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. 7-7