What’s an editorial?

An editorial, simply put, is an unsigned opinion piece written by a member of the newspaper’s editorial board that is meant to represent the position of the newspaper itself.

A columnist writes about their own position on a particular issue. There is a long-standing tradition in newspapers that editorial writers are expected to write to represent the paper, maintaining consistency with earlier editorials on similar topics in the past.

There are five different writers, at this point, who contribute editorials to the “Our View, Your Say” page in the Free Press, and while each of them writes independently, they are supposed to put their own views on issues to one side. The tone, style and directions of editorials are reviewed by the paper’s Comment Editor and Managing Editor prior to publication.

The hardest editorials to write? When a decision is made by the newspaper to support a position that an individual editorial writer is personally opposed to — making a case for something you don’t agree with is harder than it might seem.

Editorials appear in the same place — on the top of the editorial page — in every edition of the Free Press.