Untold stories behind the newspaper pages

Not afraid of difficulties, quietly contributing
If reporters are considered the “soul of the editorial office”, then editors are called by the simple name “gatekeepers of the editorial office”. This job has its own unique hardships that we often jokingly say: “deaf to the ears, hard on the butt, little work, much sin”, so if you are not passionate and willing to sacrifice, you cannot stick with it for long.
In order for the newspaper to be published on schedule, in the context of the past 2 years, Lai Chau Newspaper has increased the number of issues, almost one issue per day, but the staff has not increased; in addition to innovating and creating working methods to adapt, members of the Editorial Department often have to work regardless of time, especially during holidays, Tet, political events or special publications.
The recent 30/4 - 1/5 holiday, the long break (5 days) was an opportunity for many families to visit relatives, travel , and relax. While everyone was eagerly preparing for the trips, 100% of the members of the Editorial Department still maintained daily work to ensure the publication of the newspaper on schedule with a sense of responsibility and dedication to work. Because, everyone determined that when working in journalism, especially working in print journalism in the Editorial Department, working regardless of days off is just "normal".
Ms. Nguyen Hong Tham - Deputy Head of the Editorial Department clearly remembers the late evening of January 9, 2025, the waiting room for information and images about the event "Spring on the border warms the hearts of the villagers" organized by the Provincial People's Committee in coordination with the Border Guard Command in Pa Tan commune (Sin Ho district) withPresident Luong Cuong attending to be published in the newspaper issue on January 10. The room was all female, the technicians had young children, their husbands were on business trips far away, but the women in the room put aside their personal matters to focus on completing the work. When the mock-up was sent to print, it was also the time when the clock struck midnight, preparing for a new day. Although tired, no one complained because the information and vivid photos about this important event were posted promptly, highly appreciated by the provincial leaders, and enthusiastically received by readers.

The quiet work behind the pages.

Every year, during the spring newspaper production period, the special issue often increases the number of pages and the workload many times while still ensuring the regular issues are published every day. However, without anyone telling anyone, all members of the Editorial Department go early and leave late to complete the assigned work.
Working as an editor, even though you don’t have to go to the field “out of the sun, out of the rain”, every day is always busy with the work cycle, this issue is not finished yet, you have to worry about preparing news and articles to make up the next issue, continuing as if there is no end. To complete the task, you have to skillfully arrange work and family matters. The image of female editors and technicians diligently editing, fixing makeup, fixing eyelashes… even though it is after work and they have a small child by their side, after school they go to their mother’s office to do homework and wait for their mother to come home, is not uncommon…

Be careful, "weigh" each word
The Editorial Department receives a large volume of news, articles, and photos from reporters and collaborators every day; from there, select works to edit, put on the pages of each issue according to plan and ensure timeliness. To be an effective "gatekeeper", contributing to perfecting journalistic works to ensure the criteria of "correct, accurate, good", and organizing the newspaper appropriately, requires editors to be not only passionate about their profession but also politically astute, proficient in their profession, have professional competence, rich knowledge and understanding of society, standard language, know how to compare, analyze, evaluate... in order to promptly detect errors, proactively correct inaccurate content, information, and data. At the same time, they must have the ability to communicate, express themselves in a clear and understandable way to be able to contact information verification facilities from many sources, exchange, guide reporters and collaborators to re-check information, re-process articles, and aim for quality journalistic works.
After nearly 20 years of working in editorial, we have realized that “being careful is never too much”. It is the carefulness in every detail of news, articles, and photos; from commas and periods to whether they are placed in the right place, to whether the meaning of the words is clear or whether the information is logical and accurate that helps control and minimize errors. Because sometimes just being careless or not being careful allows mistakes to happen (wrong word in the title, incorrect sentence, spelling mistake, wrong place name, data information, photo caption, wrong photo…) that can destroy the reputation of the editorial office.
Ms. Vu Kim Tuyen - Editor of the Editorial Department confided: Although the works are not their "brainchild", with professional responsibility, the editorial team is always dedicated to editing sentences, rearranging structures, polishing, picking out "every grain of sand" to make the works of reporters and collaborators more accurate and attractive. Thereby, contributing to improving the quality of the newspaper. We only breathe a sigh of relief when the newspaper is published without public feedback about the "grain of sand". Although we always try and make efforts, we cannot avoid sometimes having "occupational accidents" due to subjective and objective reasons. At that time, the whole department together draws experience to minimize errors in the following issues.
Evaluating the Editorial Department, Ms. Vu Thi Thu Huong - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Lai Chau Newspaper emphasized: Although quietly behind the newspaper, the team of editors and technicians of the Editorial Department always strive, are not afraid of hardship, and arrange time scientifically to complete the tasks assigned by the Editorial Board, actively contributing to improving the quality of journalistic works in particular and the newspaper in general. In the coming time, each editor and technician needs to constantly improve and learn to meet the requirements of the job in the new period. In addition, the Editorial Department needs to continue to improve the quality of editing and newspaper presentation, build more columns, advise the Editorial Board to innovate and create, making Lai Chau Newspaper increasingly develop according to the trend of modern journalism, and have a solid position in the hearts of readers.
Perhaps not everyone knows the hardships of the silent people behind the newspaper pages. But every day, each editor and technician of the Editorial Department always tries their best, contributing their efforts and intelligence to perfect the works of reporters and collaborators before reaching the readers. For them, each error-free, quality-assured, attractive-looking newspaper, well-received and spread by readers, is a joy and a motivation to dispel fatigue and overcome all difficulties.

Source: https://baolaichau.vn/xa-hoi/chuyen-chua-ke-phia-sau-trang-bao-1021636