Duties of a Sub-editor (Media and Communication) -ZK

Sub-editor, copy-editor or sub

“Rolls Royce mechanics”

Corporate all rounder

Professional presentation

of your own work

Responsible for ensuring that the tone, style and layout of final copy matches the publication's house style and suits the target market.

Processing all the copy before it is published to ensure that it is grammatically and factually correct and readable well.

They lay out the story on the page, write headings and may be involved with overall page design.

Gives finishing touch to the to-be-published material.

He dresses the news and the information that it contains to make it attractive and interesting to the readers.

He turns the dry dull facts or information into attention-grabbing and readable one.

Ensures accountability, responsibility and professionalism in the organization and furnishes accurate news.

Great command over language and is very diplomatic.

Editing copy, written by reporters or features writers, to remove spelling

mistakes and grammatical errors;

Rewriting material so that it flows or reads better and adheres to the house

style of a particular publication;

Ensuring that a story fits a particular word count by cutting or expanding

material as necessary;

Writing headlines that capture the essence of the story or are intellectual or

amusing;

Writing stand firsts or 'sells' (brief introductions which sum up the story,

underneath the headline);

Liaising/communicating with reporters or journalists to clarify facts

and details about a story;

Checking facts and stories to ensure they are accurate, adhere to

copyright laws, are not libelous or go against the publication's policy;

Cropping photos and deciding where to use them for best effect;

Writing picture captions;

Discussing concerns with editors;

Proofreading complete pages produced by other sub-editors using the

main basic proofing subbing symbols;

Working to a page plan to ensure that the right stories appear in the correct place on

each page;

Laying out pages and, depending on the nature of the role, playing a part in page

design;

Manipulating on-screen copy using appropriate desktop publishing software;

Adding last minute news stories;

Keeping up to date with sector issues, e.g. By reading related publications;

Editing press releases or reports;

Compiling routine information, e.g. tables of sports results or financial data.

Patient

Qualified & learned person

Skillful

“Tips and tricks”

Awareness of universal and

specific issues

Good memory

Good knowledge of his

work national &

international

Good communicator

Hardworking

Avoid stress mood

Interest in work

NEVER LET A GOOD SUB

GO!