THE EDITOR.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2352, 6 August 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE EDITOR.

The Boston Globe satirises some of the prevailing misconceptions about editorial work in the form of a dialogue. Th seeker after knowledge asks ;

Does the editor write everything in the paper?—Oh, ye j . He writes the love story on the outside in the morning, then five or six editorials, and double as many paragraphs ; then the theatre notices and advertising puffs. In the afternoon he helps the compositors, or go downstairs and works the press, or assist the boys to fold the papers. Should a newspaper man always be a printer ?—Oh, yes ; always. You must learn to set type before you can write at all. Shakespeare, Byron, Lord Bacon, Tennyson, ami all the rest were printers. You cannot expect to be a good compositor unless you are a printer. What does the managing editor do ? He keeps the pens and inkstands clean, and manages to mark a great deal of writing with a blue pencil. What he marks goes into the —paper basket, and is often anxiously looked for several weeks after by the correspondent. He is the man who loves to talk to you when you have an hour or two to spare and can talk to him, and takes it very hard if you don’t stay at least half an hour after you have finished with him —to say it over again. What is the business of the proofreader?—Oh, he is simply hired to prove the truth of whatever the editor writes.

And what does the exchange reader do ?—Oh, he simply exchanges news with other papers. And what does the night editor do?— Oh, he simply watches the compositors at night to see that they do not shirk their work or steal any type. Is it really necessary to go abroad to boa good foreign correspondent?—Oh, no. You can be just as bad a foreign correspondent at home as anywhere else.

What kind of writers do editors prefer F —Oh, people who have great command of language, or rather those who are greatly commanded by language, and who eau sly the same tiling over throe or four times in the same sentence. Also young ladies three months out of the high school with poetry on “ spring," if spring is in season. Abo men with but one idea in their heads, who have been studying it all their lives, and who have got it all down on three or four roams of paper. Can anybody write for a newspaper? Oh, yes, they can if they want to. There is nothing to stop anybody from writing for a newspaper.

And get paid for it?—Oh, yes. There is nothing to stop anybody from being paid for writing for a newspaper. What is the best subject to write about fora newspaper?—Oh, anything which happens to interest you. If it interests you it is a sure sign it will interest everybody else.

How docs an editor like to have an article commence :—Commonly in this way : ‘‘ Having a few moments to spare, I have dashed off these few lines in the hope that what I have ground out may interest your readers. I have not said on this subject all I could or all I can ; but if it should prove interesting, as I hope it will, I trust I shall he able to say more on this and other topics.” &e,, Ac. The longer you can keep on this strain the more will the editor be delighted with your article. In what style does he like to have it written? —He likes to have it written in a very tine obscure hand, with lots of interlineations and letters sprawled across each other, and, if possible, on both sides of the paper ; and then you should call for a proof of your article, and when you get it concluded to strike out every third sentence and put another in its place, and when you get a “ revise ” you might rewrite the entire article over again. This will make the entire office happy and cheerful.