How newsrooms work: wire services, editors and corrections

TUREFF• •0

When you read a news story, you are seeing the end of a process that may involve reporters, wire services, several editors, a fact-checker, a lawyer and a picture desk. Knowing how that process works makes it easier to judge what you read, understand why the same story appears in many places at once, and see why mistakes happen and how they are fixed.

Wire services and news agencies

A wire service, also called a news agency, gathers news and sells or supplies it to other outlets. Large international agencies such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have correspondents in many countries, and many countries also have national agencies.

Why they matter: few newspapers or broadcasters can afford reporters everywhere, so they rely on agencies for much foreign, financial and breaking news.
How to spot agency copy: look for the agency name in the byline or at the end of the article, or a dateline naming the city the report came from.
Why stories look identical: many sites publish the same agency report with small edits, so seeing a story in ten places does not mean ten separate pieces of reporting.

Who does what in a newsroom

Titles vary between organisations and countries, but the roles are broadly similar.

Reporters gather information, interview people, check documents and write the first draft.
Correspondents are reporters based in a particular place or covering a particular subject.
Desk or section editors commission stories, decide what to cover and shape the draft.
Sub-editors or copy editors check facts, spelling, grammar and house style, and often write the headline.
Producers do similar work for broadcast and audio, organising interviews and footage.
Photo and video editors choose and check images.
Senior editors decide what leads the front page or the bulletin and take responsibility for difficult calls.
Legal advisers may review stories that risk defamation or contempt of court.

From tip to publication

A story starts with a press release, a court hearing, a source's tip, a document, data, or a reporter's own observation.
The reporter checks it, ideally with more than one independent source, and gives people who are criticised a chance to respond.
An editor reviews the draft, asks questions and may send it back for more reporting.
The copy desk checks details and writes headlines and captions.
It is published, and for a developing story it may be updated many times as new information arrives.

Style guides and standards

Most news organisations have a style guide covering spelling, titles and terminology, and an editorial code or set of standards covering accuracy, fairness, conflicts of interest, use of anonymous sources and how to treat vulnerable people. Many publish these online, and they are worth reading if you want to know how an outlet says it works.

Why mistakes happen

Speed is the main enemy of accuracy. Breaking news is reported while facts are still uncertain, officials may give early figures that later change, and witnesses can be mistaken. Mistakes also come from misread documents, misheard names and errors introduced while editing.

How corrections work

Corrections fix a factual error, usually with a note at the end of the article explaining what was changed.
Clarifications add context when something was accurate but misleading.
Updates add new information to a developing story and are not necessarily admissions of error.
Retractions withdraw a story that cannot stand.

Many outlets have a readers' editor, standards editor or a published complaints procedure. In some countries independent press regulators or broadcasting regulators handle complaints that are not resolved directly. If you spot an error, contacting the outlet with clear evidence is the quickest route.

What this means for readers

A visible corrections policy is a good sign, not a bad one.
Updated timestamps tell you a story has changed since you first read it.
Agency copy is a starting point; outlets with their own reporters on the ground may add detail.

Have you ever reported an error to a news outlet? Tell us what happened in the comments.