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Aneditorial, orleading article (UK) orleader (UK), is anarticle or any other written document, often unsigned, written by thesenior editorial people or publisher of anewspaper ormagazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about a particular topic or issue. Australian and major United States newspapers, such asThe New York Times[1] andThe Boston Globe,[2] often classify editorials under the heading "opinion".
Illustrated editorials may appear in the form ofeditorial cartoons.[3]
Typically, a newspaper'seditorial board evaluates which issues are important for their readership to know the newspaper's opinion on.[4]
Editorials are typically published on a dedicated page, called the editorial page, which often featuresletters to the editor from members of the public; the page opposite this page is called theop-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces (hence the namethink pieces) by writers not directly affiliated with the publication. However, a newspaper may choose to publish an editorial on the front page. In theEnglish-language press, this occurs rarely and only on topics considered especially important; it is more common, however, in someEuropean countries such asDenmark,Spain,Italy, andFrance.[5]
Many newspapers publish their editorials without the name of the leader writer. Tom Clark, leader-writer forThe Guardian, says that it ensures readers discuss the issue at hand rather than the author.[6] On the other hand, an editorial does reflect the position of a newspaper and the head of the newspaper, the editor, is known by name. Whilst the editor will often not write the editorial themselves, they maintain oversight and retain responsibility.[7]
In the field offashion publishing, the term is often used to refer tophoto-editorials – features with often full-page photographs on a particular theme, designer, model or other single topic, with or (as in aphoto-essay) without accompanying text.[8]
The dictionary definition ofeditorial at Wiktionary
