“News is what happens to an editor” is a journalism adage of unknown authorship. What an editor finds interesting becomes the news—at least where that editor works.
 
“There’s a saying in this business that news is what happens to an editor” was written by Joyce Purnick in the New York (NY) Times on December 4, 2003.
 
 
4 December 2003, New York (NY) Times, “Metro Matters: Just a Few Miles, And Hours, From Home” by Joyce Purnick, pg. B1, col. 1:
THERE’S a saying in this business that news is what happens to an editor. Well, why not?
 
Twitter
Matthew Chayes
‏@chayesmatthew
@hunterw @BuzzFeedAndrew @TMannWSJ a vet once said: news is what happens to an editor on the way home. big news is what happens to his wife.
8:14 AM - 11 Jan 2014
 
Indianapolis (IN) Monthly
Editor’s Note, February 2015: Guns
February 2, 2015 Amanda Heckert
There’s a saying that news is what happens to an editor on the way to work. But our feature on gun violence (“Under the Gun”) was already underway when one of the editors overseeing the story, Evan West, encountered the issue firsthand.
 
Twitter
Ryan J. Rusak
‏@rjrusak
And as reporters know, news is what happens to an editor. OK, rant done. #halloffame
10:26 AM - 8 Aug 2015
   
ProPublica
In Wells Fargo Case, News Really Did Happen To An Editor
How ProPublica’s top editor failed to recognize that his personal experience with a mysterious bank fee was part of a much, much larger story.
by Stephen Engelberg
ProPublica, Sep. 29, 2016, 10:10 a.m.
(...)
There’s an old saying in the journalism business for this sort of thinking: News is what happens to an editor.
 
As with so many newsroom aphorisms, it’s meant to be proclaimed with an eye roll and a tone of deep sarcasm. Reporters view editor-generated stories as the bane of their existence, and not without reason. Random events and pet peeves are not often a great starting point for serious stories.