The job has lost much of its importance due to technology that allows reporters to write and transmit articles from the field.
He, or in rare instances she, would take calls from reporters who quickly needed to relay information for a story.
[1] 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.
In this case, the reporter will put all the information and quotes gathered into a multipage file which is then given to the writer.
Time magazine also used to engage rewrite men almost exclusively, although it has all but abandoned the practice as of its 2008 redesign.