Editor and writer beginning to recognise their paying customer? (10)
I believe the answer is:
subscriber
'paying customer?' is the definition.
(someone paying for a service)
'editor and writer beginning to recognise' is the wordplay.
'editor' becomes 'sub' (short for subeditor).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'writer' becomes 'scribe' (scribe is a kind of writer).
'beginning to' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'recognise' is 'r'.
'sub'+'scribe'+'r'='SUBSCRIBER'
'their' is the link.
This may not be right. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
(Other definitions for subscriber that I've seen before include "One on the telephone" , "paid-up customer?" , "One showing approval of idea" , "underwriter?" .)