WordNet
Wikipedia
The rewrite man (rewrite person) is a newspaper reporter who works in the office, not on the street, taking information reported by others and crafting it into stories. It is rarely used as an actual title. The term rewrite man is something of a misnomer. Rewrite men or women do not just "rewrite"; they take notes gathered by on-the-scene-reporters, information gathered by telephone, or from wire services or clippings from other newspapers, and write articles.
Sometimes an entire front page, with bylines from several different reporters, will have actually been written by a single rewrite man working with an editor. The job has lost much of its importance due to technology that allows reporters to write and transmit articles from the field. In the pre-computer days of newspaper work, however, it was vital. At the most extreme example, reporters on deadline would telephone into the newsroom and dictate their notes to an editor - hence the movie cliché of reporters rushing to telephone booths and shouting "Get me rewrite!" into the phone.
Rewrite men are common at large national magazines, where reporters handle the reporting of the story while a writer takes the material and writes the actual article. In this case, the reporter will put all the information and quotes gathered into a multipage file which is then given to the writer. In cases of a story in several areas, several reporters will give their files to the writer. The article which is written has all of the information and observations by the reporter(s). People Magazine stories are written in this format with field reporters doing the reporting and New York based writers writing the pieces. Time magazine also used to engage rewrite men almost exclusively, although it has all but abandoned the practice as of its 2008 redesign.
Usage examples of "rewrite man".
Wynand filled in as city editor, managing editor, wire man, rewrite man, copy boy.
They want a top rewrite man, see, and I said I was entirely willing to come in and show 'em what I could do, so--well, I can handle it, all right.
All I know is that Duane was quiet, that he was a good rewrite man and that he worked cheap, which is a big plus at this slave labor camp.
The job was beautifully done, obviously by a rewrite man who knew his business and enjoyed it.
Now, he was a part-time rewrite man on one of the Los Angeles papers, and there was every indication that he was about to be severed from that position.
I can give it to you immediately if you want to put a rewrite man on the phone.
Ken looked up at Sandy while he waited for the rewrite man to get on the wire.
Out of the corner of my eyes I watched the one rewrite man still on duty thumb a little red book and shake his head.
This stuff has no doubt been dashed off by a rewrite man to give the item body, since it was an exclusive story, carried by none of the other newspapers.
After a year's unemployment, Billy Thorne had gone to work on the Tribune as a rewrite man.