Duties and responsibilities
A magazine features editor is responsible for overseeing the content and quality of magazine publications. They ensure that the content published in a magazine is topical, interesting and informative. Their typical duties and responsibilities include:
- Planning magazine publication content and generating ideas
- Selecting article for issue
- Meeting with writers and designers to discuss and plan the features section of the magazine
- Setting deadlines for writers and other staff
- Reading, writing and researching features and articles
- Rewriting, editing and proofreading copy to ensure it is ready to be published
Qualifications
Ideally, magazine feature editors will have a bachelors degree in English, journalism or communications.
Skills and relevant work experience
A magazine features editor is not an entry-level role. Features editors will need to have gathered work experience in lower level roles first. As well as this, magazine feature editors will need skills such as:
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- Interpersonal skills, as magazine feature editors will need to work closely with writers and build relations with them
- Leadership skills, as magazine feature editors are responsible for leading teams of writers and they must be able to delegate tasks and organize people
- Writing skills, as magazine feature editors must proof read content and must be able to notice spelling, punctual and grammatical errors
- Creativity, as features editors will need to come up with creative content ideas
Hours
Magazine feature editors tend to work full time hours. When deadlines are approaching, they may have to work extra hours, including evenings and weekends. As a whole, editing can be quite a stressful career where lots of overtime is required.
Salary
According to Zippia, the average annual salary for a web editor in the United States is $58,704. At the lower end, the bottom 10% make around $37,000 per year, whereas at the higher end the top 10% make over $91,000 per year.
Progression
Magazine feature editors often progress up from writing or assistant editing positions. After they reach an editorial role, they can progress further to become a senior editor. In this position, they will have the responsibility of instructing a team of other editors and writers.