Editor In Chief Responsibilities

This article on 'editor in chief responsibilities' starts with explaining what editing means and who an editor is. After explaining these two parameters we will move on to the editor in chief duties and responsibilities. If you are looking at a lucrative editor in chief job because it fulfills your idea of having authority as well as challenge, I urge you to know the editor in chief responsibilities first, for they are not so easy as they look.

Editor in Chief Job Description

A person who handles the overall editing responsibilities in any mass media (print, Internet, television, etc.) is called an editor in chief. Editing is like quality control, where a check is made on the content (authenticity and relevancy to the topic), language (grammar and content flow) and aesthetics (photos, images, sound, audio and video) of the articles or documents appearing on the specified medium. An editor in chief is required to change, modify, paraphrase or condense the content in order to enhance its quality and approve or reject the piece based on preset grounds. The editor in chief job description also involves relationship building and communication with the author. The editor in chief is required to use his creative skills and human resource skills to handle two contradicting jobs - maintain a cordial relationship with the author whose article he is expected to tinker around with. Editor in chief job descriptions vary slightly depending on the type of editor, for example whether it is a technical editor, business editor, etc. The editor in chief pay packages also vary accordingly.

Editor in Chief Responsibilities and Duties

The general editor in chief responsibilities are listed below. These editor in chief responsibilities are the ones that make the editor in chief job such a highly paid one. Try them, they are not as light and easy as they look. It is especially bad when you are improving someone else's work, when you could be opening the same effort doing your own (and of course getting the author credits for it).

• Cross checking the facts, spellings, grammar, writing style, design pages, photos etc. is the final responsibility of an editor in chief. The article that comes to him for approval is generally one that has already gone through initial editing processes, but still, should something be wrong with it, the final accountability being that of an editor in chief, he is also required to go through it again.
• It is the responsibility of the editor in chief to reject a piece of writing that appears to be plagiarized or ghost written by another sub-editor. It is an editor in chief responsibility to check that a particular piece is neither self-plagiarized, nor has been published before elsewhere.
• An editor in chief is required to make light as well as heavy edits to the content in question. Light edits involve light editing work, i.e., work that does not require making substantial theme changes, structure changes and writing style changes. When all of these require some heavy attention, the editing is called heavy editing.
• An editor in chief may be required to contribute editorial pieces in the publication industry. He is also responsible for all the content that is approved for publishing and is often accountable for it, if he is working for any of the types of print media. The publication's standards of performance depends heavily on its editor in chief.
• An editor in chief is required to motivate and develop the staff under him on an occasional basis. Often, editor in chief responsibilities are seen to expend to the operational and strategic planning of the organization as well.
• If it is a magazine we are looking at, it is the editor in chief's responsibility to see that the issue is completely full of content and no area is left empty. They are also required to handle reader's complaints and explain and account for them.
• A book or journal editor in chief oversees all the stages of the book, from the manuscript form, all to the published book stage. He performs all the aforementioned editing tasks on the entire book.
• It is the editor in chief's responsibility to cross check all citations and examine all the references provided in the content.
• A technical editor in chief has the added responsibility to check the technical soundness and technical quality of the content. For this, he is required to have the technical skills in the related field or product. For technical editing, he should know how to use tools such as Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and DocBooks.
• Editor in chief responsibilities for business editing require skills of proofreading, copy editing, developmental editing, line editing and editing for search engine optimization.

If you wish to become an editor in chief, you will have to work really hard through all the sub editing stages. If you can do that, you can be assured of a good pay package when you reach the end of the ladder and become an editor in chief. It is a highly challenging job, made challenging by the varying quality of the writers, the differences in writing styles and the myriad subject topics. Just imagine the amount of knowledge you will have amassed, once you have held the editor in chief job for a certain amount of time. The best editor in chief responsibility in my opinion is the responsibility of gaining something from each piece that he edits. Good luck with your endeavor.