MODULE 3

Newspaper
organization
Ownership pattern

 A single individual owner means one who generally owns 100 per cent of the
newspaper company's stock, and runs it as a private enterprise. For example, The
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, is owned by K.K. Birla and The Telegraph, Calcutta, is
owned by Avik Sarkar.
 Or, there can be partnership of a small group of individuals holding stock in the
company, i.e., The Hindu, Madras.
 Similarly, a joint stock company is a big commercial organisations such as Bennett
Coleman and Company, publishers of The Times of India and several other
publications.
 A trust is a non-profit organisation which runs a newspaper such as The Tribune of
Chandigarh or The Lok Sevak of Calcutta.
 In case of the Central and State Governments' publications, the ownership is
generally vested in the departments of information, publication, publicity, public
relations or any other specific department bringing out the
newspaper/journal/periodicaVmagazine
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF A NEWSPAPER

 In a modern newspaper unit of medium size, generally, the organizational

structure is divided into five distinct wingsldivisionslsectionsldepartp7ents.
These are:
 Editorial department dealing with news and views;
 Printing and production department;
 Business department which includes sections for advertising, circulation,
billing, collection, etc.
 Computers, engineering and equipment store;
 Personnel, sales promotion and public relations.
 In some organizations, engineering and equipment sections are merged
with printing and production departments. Besides. personnel and sales
promotion departments are also combined with the administrative wings.
However, the editorial wing, in most cases, is completely independent, and
is entirely under the charge of the chief editor, managing editor, executive
editor or editor. Variations are found in individual enterprises depending
upon their size, business volume, general financial status and editorial
traditions.
 The Editorial Department

 The editorial department of a newspaper organization is its heart and soul. The entire
business of a successful newspaper depends on the effective, efficient and prompt
operations in this department. As stated earlier, the functions of a newspaper's
editorial department are extremely crucial and significant.
 The editorial department of a newspaper magazine collects, receives, processes and
finalizes the news and all other writings relating to news for publication in the
newspaper magazines. The news is collected, received and solicited by a newspaper
from all parts of the world as well as from all concerns of the country.
 For collecting the news efficiently and promptly and making it fit for presentation to
the readers in a readable, attractive and digestible form, the editorial department of a
newspaper has to take the entire responsibility. The editorial department is the life-
sustaining force and be-all and end-all of a newspaper establishment.
 Editor/Chief Editor
 Managing Editor
 Associate Editors Deputy Editors
 Senior Assistant Editors
 Assistant Editors
 Chief News Editors
 Deputy News Editors
 Chief Sub-Editors
 Chief of Political News Bureau
 Deputy Chief/Political News Bureau
 Diplomatic/Political Correspondent
 The three main operations of the editorial department are carried on as follows :

1) Newsroom : Editing and processing the news on the editing desk;

2) news gathering : Making arrangements for gathering news from the city where the paper
is located, other parts of the country and other countries. Prominent news categories include
political ; economic ; financial and business; sports; crime; social; educational; cultural;
health and environment. All this news may come from Parliament/Assembly, stock markets,
chambers of commerce, labour organizations, courts, hospitals, universities, police, social
and cultural organizations and so on. Anything happening anywhere in any part of the globe
in which the readers could be perceived to be interested, needs to be covered in
newspapers.
3) Views and Opinions : Every newspaper/magazines has one or more editorial pages which
reflect the policy of the organization. The means that every newspaper has its own opinion
on all serious national and international issues. Opinions have to be in conformity with the
newspaper's policy which is determined by the proprietor/owner. The chief editor or editor as
the head of the editorial department has to ensure that opinions expressed in editorials are
in line with the publication's policy. The editorial page or section carries material such as
editorials, special articles, letters to the editor, special columns and cartoons.
The Business Department

 The business department looks after the sale of space, that is, advertising,
and the sale of printed copies, that is, circulation. The advertising section is
concerned with the procurement of advertisements from diverse sources
such as advertising agencies, business houses and small individual
advertisers. The collection of advertising revenue is the job of the
advertising section in the business department. Similarly, for the sale of the
newspaper magazine, the circulation section is charged with organizing the
network of hawkers selling agents at the station where the newspaper1
magazine is published and at other place where its copies, can be sold.
 The business department has two important wings:
 1) Advertising
 2) Circulation
Printing and Production

 press manager or mechanical superintendent

 Composing supervisor (engineer)
 press supervisor
 paste-up supervisor
 process photographers
 platemakers
 press operators
Engineering, Equipment, Stores

 Manager computer operation

 Computer engineer
 Data processing supervisor
 Computer operators
 Programming managers
 Systems manager
 Store manager
 Purchase manager
 Store supervisor
Personnel and Sales Promotion

 Manager (Personnel)
 Administrative officers
 Establishment supervisor.
 Sales, promotion staff
 Public relations officer
 Sales representatives Agents,
 hawkers
 The News Editor:

 The News Editor plays the most important role in the shaping of a newspaper after the
editor.
 A News Editor’s responsibilities are quite important as he or she is supposed to be in the
overall charge of making sure that no important item is missing from the newspaper or the
bulletin at any cost.
 He or she is also responsible for maintaining a steady and continuous flow of up-to-the
minute news items. He must get the best out of the news agencies and his own
correspondents and see that they do not miss an important news.
 They has to coordinate the activities of the newspaper in its various sections like reporters,
the different news desks and the picture and feature departments.
 Usually, this position is reserved for someone with long years of experience and a lot of
‘connections and sources’ in the field of news gathering.
 This is because he or she bears the ultimate responsibility for adequate coverage of all
important news items.
 The News editor must be able to spot an interesting news item
when others may have failed. Then again, even if the reporters
or other journalists of that organization miss anything of
importance, it is the responsibility of this person to spot it and
instruct his or her colleagues for getting the news out from the
potential sources.
 A person in this position has to be literally ‘on his toes’ round
the clock as anything may break out at any moment of the day.
He must also keep a watch on what appears in the rival
newspapers and evaluate the performance of his newspaper
concerning those newspapers. The news editor has to play
the role of the eyes and ears of the Editor and act as a
liaison between him and the newsroom
Sub-Editor / Copy-Editor:

 The sub-editor or the copy editor is by far the most hard- working person in
a newspaper. It is the sub-editor through whom all news, articles and
features meant for the newspaper passes and it is the job of the sub-editor
to sift through all the material, discard unnecessary copy, select important
and relevant matter and finally edit the copy to create the readable and
publishable news content. The sub-editor has to rewrite defective passages,
reduce lengthy reports to precise matter, and write proper headlines and
leads. The sub-editor has to be well versed with the newspaper’s style book
and ensure that every news report fits this prescribed style. The sub-editor
must have the stamina and the speed to be able to meet deadlines. The job
of the sub-editor can be summarized in the following points:
 1. They read the story for clarity of language and meaning and rewrite it
whenever necessary.
 2. They shorten the story while retaining the essentials and maintaining
consistency.
 3. They combine several reports from different sources to produce a single
intelligible report.
 4. They correct grammatical mistakes and implement the house style.
 5. They check for errors in facts and figures.
 6. They check for legal errors like libel, contempt of court etc which could land
the newspaper in trouble.
 7. They add important background information to place the story in context.
 8. They write headlines and sub-headlines, when necessary