Editorial committees are, among other things, responsible for picking content.
Many newspapers and journals of all stripes have editorial committees, sometimes called editorial boards. These are groups with a useful expertise in the field in which the publication they preside over writes, and they offer guidance and direction for the publication. Ideally, the editorial committee should represent a broad cross section of the publication's readership, so as to bring a diversity of ideas to its numerous responsibilities.
Content Selection
Editorial committees select the content that will appear in a given volume of their publications. As such, in addition to having a responsibility to make sure their choices represent a variety of content within the journal's field, they are also ultimately responsible for what is published. If an article is exposed to be fraudulent or plagiarized, the readership will look to members of the editorial committee to rectify the problem.
Theming and Direction
The editorial committee also picks the direction and themes of the journal. Because they are experts in the field in which their journal publishes, members of the board should make productive and fruitful decisions on what focus would be most beneficial to the field, their readership and, stemming from the previous two, the journal's bottom line. The concern for attaining both professional excellence and economic success is important not just for the editorial committee's job security. No matter how great or useful a journal is, it is of no help to anyone if it goes out of business.
Editorials
Most newspapers have editorial pages featuring opinion editorials (op-eds) from regular columnists and guest writers whose work bears the name of its author. There are also opinion pieces produced that bear no name and are produced by the editorial committee as a whole. These act as the editorial committee's direct line of communication with its readers, expressing an opinion distinctly separate from the rest of the newspaper's objective news articles. These can be endorsements of a candidate for political office, support or opposition to a policy or proposed piece of legislation, or an opportunity to explain some decision taken by the editorial board itself.
