- Editing may also refer to audio editing or film editing.
Editing is the process of preparing language, images, or sound through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media. A person who edits is called an editor. In a sense, the editing process originates with the idea for the work itself and continues in the relationship between the author and the editor. Editing is, therefore, also a practice that includes creative skills, human relations, and a precise set of methods.
Print media
There are various levels of editorial positions in publishing. Typically, one finds junior editorial assistants reporting to the senior-level editorial managers and directors who report to senior executive editors. Senior executive editors are responsible for developing a product to its final release. The smaller the publication, the more these roles run together. In particular, the substantive editor and copy editor often overlap: fact-checking and rewriting can be the responsibility of either.
Newspaper and wire services copyeditors correct spelling, grammar, and matters of house style, design pages and select of news stories for inclusion. At UK and Australian newspapers, the term is "sub-editor." As well, they choose the layout of the publication and communicating with the printer — a production editor. This and similar jobs are also called "layout editor," "design editor," "news designer," or – more so in the past – "makeup editor." Magazine editors include a top-level editor may be called an editor-in-chief. Frequent and esteemed contributors to a magazine may acquire a title of editor at-large or contributing editor (See below.)
In the book publishing industry, editors organize anthologies and other compilations, produce definitive editions of a classic author's works ("scholarly editor"); and organize and manage contributions to a multi-author book (symposium editor or volume editor). Finding marketable ideas and presenting them to appropriate authors: a sponsoring editor. Obtaining copy or recruiting authors such as: an acquisitions editor or a commissioning editor for a publishing house. Improving an author's writing so that they indeed say what they mean to say in an effective manner; a substantive editor. Depending on the writer's skill level, this editing can sometimes turn into ghost writing. Substantive editing is seldom a title. Many types of editors do this type of work, either in-house at a publisher or on an independent basis.
Newspapers
Editors at newspapers supervise journalists and improve their work. Newspaper editing encompasses a variety of titles and functions. These include:
- Copy editors
- Department editors
- Managing editors and assistant or deputy managing editors (the managing editor is often second in line after the top editor)
- News editors, who oversee the news desks
- Photo or picture editors
- Section editors and their assistants, such as for business, features, and sports
- Editorial Page Editor who oversees the coverage on the editorial page. This includes chairing the Editorial Board and assigning editorial writing responsibilities. The editorial page editor may also oversee the op-ed page or those duties are assigned to a separate op-ed editor.
- Top editors, who may be called editor in chief, executive editor or sometimes just editor
- Readers' editors, sometimes known as the ombudsman, who arbitrate complaints
- Wire editors, who choose and edit articles from various international wire services, and are usually part of the copy desk
- Administrative editors (who actually don't edit but perform duties such as recruiting and directing training)
The term city editor is used differently in North America and South America, where it refers to the editor responsible for the news coverage of a newspaper's local circulation area (also sometimes called metro editor), than in the United Kingdom, where it refers to the editor responsible for coverage of business in the City of London and, by extension, coverage of business and finance in general.
Scholarly books and journals
Editors of scholarly books and journals are of three types, each with particular responsibilities: the acquisitions editor (or commissioning editor in Britain), who contracts with the author to produce the copy, the project editor or production editor, who sees the copy through its stages from manuscript through bound book and usually assumes most of the budget and schedule responsibilities, and the copy editor or manuscript editor, who performs the tasks of readying the copy for conversion into printed form.
The primary difference between copy editing scholarly books and journals and other sorts of copy editing lies in applying the standards of the publisher to the copy. Most scholarly publishers have a preferred style guide, usually a combination of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and either the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA Style Manual, or the APA Publication Manual in the US or New Hart's Rules [based on "Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford" (1893)] in the UK. Since scholars often have strong preferences, very often a publisher will adopt different styles for different fields. For instance, psychologists prefer the APA style, while linguists might prefer the MLA style. These guidelines offer sound advice on making cited sources complete and correct and making the presentation scholarly.
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