News boss after party severely punished (8)
I believe the answer is:
thrashed
'severely punished' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'news boss after party' is the wordplay.
'news boss' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'party' becomes 'thrash' (thrash can informally mean a party).
'ed' after 'thrash' is 'THRASHED'.
(Other definitions for thrashed that I've seen before include "Beaten soundly" , "Beat violently" , "given whitewashing" , "severely punished" , "Beat soundly" .)