سكرتير التحرير .. كتاب معلم الصحافة والإنشاء

Editorial secretary

He is the third person after the newspaper's director and editor-in-chief in the major English newspaper system. While we see him second in the system of French newspapers with the director of the department, both of them are after the general manager who supervises them and their departments at the same time, and directs the management and editing of the destination of the newspaper and the source, as we have presented, and this editorial secretary must understand his spirit, the direction of the newspaper, and the desires of the public to give it the right of care. He has to monitor the editors and review the articles before publication, and he has to coordinate the pages, arrange the headlines, receive news from correspondents and informants, and the editor-in-chief in the English newspaper system is chosen from a group of technical members who cooperate in perfecting the newspaper and arranging its work. They have a private office called the Editorial Secretary.

His mission is very great, requiring activity, patience, willpower, and knowledge. He judges the importance of each piece of news, so he chooses the appropriate place for it. He also chooses attractive headlines and undertakes to highlight some of them and hide others according to the importance of each of them. It is also necessary for him to be precise in choosing the pictures that he publishes, because they are no less important than news, if they are not more expressive or verbal than them. Perhaps a picture is more expressive than a long report »in the words of Napoleon. He must have a strong memory and be ready for surprises that may force him to modify the geometry of the newspaper and re-engineer it again. It is the link between the mental work in the newspaper and the automatic implementation of its output, and the beauty of the presentation depends on it. And since the front page of the newspaper is like a shop front, the news must be presented in the best possible way and the most comfortable for the eye. And considering that the editorial secretaries are the ones who monitor everything that is published in the newspaper, and they have the right to choose the main, partial and sub-headings and classify them according to importance, they indirectly draw their personal interpretation of the events, and they influence the audience with a great hidden influence. The editorial secretary is the one who selects the materials and assesses their suitability for the page and column space. It is not worth neglecting any of it, so what should it do? Then the abbreviation takes place. He deletes the repeated, includes the similar to each other, and summarizes the long one. He also works on books that he likes, or that are gifted to the newspaper’s library from the author or publisher, so he presents a brief idea about them that benefits people, and he also criticizes the writer and shows him his mistakes and places of his excellence and weakness. And he must make sure of the truthfulness of the news that is published and avoid spreading propaganda for a person or a group. And to take precaution in the readers’ messages, he should not publish anything except what the group likes and benefits, and if the issue needs to explore the opinion of thinkers and experts, then he puts it at the head of a column or two columns if it is important, and appends it in five or ten lines, or adds it to the likes of it in a special column if he requests to publish it with his signature. It is borrowed, and if it was sent with the official signature, it does not change the errors in it, or amend it except after the approval of the sender. If the message contained defamation of a person, religion, organization, or anything prohibited by law, or if its information was incorrect, or if the signature was omitted, it should be returned to its owner with an apology.

He directs the editors, and to him they return when they encounter a problem or difficulty, and he is always forced to review everything that comes to the newspaper from the various editorial materials, so he revises and polishes it, then presents it to people in the best and least form without leaving an important incident or interesting news. He is the one who has the aesthetic sense that helps him to arrange the geometry of the newspaper in a way that comforts the view of the reader as he shifts his gaze from one piece of news to another. It is also good to choose the types of fonts in which the titles are written, and to diversify the ways in which the pictures are displayed (cliches) in order to attract the reader’s interest and desire him to read the topics with pleasure and longing. This necessitates that he be able to remember pictures, names, and current events, to make it easier for him to reconcile news, pictures, and names without falling into misunderstandings. The importance of the news, but of its importance in particular. And that he is familiar with the language in which the newspaper in which he works is issued, because he often has to write himself the introduction to the topics, this introduction in which he sometimes concentrates the important in one comprehensive paragraph, and sometimes he chooses the most important point in the topic to start with, and sometimes he combines these two methods . And he should be familiar with social psychology in order to avoid shocking the reader, or hurting public morals with what he publishes of inappropriate news and pictures. And he should, in the best possible way, cooperate with all editors, translators, illustrators, photographers and informants, because this sincere cooperation is the basis of his success and the success of the newspaper for which he works. It is between his hands and his mind that the reputation of the newspaper is related, as the editor or informant is not blamed for a mistake he made, but he is not excused in the case of the general editor's secretary, just as he is not excused when news is lacking if he does not manage well by suggesting topics to the editors and decorating them with pictures and drawings so that his newspaper always maintains its place in the hearts readers.

As for the remaining members of the editorial secretariat, work is distributed to them according to their specialization and competence.