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.

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