3. The Editorial Process

All newspaper and magazine stories follow a clear-cut process before they appear in print. The following steps are shared by virtually all publications.

• A story lead is logged. This could come from an outside agency (such as a press release), a fact uncovered by the writer/journalist, or an idea from the editor.
• The editor weighs up the story lead against the other leads for the issue and decides whether or not to proceed with it.
• The editor logs the story on a draft page plan and gives a brief, for example covering the number of words needed and a rough idea of the angle, to the journalist/writer.
• The journalist/writer researches the story and writes up a draft.
• The editor checks the draft and if necessary changes its position on the page plan. The journalist/writer may be asked to re-write the story if more or fewer words are needed for it to fit in its allocated place on the page.
• The draft then goes to a sub-editor who checks it for factual and grammatical accuracy. Sub-editors (frequently abbreviated to ‘subs’) are the people on newspapers and magazines who are in charge of taking raw copy and presenting it on the page for sign-off by the editor. Copy subs check stories for style and accuracy; layout subs handle page design and write headlines and captions.
• On most small and medium-sized publications, the copy and layout subbing jobs are combined, so the same sub will be responsible for checking and laying out the story on the page.
• Once the page has been put together, it is checked by the production editor and again by the editor.
• The page is sent off for printing, at which point no further changes can be made.