Editor
Editor
Career Overview
Editors review, shape, fact-check, and improve written content for books, websites, news organizations, businesses, government, education, entertainment, and other digital media. Today's editors may work with writers, video teams, content creators, and AI tools, but human judgment remains important for accuracy, tone, context, originality, and knowing what information should or should not be published.
Education
A bachelor's degree in English, journalism, communications, publishing, or a related field is usually required, and employers often look for several years of experience in writing, journalism, publishing, or a specialized subject. Strong editing skills can also be developed through student publications, internships, freelance work, and building a portfolio of edited or original content.
Work Environment
Editors work in publishing, media, education, government, business, entertainment, and many other industries, and many work remotely or freelance. The work is increasingly digital, with editors using content-management systems, collaboration platforms, analytics, AI-assisted editing tools, and other technology to manage and improve content.
Future Outlook
There will continue to be opportunities for editors, but the job is changing quickly as traditional newspapers and magazines shrink while digital publishing, online content, specialized media, and other industries create new opportunities. AI can help with tasks such as proofreading, formatting, and first-pass editing, but editors are still needed to check facts, understand audiences, make judgment calls, and ensure content is accurate, useful, and trustworthy.
Recommended High School Courses
- Business
- Communication
- English
- Computer Studies
- Digital Media
- Media Studies
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Quality Control Analysis - Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- 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).
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- 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.
- 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 there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- 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.
- 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.
- Edit written materials.
- Verify accuracy of data.
- Determine presentation subjects or content.
- Coordinate activities of production personnel.
- Write informational material.
- Manage content of broadcasts or presentations.
- Design layouts for print publications.
- Discuss production content and progress with others.
- Manage operations of artistic or entertainment departments or organizations.
- Coordinate reporting or editing activities.
- Obtain copyrights or other legal permissions.
- Audition or interview potential performers or staff members.
- Negotiate for services.
- Select staff, team members, or performers.
Schools
American University
Boston University
Brown University
New York University
Northeastern University
Northwestern University-...
Pomona College
Syracuse University
University Of Georgia
University Of Miami
University Of Michigan- A...
University Of North Carol...
University Of Pennsylvani...
University Of Southern Ca...
University Of Texas- Aust...
University Of Wisconsin-...
Wake Forest University
Carleton University
King's University Coll...
Lakehead University- O...
Royal Roads University
Thompson Rivers Univer...
Trent University- Pete...
University Of Guelph
University Of Ottawa
University Of The Fras...
University Of Toronto-...
University Of Winnipeg
Wilfred Laurier Univer...
Toronto Metropolitan Univ...
York University- Glendon...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$41,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$78,000.00 /yr
High End:
$154,000.00 /yr
Related Careers
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.