The basics

First things first.

Reporters do not write headlines. That's an editor's job. So don't blame the reporter if you don't like the headline.

Here's the process of how a news story gets into the paper, in brief. A reporter suggests a story or gets an assignment. He or she covers the story, conducting interviews and doing research. The line editor - in the case of Laredo Morning Times, it's usually City Editor Julie Daffern (sometimes it's me) - reads the story. The line editor may have suggestions for making changes, such as adding or taking something out. She talks with the reporter, and changes are made, if necessary. The story then goes to the copy editor, who reviews the story for spelling mistakes, typos, grammar, style and consistency (is someone's last name spelled the same way throughout the story? do the numbers add up?). If the copy editor spots something that he believes need clarifying, he talks with the line editor or directly with the reporter. More changes are made, if necessary. The copy editor may put a headline on the story, or it may go to the news editor for a headline. The news editor arranges stories on pages, sketching the pages out on paper, and submits those drawings to the designer/paginator, who actually places stories, headlines and photos on the computer pages. In the case of the front page, the designer/paginator designs the page. The designer/paginator then prints a copy of the page and it goes to the copy editor or news editor. One of them proofs the page and gives it back to the designer/paginator for corrections. Corrections are made and another proof is printed. It is reviewed, and once it's approved, the designer/paginator sends the page electronically to camera, where it comes out as a negative and it's processed for production.

Now, that's how things are supposed to work. In reality, putting out a newspaper is frequently a frenzied dance of cooperation, with everyone pitching in to get things done by deadline. In the rush of meeting deadline, some of those steps occasionally are missed. That's when an error could be edited into a story, or a headline bust (misspelled word) is overlooked, or the wrong photo is used. We abhor those things and we try very hard to avoid them - it's infinitely embarassing - but when you're putting out tens of thousands of words, problems do arise. Laredo Morning Times publishes something like 14,000 pages per year. That's a whole lot of words, folks. We do our best, and we'll continue to shoot for perfection. We set high goals for ourselves. We believe our readers should expect nothing less.