Sub-editor Duties & Responsibilities
The role and function of a Sub-editor includes the following duties and responsibilities:
- Checking facts and stories to ensure they are accurate, adhere to copyright laws, are not libellous or go against the publication’s policy;
- Ensuring that a story fits a particular word count by cutting or expanding material as necessary;
- Manipulating on-screen copy using appropriate desktop publishing software.
- Writing headlines that capture the essence of the story or are clever or amusing;
- Writing standfirsts or ‘sells’ (brief introductions which sum up the story, underneath the headline);
- Liaising with reporters or journalists, and editors;
- Proofreading complete pages produced by other sub-editors using the main basic proofing symbols;
- Working to a page plan to ensure that the right stories appear in the correct place on each page;
- Rewriting material so that it flows or reads better and adheres to the house style of a particular publication;
- Keeping up to date with sector issues, e.g. by reading related publications;
- Laying out pages and, depending on the nature of the role, playing a part in page design;
- Cropping photos and deciding where to use them for best effect, and writing picture captions;
- Editing copy, written by reporters or features writers, to remove spelling mistakes and grammatical errors;
- Adapting all these skills for a publication’s website.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of Sub-editor duties and responsibilities. Job functions for specific Sub-editor roles may vary, depending on the industry and type of employer.