Editor in Chief, Or Chiefly an Editor? - quotations from Editors in Chief of major magazines - Brief Article

These editors in chief tell how their jobs have morphed over the years to encompass different roles and expanded responsibilities.

Joe Oldham

Popular Mechanics

Until the early 1990s, my duties were relatively stable. I assigned articles to writers, planned issues, copy edited, wrote heads and decks, directed photo shoots, oversaw layouts, devised production systems. And yes, there were administrative duties--budgets, payment vouchers and the like.

A sea change swept the publishing industry, along with a raging recession, in the early nineties. It brought the concept of the magazine editor as celebrity. I would never consider myself a celebrity editor in the same way that a Tina Brown is a celebrity editor, but the change affected all of us. Now, in addition to the normal editor-in-chief stuff, I am also the primary spokesperson for my magazine--the "face" of the magazine--to trade media, the advertising community and the general news media. Now there are as many presentations to give as manuscripts to edit, as many marketing campaigns to nurture as vouchers to sign.

Yes, it's a lot busier and a lot more challenging, but even more fun. I just feel sorry for the editors in chief who are the shy, retiring types. There ain't no more shy and retiring on this job.

There is one thing that hasn't changed, though. My number-one function as editor in chief is still to keep everyone in the sandbox happy.

Susan Ungaro

Family Circle

Oh, what a difference six years makes! When I became editor in chief of Family Circle in 1994, American women had yet to embrace computers, the Internet or cell phones. Our readers wrote letters, not email; they talked about their PTO, not their IPO. My publishing world of the "Seven Sisters" [Family Circle, McCall's, Woman's Day, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Red book and Better Homes and Gardens] had few competitors.

Today, there are lots of what we call "little sisters" vying for our readers: Martha Stewart Living, First for Women, O and Real Simple, to name a few. To make sure women continue to read the best of the "big sisters," my job expanded from editing 17 issues a year to building and celebrating the powerful Family Circle brand. That's why we have grown our lifestyle publications from six titles to 20, created famllycicle.com and developed a new series of Family Circle Books with Doubleday.

Geoffrey Brewer

Sales & Marketing Management

No question, I am expected to be far more Web-savvy than I was even two years ago. Now I'm not just thinking about how a story works in print, but how we do enhanced, expanded versions on our site. More and more frequently I'm asked the simple question: What is your Web strategy? I'm also spending more time editing content that will appear exclusively online, and am even "appearing" online more often as the moderator of Web-based forums.

On another front, I'm becoming increasingly involved in the magazine's business side--not, however, in ways that compromise our editorial integrity. I'm asked more frequently to give feedback and input on the magazine's sales and marketing strategies and, as we face the challenges posed by a cluttered media marketplace, I'm becoming much more active in our circulation efforts, helping to craft messages that will bring in more readers. My title could be changed from editor in chief to chiefly an editor.

Myrna Blyth

Ladies' Home Journal, More

I have been an editor in chief for nearly 20 years, and although my readers have changed tremendously in the past decades, my job, in many ways, has not changed much at all.

I think the primary responsibility of an editor in chief is always to stay focused on the readers, identifying their evolving needs and attitudes and making sure the magazine is giving those readers what they want--sometimes even before they know they want it.

There are more magazines today than there have ever been, which makes the competition even fiercer. And since this is a world that is easily excited by the new, and often bored by the old, it has become more challenging than ever to run a magazine that has a tradition and a history. Since lam the editor in chief of one magazine that has been around for more than a century, as well as a vigorous start-up, I know that editors of magazines new or old worry about the same things.

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