Today's editorial challenges seem to require editors to be miracle workers.

By Howard Rauch

Striving to improve our publications despite today's editorial challenges was my focus in Part I. In it I presented five ideas for doing more with less:

--Doing a better job of raising our prestige flag.

--Creating an editorial portfolio that livens up marketing presentations.

--Asking yourself why someone should want to work for you.

--Offering the highest possible e-news enterprise delivery.

--Sponsoring in-house editorial expertise competition.

With the weight on our shoulders for editorial improvement, it behooves us to reflect upon our own roles as editors and managers. Throughout the management upheaval in our evolving business, a never-ending reality that confronts us is our ability to fulfill multiple roles.

The list of hats that editors are expected to wear is quite long. In a sense we are asked to be miracle workers. If you agree, how are you making out? What follows is an exercise that may reflect possible need for improvement.

Take the Test

For each of the roles in this list, rate your performance on a scale of 1 to 10. If your total score is less than 85, you may want to review the roles where you can improve your rating and consider how you can do so.

Rate your miracle worker status:

Magician: Constantly delivers top-quality content despite being frequently saddled with a restricted budget.

Assassin: Candidly assesses editorial strength/weakness versus the competition, then provides evaluation results to the marketing group.

Marketing Wizard: Periodically recommends projects/supplements that offer solid ad potential for marketing purposes.

Technology Expert: Rarely baffled by computer and website glitches.

Graphics Guru: Conjures up snazzy layout ideas. Also battles proposed designs that are esthetically interesting but less than reader friendly.

Show-Business Pro: Always a star performer before audiences and constantly in demand as a speaker.

Teacher: Personally involved in training and providing feedback to staff members. Embraces reality of training as a never-ending task.

Industry Maven/Statistician: Data-adept in terms of creating, interpreting, and publishing surveys that address groundbreaking issues.

Customer Service Specialist: Adheres to a written policy describing optional ways to resolve editorial complaints.

Visible Editorial Contributor: This role is especially critical for editors-in-chief. If your contribution per issue rarely goes beyond an editorial column, you are falling short. Maximum score on this factor is possible only for editorial managers who consistently byline timely features.

Now add up your ratings.

How did you score?

If you find this exercise useful, my book for B2B editors, Get Serious About Editorial Management, includes six other self-scoring profiles covering field-editor presence, complaint handling, feature writing, avoiding job burnout, trade show coverage, and maintaining a strong marketing arsenal.

Howard Rauch is president of Editorial Solutions, Inc., a B2B consultation provider launched in 1989. His specialties are e-news delivery, competitive analysis, and editorial performance measurement. Howard is recipient of ASBPE's Lifetime Achievement Award and spent two terms as chairman of the group's ethics committee.

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