How to become Editor in 2024

Editor Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material. May review proposals and drafts for possible publication.

Editor is Also Know as

In different settings, Editor is titled as

  • Acquisitions Editor
  • Business Editor
  • Editor
  • Features Editor
  • Legal Editor
  • News Editor
  • Newspaper Copy Editor
  • Science Editor
  • Sports Editor
  • Web Editor

Education and Training of Editor

Editor is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Editor

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Editor

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Editor

Training Required for Editor

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Editor in different industries are

What Do Editor do?

  • Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.
  • Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
  • Allocate print space for story text, photos, and illustrations according to space parameters and copy significance, using knowledge of layout principles.
  • Plan the contents of publications according to the publication's style, editorial policy, and publishing requirements.
  • Verify facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.
  • Review and approve proofs submitted by composing room prior to publication production.
  • Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal.
  • Oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, computer typesetting, and printing, ensuring adherence to deadlines and budget requirements.
  • Confer with management and editorial staff members regarding placement and emphasis of developing news stories.
  • Assign topics, events and stories to individual writers or reporters for coverage.
  • Read, evaluate and edit manuscripts or other materials submitted for publication, and confer with authors regarding changes in content, style or organization, or publication.
  • Monitor news-gathering operations to ensure utilization of all news sources, such as press releases, telephone contacts, radio, television, wire services, and other reporters.
  • Meet frequently with artists, typesetters, layout personnel, marketing directors, and production managers to discuss projects and resolve problems.
  • Supervise and coordinate work of reporters and other editors.
  • Make manuscript acceptance or revision recommendations to the publisher.
  • Select local, state, national, and international news items received from wire services, based on assessment of items' significance and interest value.
  • Interview and hire writers and reporters or negotiate contracts, royalties, and payments for authors or freelancers.
  • Direct the policies and departments of newspapers, magazines and other publishing establishments.
  • Arrange for copyright permissions.
  • Read material to determine index items and arrange them alphabetically or topically, indicating page or chapter location.
  • Write text, such as stories, articles, editorials, or newsletters.

Qualities of Good Editor

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.

Tools Used by Editor

  • Desktop computers
  • Digital still cameras
  • Digital video cameras
  • Laptop computers
  • Multi-line telephone systems
  • Personal computers
  • Precision rulers
  • Teleconferencing equipment
  • Universal serial bus USB flash drives
  • Video editing equipment
  • Videoconferencing equipment

Technology Skills required for Editor

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe Captivate
  • Adobe Creative Cloud software
  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • Adobe FrameMaker
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InCopy
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • After the Deadline
  • Apple Final Cut Pro
  • Apple iWork Keynote
  • Apple macOS
  • AutoCrit Editing Wizard
  • Avid Technology Media Composer
  • Cascading style sheets CSS
  • CCI NewsGate
  • Drupal
  • Editor Software Stylewriter
  • Elite Minds RightWriter
  • Extensible hypertext markup language XHTML
  • Extensible markup language XML
  • Facebook
  • File transfer protocol FTP software
  • FileMaker Pro
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drive
  • Grammarly Editor
  • HP Autonomy TeamSite
  • Hypertext markup language HTML
  • InScribe
  • LexisNexis
  • LinkedIn
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Word
  • myWriterTools
  • Orpheus Technology Pro Writing Aid
  • Polycom RealPresence
  • QuarkXPress
  • Social media sites
  • Style guide databases
  • Twitter
  • Web browser software
  • Web content management system CMS software
  • WhiteSmoke
  • WordPress
  • YouTube