An editorial, leading article (US) or leader (UK), is an often-unsigned opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document. Editorials may be supposed to reflect the opinion of the periodical. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe, often classify editorials under the heading "opinion".
Illustrated editorials may appear in the form of editorial cartoons.
Typically, a newspaper's editorial board evaluates which issues are important for their readership to know the newspaper's opinion.
Editorials are typically published on a dedicated page, called the editorial page, which often features letters to the editor from members of the public; the page opposite this page is called the op-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces by writers not directly affiliated with the publication. However, a newspaper may choose to publish an editorial on the front page. In the English-language press this occurs rarely and only on topics considered especially important; it is more common, however, in some European countries such as Spain, Italy, and France.
In the field of fashion publishing, the term has been adapted to refer to photo-editorials – features with often full-page photographs on a particular theme, designer, model or other single topic, with or (as in a photo-essay) without accompanying text.