Ed, reformed chap adopting son (7)
I believe the answer is:
newsman
'ed' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'reformed chap adopting son' is the wordplay.
'reformed' becomes 'new' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'chap' becomes 'man' (chap can mean a man).
'adopting' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are taken on or adopted).
'son' becomes 's' (genealogical abbreviation for son).
'new'+'man'='newman'
'newman' placed around 's' is 'NEWSMAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for newsman that I've seen before include "who sells rags" , "Journalist" , "Press person" , "Reporter" , "he reports" .)