Washington Post newsroom memo sent to staff on March 14 by Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Managing Editor Philip Bennett.

Editing the A Section

In the coming weeks we will be introducing several innovations in the editing of the A section. These changes were previewed by Len at our last staff meeting; today we'll fill in some of the details. While we're applying these changes for now only to our main news section, over time we'll adapt their principles across the newsroom.

The A-section initiative has several goals. We will remove layers of editing by providing greater flexibility to determine when a story is edited and by whom. We will create truer alignment of editing for the web and for the paper, recognizing that deadlines for many pieces are defined as the earliest moment they can be edited and published online. We will deepen collaboration among editors on assignment desks, copy desks, photo and the news desk to change how a story, graphic or photograph goes into the newspaper.

Overall, these changes are meant to make our editing model less like an assembly line -- moving copy towards the presses on a pre-determined schedule – and more like a network, responding to how journalism is actually created, distributed and discovered by our audiences in print and online. We believe this evolution is possible while ensuring the quality of our editing and the quality of life of editors.

Susan Glasser, David Hoffman, Don Podesta and Ed Thiede, among others, have contributed to our A-section plan. Elements of the plan include:

New assistant editors. Several editors will move from the National and Foreign copy desks to take on new roles that begin earlier in the day. These assistant editors will have broad responsibilities for moving early copy to the web and for the next day's paper. They will provide the first read on some stories and the final edit on others. They will compose working headlines. They will collaborate with the News Desk to assign stories to pages earlier than our current practices allow. They will also copy edit projects and non-breaking enterprise stories.

A new night desk. The copy desks of National and Foreign will combine to create a common night desk. The main responsibilities of the night desk will be for copy editing breaking news, as well as writing or refining headlines and captions, and proofing. The night desk will edit fewer columns than is currently the case, since more stories will receive final editing during the day. We envision that this desk will be smaller than the combined sizes of the current desks.

New copy flows. We will shift our editing of feature stories, non-breaking enterprise pieces and projects to daylight hours. Currently, most of these stories are moved to copy desks late at night, regardless of when they were filed or initially edited. Assistant editors and assignment editors will work together to ensure that non-breaking enterprise stories are edited by early afternoon. Foreign is shifting its deadlines for non-breaking stories to allow for continuous editing during the day. No longer will deadlines for non-breaking foreign stories from bureaus across the world be 6 p.m. Washington time.

Earlier decisions. We will end the practice of assigning and laying out every page on our late night deadlines. Early editing will allow us to lay out some pages earlier, and will make the paper more attractive for readers. Editors of words, photos, graphics and layout will collaborate more closely. Under our plan, the News Desk will assign early pages shortly after noon to accommodate edited pieces. We will also advance our A1 decision-making, selecting at least one non-breaking story by 3 p.m. We will also begin to plan A1 features and enterprises stories days in advance and honor that schedule as news permits.

Fewer "touches" on some stories. With the involvement of assistant editors, we'll reduce layers of editing. Currently, stories in the A section are routinely changed by a half-dozen different editors (an audit by Don Podesta for this project found fingerprints of 12 different editors on one single inside piece). Under the new model, many stories will be handled under a "two touch" rule; they will have a first editor and a second editor. The editors can be an assignment editor and an assistant editor, an assignment editor and night editor, or two assistant editors. Complex enterprise or major breaking news will continue to have the full attention of multiple editors.

New tools for assignment editors. By collaborating with assistant editors during the day, assignment editors will have greater flexibility in determining their daily editing schedules, avoiding bottlenecks and late edits on routine stories. Assignment editors should not end their days facing a long queue of unedited stories. In addition to supervising their reporters, assignment editors will advance the editing process by doing more fact-checking, and (along with assistant editors) composing working headlines for pieces. Working headlines will also be welcome from reporters when they file.

We plan to roll out these editing changes to coincide with the launch of a redesign of pages inside the A section. The recently formed A-section design team, under Justin Ferrell, will coordinate new design elements and templated pages with the copy flow and consultative process we're introducing for editing. We believe that changes both in editing and design will result in a sharper looking section that places the right emphasis on our most original and compelling journalism.

In the short term, these changes require a new level of cooperation in spirit and action between the National and Foreign staffs, between copy editors and assignment editors, between the News Desk and News Art, between photo and graphics. Editors will be encouraged to color outside the lines of our traditional newsroom rulebook. We think we've made good progress so far in reaching a consensus about how to move forward. New questions are bound to emerge as we get started. We're eager to resolve those.

In the long run, changing the editing structure of the newsroom means transforming some long-held newsroom practices and parts of our culture. Most importantly, it calls on us to communicate even more openly and directly with one another as stories are assigned, reported and written. We'll be talking more about these values and how to apply them as we start this project.