editorial

thumb|Editorial from a 1921 issue of Photoplay recommending that readers not watch a film, [[Heedless Moths, which featured nude scenes]] thumb|Francis Pharcellus Church, author of the famous 1897 The Sun editorial which contains the line "[[Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"]] An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about a particular topic or issue. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe, often classify editorials under the heading "opinion".

==Characteristics== An editorial uses arguments, and statements of fact and common sense, in order to advance a certain point of view (e.g. praise, criticism, apologia or advocacy) held by its publication. Editorials generally have an introduction that introduces the argument, a body that expands upon it and a conclusion that proposes a way to address the issue being discussed. An editorial differs from a column, which represents its author's opinion. Because editorials do not express their individual authors' opinions they are often written in the first-person plural (in which instance the word is known as the ), though they are sometimes written in the first-person singular .