Chief editor

A chief editor (regardless of the specifics of published production) is a person who runs a publishing house and coordinates the work of journalists, correspondents, printers, copywriters, makeup specialists, correctors, and designers, guarantees the timely publication of  high quality topical content.

Chief editor is responsible for all aspects of the publishing house’s work, and must be able to work with several important tasks simultaneously. Not knowing at least one of the aspects of the publishing business can seriously impact the quality of published materials. Therefore, a competent and skilled chief editor is a key to a publishing house’s success.

Responsibilities

  1. First of all, chief editor defines the overall conception of the publishing house’s activity and development. It means that a chief editor determines which materials will appear in print/on the Web, general subjects which the publishing house will be working with, and establishes the means of these materials’ presentation.For example, articles in a weekly periodical dedicated to paranormal activity can be written in a sceptical and mocking way; although each of these articles can be written by different authors, the manner in which they are written, as well as the approval of topics, is the chief editor’s choice.
  2. Chief editor manages the work of all structural departments (and, respectively, the workers) of his/her publishing house. This includes:
    • hiring and firing the employees
    • supervising deputy chief editors’ work
    • coordinating the interactions between departments
    • taking part in the meetings of the Editorial Boards and implementing their decisions
    • planning and organizing all kinds of marketing and advertising activities
    • preparing materials for publishing in print or on Web

    and many other management functions including the decision about a publishing house’s shutdown.

  3. Chief editor can write and edit articles personally. For example, it is not seldom when each issue of a big periodical is introduced with a brief article by its chief editorChief editor can write articles dedicated to the most important and/or topical events, and edit such articles written by other authors of a publishing house.

    Controlling the observance of legal norms and writing reports about the publishing house’s work is also a part of chief editor’s responsibilities.

Requirements

To become a chief editor one needs to meet the following requirements:

  • have an appropriate higher education – usually it is a faculty of journalism and/or publishing and editing faculty
  • being able to speak at least one foreign language
  • be knowledgeable in the principles of work of various Web-technologies
  • know how to work with the websites’ content
  • know the order of preparing materials for print
  • keeping track on the contemporary publishing technologies (this is where a foreign language can become handy: to monitor foreign publishing trends)
  • have experience working in leadership position.
  • literacy and advanced skills of writing and editing are a must.

Besides, a chief editor should be proficient in subjects his/her publishing house works with.

Chief editor