The rewrite man is a newspaper reporter who works in the office, not on the street. The term rewrite man is something of a misnomer. Some are women, of course, but rewrite men do not really "rewrite". They take notes gathered by on-the-scene-reporters, add information gathered by telephone or from wire servicess or clippings from other newspapers, and create articles from all these sources.
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.
See Chicago's American for an example of how rewrite men work.
