Crossword Genius

Editor intervened in recycling staple basis for column (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

pedestal

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'for column' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'editor intervened in recycling staple basis' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'editor' could be 'ed' (abbreviation) and 'ed' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'staple' is 'pestal' which is present in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pedestal that I've seen before include "Statue's base" , "Those worshipped are put on one" , "Supporting column of a washbasin" , "Stand for statue or basin" , "Base (for statue, etc)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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