their audience and generate revenue from a variety of sources. From a technology standpoint, they need employees who are able to write and edit copy that transfers across multiple platforms, including social media.