Coordinating a team of writers and editors numbering between 30 and 100 people can be made easier with a consistent process. The goal is to produce and approve excellent content at a rate of four articles per hour.

 

As a Lead Editor, you will have primary publishing responsibilities for all content. Once you have logged into the Blog or BORGEN Magazine, articles will arrive into the ‘Edit Complete’ folder with optimized SEO and a first-round grammar and style check completed by an intern editor. Below the body of the article will be a Fact Check file, detailing the writer’s sources and providing links.

You must ensure the following:

  1. First-round editors have made appropriate changes. Use the ‘Revisions’ function in the rightmost menu of a post to view all changes.
  2. Basic facts are correct, particularly figures and anything that you find odd, confusing or inconsistent.
  3. Hyperlinks taken from the Fact Check are added in relevant paragraphs, keeping links to two or three words and only adding a single link for each unique source.
  4. Language is simple and concise. Try to declutter sentences and combine similar ideas to make more salient points.

Once you are happy that the article is fit for publication, go ahead and schedule it for 1.30am on the next day that requires content. Articles in ‘Scheduled’ will reflect a daily publication goal, which is normally four for both the Blog and BORGEN Magazine.

For each article, the original writer and the first-round editor can benefit from a description of the changes you made to the article. Intern editors will send their feedback to the Editors’ Inbox, and you can respond directly to these emails with some brief comments, any suggestions for the future, and a word of thanks. The same goes for the writer, who should have the first-round feedback included in your message. All writers’ addresses can be found by searching the emails.

Here’s an example:

Hi Amy – thanks for this article. It was published on the magazine website this morning after two rounds of editing. Here are a few notes from the first round editor:

First round comments

The only other significant changes I made were to tidy up the language a bit to contain the same ideas in fewer words. Take a look at the final piece and see if you notice the little differences in how it flows. Thanks for your good work.

All the best,

Once an article is scheduled and signed off, add a note in the News Team & Assignment Desk with the publication date. If there are serious issues that you are unable to resolve and which require discussion with a manager, save them as ‘Not Ready’ and add an editorial comment below the Fact Check.