Editor-in-chief, section editor, staff writer: understanding journalistic roles and titles

A website that provides information is effectively a newspaper and, as such, must be registered with the competent court. Over the years, I have seen a lot of confusion on this topic, but today, to be fair, there are very few sites of this type (publication of articles, news, etc.) that have not registered the journalistic publication (art. 5, law of February 8, 1948, no. 47).

What are the qualifications of journalists in a news publication?

By the term journalist, we mean someone registered with theRegister of the Order of Journalists, either in the Publicists or Professionals list. Anyone claiming to be a journalist without being registered with the Register commits the crime of unauthorized practice of a profession.

Unauthorized practice of a profession is a crime punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine ranging from 103 to 516 euros; often, the penalty is a multiple of the costs of the “legal case” to discourage breaking the law. (Wikipedia)

The duties of journalists, as specified in article 11 of the national collective agreement for journalists, follow a hierarchical order from lowest to highest:

• Editor with less than 30 months of professional experience;
• Editor with more than 30 months of professional experience
• Deputy Section Chief, expert editor (in editorial offices where the editorial organization provides for it)
• Section Chief, senior editor
• Deputy Editor-in-Chief
• Editor-in-Chief

Other roles should be added to this hierarchical structure, such as the editor-in-charge (at the time of registering the journalistic publication, this person must be specified and must, of course, be a journalist) whose powers are outlined in art. 6 of the journalist contract, as well as correspondents, reporters, contributors, etc.

The termeditorial office is also used only for journalistic publications.

Editorial office refers to the group of journalists who write for a newspaper, as well as the workplace where they operate. It consists of editors and is coordinated by the editor-in-chief who, in agreement with the editor-in-charge, implements the editorial policy decided by the publisher of the newspaper. (Wikipedia).

By law, the editorial structure must always be indicated. In daily newspapers, it is called management while in periodicals it is usually called colophon. It ranges from the person responsible for the publication from a journalistic point of view (editor-in-charge) to the address of the printer (provider in the case of online publications), including the publisher and journalists with the qualifications mentioned above.