By Franklin Bayen
News Editor, Weekly Post
Yaounde, Cameroon
Hosted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Editor: A Facilitator, Not Superman

I was excited about coming to the United States in March for the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships. Five-and-a-half-months down the road, more than a dozen reports and stories printed, a tour of various departments of my host newspaper, interaction with various editors and half a dozen seminars and conferences around the United States, I am again excited about going back home to Cameroon.

I can’t but be anxious to return with so much acquired, with so much to show for so long away from home and from my desk after winning a grant from this prestigious Alfred Friendly Foundation.

Simply having to practice journalism in a completely new setting has been enriching. Having to be a reporter in an American newsroom where sources of information (the journalist’s raw material) are most times just a touch of the button away has been enlightening. So too has been shadowing editors – content editors (or desk editors), copy editors, slut editors (production editors), managing editors and editorial page editors.

There have been differences, some mild, others fundamental. But there would naturally be differences even if they were just cultural, as I had noticed just from reading and comparing newspapers from other countries on my previous foreign travels.

Yet, there are differences that are a demonstration of better organization of the American press, vital to the quality of the final product. Coming from my Cameroonian setting, I was struck by the distinction of roles and the marked difference in the reporter-editor relationship in the United States.

What obtains most in Cameroon is “professorial” editing, whereby the editor is an all-knowing big boss who often finds faults with the reporter’s “trash”, reads it in a “closet”, re-writes it, “corrects” facts or rejects it as their temperaments may permit, usually without even consulting the reporter for clarification. Often, we editors end up introducing factual errors and reporting the story out of context. If only we worked closely with reporters.

The contrary was my experience working in a U.S. newspaper. For the most part, the editor reads the reporter’s work, notes questions in writing and highlights other portions of doubt. The reporter reads them, responds, and sometimes discusses verbally with the editor. Most of the re-writing is done by the reporter. That looks more like coaching. In the end, the reporter gets to master the trend and owns the story when it is printed.

In Cameroon, sometimes, reporters do not recognize the story run under their byline because some professorial editor has been at work. This is contrary to what Aly Colon of The Poynter Institute would say: “Editors are only midwives, they don’t make babies.”

As a reporter and editor, combined or interchangeably at different turns in the leading newspapers back in my country – Cameroon Post, The Post, The Herald, Weekly Post, Post NewsMagazine – I am well placed to comment on reporter-editor relationships and how that makes or unmakes the final product at the newsstands.

I said “combined” because unlike in the United States and other advanced newspaper cultures, most editors like me back in Cameroon are also reporters. Roles are either not distinguished or staff constraints leave some reporting to be done by editors. Furthermore, editing roles are jumbled-up: desk editors (after their usual mandatory reporting) are sometimes the same ones who do copy editing, proofreading and production editing.

In most newsrooms in Cameroon, the very important role of the copy editor is minimized. This is also part of the ego of the editor as a superman. Most newspapers neglect the fact that being a good editor doesn’t imply having a command of the essential fine language that gives a newspaper its required polish. I have always held that although we reporters and content editors may use journalese with a savvy, it is not necessarily immune to wrong English usage. The copy editor needs to have a command of fine language and mastery of the newspaper house style to polish our work.

The consequence of this poor organization on the Cameroonian press is easy to imagine: no fresh eyes to notice simple, avoidable errors; editors’ fatigue leads to poor supervision of final news product; editorial comments are not distinguished from news. On the other hand, the reporter-editor relationship is often strained.

At first sight, this may be perceived as an overcritical comparison of the incomparable. After all, even some big national newspapers in Cameroon barely manage to have the next issue of the newspaper printed, talk less of recruiting sufficient staff and having the right equipment. Meanwhile, in the U.S., even small neighborhood newspapers have more human and material means to run huge newsrooms with tens and tens of reporters, editors and other staff. Talk less of leading newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and big city papers like my host newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

No, that lack of the material means cannot be the whole excuse for the level of disorganization and negligence witnessed in newspapers back in Cameroon. Yes, with more resources and training opportunities like mine, Cameroonian newspapers may adjust to the challenges of the job.

That’s why upon my return home I plan to hold two workshops in Yaounde and Limbe where most of the newspapers are based, to share my experiences with editors and reporters of the main English language newspapers in Cameroon (The Herald, The Post, Weekly Post, Among Youths, Eden, The Guardian Post, Post Newsmagazine, Star Headlines, The Nation and Business & Politics). Reporter-editor collaboration and distinction of editing roles will be the focus.

If in the coming six months the outlook of newspapers in Cameroon witness any changes, I’d then be satisfied this trip to the United States hasn’t been a mere safari, though it certainly wasn’t all work without play.