Desk Editor

( Originally Published 1913 )

THE great metropolitan newspaper, and some of those published in the smaller cities, employ two or more editors known as desk editors.

Everything which appears in the news or editorial columns of the paper passes over their desk. They read principally for grammatical and other errors, and may or may not write in the headings.

The introduction of the linotype makes it necessary for all copy to be correctly written, spelled, punctuated, and paragraphed, that the machine operator may follow it completely.

The Linotype casts lines of type (not single type), and corrections cannot be made as readily as they are under the old hand-set method. It is, therefore, necessary that the copy approach correctness.

The desk editor has little discretionary power, beyond making necessary corrections and seeing to it that nothing libelous appears. His duty is similar to that of the proof-reader, except that his position is far more responsible.

Desk editors or readers are generally well educated, and good English scholars. They do little or no writing, confining their work almost exclusively to correcting that of others. Because their work is somewhat mechanical, they are not paid large salaries, their average emolument being not far from two thousand dollars a year, al-though some of them receive a larger sum.

The smaller dailies do not employ desk editors, the editor himself, or his assistants, being responsible for the correctness of copy.