Mohan Sinha outlines the responsibilities of an editor in formulating editorial policies and running a newspaper. An editor should maintain common decency and accuracy in reporting while being fair, unbiased, and upholding the law. An editor must be a good communicator, administrator, leader, and maintain good relations with the public. Editors act as guardians for accurate reporting, coaches for reporters, and leaders who inspire their newsrooms.

1. - Mohan Sinha

2.  Responsible for formulating editorial
policies of the newspaper along with
the management. He should:
 Maintain the level of common
decency; publish the newspaper that
is welcome to a home.
 Tell the essential news; select it well
for news is the basis of opinion in a
republic

3.  Be honest and fair; remember that
there are two sides to every question.
Make fair play the standard of news
presentation.
 Be willing to hear the voice of the
appraised; be tolerant.
 Uphold the laws of the country, its
Constitution, the state laws and the
laws of the municipality in which the
newspaper is published

4.  Remember that the news should be
fair, accurate, unbiased, and impersonal.
 Endeavour to bring out the constructive point of
view in dealing with the community.
 Act with moderation in conducting the newspaper.
 Adopt a broad social policy, remembering that
sympathetic understanding is the language of all
humanity.
 Recognize the place of individual leadership and
social responsibility resting upon the shoulders of
all.
 Be loyal; be willing to fight for honest conviction.

5.  Public Relations
 Team Building
 Leadership
 Planning
 Organizing the desk

6. ◦ He should be an excellent communicator
◦ He should be a good partner
◦ He should be an efficient administrator
◦ He should be an efficient coordinator
◦ He should be a delectable leader
◦ He should have a sensitive feel for
typography, good newspaper design and good
news photographs
◦ He should maintain cordial relations with leaders
and public in every walk of life, but not to succumb
to blandishments

7.  Guardians -
◦ At the most fundamental level, editors are
guardians -- guardians of the way we
communicate.
◦ This means that editors should be careful of trendy
or faddish words that only a limited few will
understand.
◦ Being guardians means that grammatical principles
are consistently followed, that words are chosen
carefully, that a publication's style is observed (but
not blindly so) and that words are spelled correctly.

8.  Newsrooms often see a lot of churn, especially
among the reporter ranks. With reporters moving
in and out so much, how can they understand the
context in which the news happens?
 Editors need to know their communities and their
states, they need to know what has happened
there recently and what happened there long
ago, and they need to bring that perspective to
their news reports.
 Audiences will not trust or respect a news
publication that does not understand the history
that has shaped their communities.

9. ◦ Have a "a built-in bullshit detector."
◦ An editor needs to be able to sense when somebody is
being less-than-forthcoming or self-serving.
◦ Because accuracy in journalism is paramount. Although
there's an implicit trust between editors and
reporters, editors must constantly be asking, "How do
we know this?"
◦ If a reporter understands that this comes from a
perspective that values the need for accuracy, rather
than from an air of distrust, he or she will look forward
to such exchanges.
◦ Even on the copy desk, editors must always be
questioning whether facts are correct.

10. ◦ "Who wrote this piece of garbage?!"
◦ The essence of coaching involves allowing
reporters to maintain ownership of their work.
◦ By acting as a coach, rather than autocratic
manager, the editor helps the reporter to
conceptualize a story and works with him or her
through the reporting, writing and editing of the
story.
◦ And using such an approach may -– heaven
forbid! –- help the reporter to get better.

11. ◦ Going hand in hand with the editor as
a coach is the editor as a teacher.
◦ Most editors start their careers as
reporters.
◦ What they learned along the way, they
pass along to the newer folks who
come along. Many editors act as
mentors to young reporters –- and to
new editors, too.

12.  Editors are leaders in their newsrooms. They
set the tone. They formulate the mission and
make sure everyone knows it.
 They set the example for others. They inspire
newspersons to do their best and to
understand the importance of what they do.
 In a sense, they are visionaries, knowing
where the newsroom is and where they want
it to go.

13.  There's so much, so much, so much
information out there that somebody needs
to decide what's fit for publication or
broadcast and what's not.
 That's the gate-keeping function of editors -
- deciding what's newsworthy.

14.  Although reporters on the beat should be
generating the most story ideas for their
publications, editors themselves are always
inquisitive.
 What does the audience need to know about
-- or want to know about?
 How do news events affect the audience?
 What's under the surface that we need to get
at?

15.  Editors are advocates for their writers, for
their newsrooms, for freedom of
expression, for the importance of journalism
in Indian society.

16.  Editors are writers, whether they're helping
reporters rework their stories or writing
headlines or creating photo captions or
graphics.

17.  They don't just work with words, but with the
entire presentation.
 They coordinate with photojournalists and
graphic artists.
 They select pictures and edit informational
graphics.
 They design pages.
 You need more than just words to tell the
story.

18.  They keep track of budgets and fight for as
many resources as possible to cover the
news.
 They hire and evaluate staffers and set work
schedules.
 For better or worse, editors are managers.

19.  They are constantly attuned to the potential
problems that news reporting can create and
to the potential for harm that journalism can
inflict.
 Editors work to minimize such harm and to
make sure that their colleagues follow the
norms of the profession.

20.  democrats with a lowercase "D."
 Editors understand the importance of
journalism in a self-governing society like
ours.
 That's the notion of providing people with the
information they need in order to elect public
officials and make other decisions about their
lives.
 It's the notion that those in power -- whether
political power or economic power -- are to
be held accountable.

21.  ... And finally an Editor is
artist, chef, butcher, shoemaker, barber and
tailor all rolled into one