Editorial

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An editorial is a statement or article by a news organization (generally a newspaper) that expresses an opinion rather than attempting to simply report news, as the latter should ideally be done without bias. In the United Kingdom such articles are often referred to as leaders. Editorials are often not written by the regular reporters of the news organization, but are instead collectively authored by a group of individuals called the editorial board without bylines. If written by the board, they represent the newspaper's official positions on issues. Often however, there exist also one or more regular opinion columnists who present their own view. Editorials are almost always printed on their own page of the newspaper, and are always labeled as editorials (to avoid confusion with news coverage). They are often about current events or public controversies. Generally, editorials fall into four broad types: news, policy, social, and special.

Op-ed

An op-ed is a piece of writing, expressing an opinion. The name originated from the tradition of newspapers placing such materials on the page opposite to the editorial page. The term "op-ed" is from combining the words "opposite" and "editorial."

The editorial page contains editorials and the op-ed page contains opinion columns and sometimes cartoons:

Editorials are (usually short) opinion pieces, written by members of the editorial board of the paper. They reflect the stance of the paper and do not have bylines.
The opinions expressed on op-ed pages reflect those of the individual authors, not the paper. The articles have bylines and are usually written by individual free-lance writers or syndicated columnists. Sometimes editorial writers write signed columns for the op-ed page.

Most op-ed pieces take the form of an essay or thesis, using arguments to promote a point of view. Newspapers often publish op-ed pieces that are in line with their editorial slants, though dissenting opinions are often given space to promote balance and discussion.

"Op-ed" has become a general category to identify opinion from fact regardless of the medium. For example, Web pages containing opinion articles are labeled "op-ed," even though the original meaning is not relevant.

It has become popular in some circles to incorrectly expand the term "op-ed" as "opinion-editorial," a reasonable guess at the term's origin.

A prominent op-ed page is one of The New York Times, in which columnists such as Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, David Brooks, and William Safire are regarded as celebrities in the rest of the mainstream media.

Editorial

Op-ed

See also