l Cropping photographs
In following the cross-training philosophy in
Chapter 1, the associate editor must be able to handle
his duties and those of the editor, in case the editor is
unavailable because of leave, training, TAD, sickness or
other circumstances.
Note in the previous lists that, in addition to regular
duties, the associate editor makes page layouts, crops
photographs and serves as a writer and photographer,
while the editor writes and takes photographs as needed.
This should be a staff requirement for two reasons. First,
it would be inappropriate for the editor and associate
editor to isolate themselves from the command and
community by just administering the newspaper staff.
Subordinate editors and the regularly assigned staff
writers need a certain amount of “face time” to establish
their contacts and credibility. This is also true with the
editor and associate editor.
Second, the editor and associate editor must
continuously strive to improve their layout, cropping,
writing and photography skills. Nothing is more of an
injustice to the newspaper staff than an editor or
associate editor who becomes complacent because of
his position of authority. Direct involvement in the
aforementioned areas will improve the overall quality
of the newspaper and serve as a secondary staff training
method.
SPORTS EDITOR
As the name implies, the sports editor is responsible
for all facets of the sports pages–gathering and editing
news, taking photographs, making page layouts, writing
headlines, cutlines and captions and cropping
photographs. Most sports editors set up a system of
gathering base sports news (scores, statistics, game
highlights, names of key players, and so on) with the
Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) manager. This
is a necessity in most Navy newspaper staffs because
the sports editor normally does not have regularly
assigned sports writers working for him.
Typically, the sports editor is a civilian employee or
a JO2. This one-person operation, in addition to regular
responsibilities, stays busy writing news and feature
stories, designing page layouts and taking photographs
for other newspaper sections as directed by the associate
editor.
LEISURE EDITOR
The leisure editor follows virtually the same
guidelines as the sports editor. Again, a good contact at
the MWR office is needed to maintain a good flow of
leisure-related information.
GENERAL ASSIGNMENT WRITERS
The general assignment writers are your junior staff
members (JOSNs and JO3s) who are honing their news
writing, reporting, photography, layout and cropping
skills. Remember, the publisher of a CE newspaper may
assign a civilian or two to the staff. They may serve the
staff as general assignment writers. General assignment
writers are detailed by the associate editor as needed.
CLASSIFIED ADS
Classified ads are listings of personal items and
services for sale by members of the command. The
associate editor may assign the duty of gathering and
editing classified ads to general assignment writers on a
rotating basis.
Large CE newspapers may contain between 200 and
250 classified ads per issue (depending on the frequency
of publication), while funded newspapers may run
between 100 and 150 per issue.
Although classified ads are normally offered free of
charge, one innovative CE newspaper staff ran a survey
to see if its readership would favor a one-dollar charge
for each classified ad, with all proceeds going to the
local MWR fund. The response was positive, and the
MWR fund, besieged by a series of budgetary cuts,
collected more than ,000 in the first year of the new
system. A by-product of this partnership was the
assistance MWR provided in gathering and organizing
the classified ads before they were sent to the newspaper
staff for final review. This allowed the associate editor
more latitude in making staff assignments.
CARTOONIST
It is rare for an illustrator draftsman to be a member
of a CE or funded newspaper. To compensate, editors
and associate editors may run Plan of the Day or Week
notes or short articles requesting assistance from
volunteer cartoonists. More often than not, several
responses will come in from cartoonists of different skill
l e v e l s.
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