
What makes a great magazine editor? - samclemens
https://www.eurozine.com/makes-great-magazine-editor/
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GCA10
This is a very inward-looking article. All of its seven points add to the
conversation, but they seem overly focused on mechanics, rather than vision.

The best editors have a uniquely good understanding of readers' aspirations,
anxieties, interests, etc. Such editors are equivalent to startup CEOs who can
sense what a new product needs to be -- and how it will electrify the world.

Some editors communicate this very clearly, with maxims that everyone quotes.
Others make it come to life in opaque ways that are both brilliant and
frustrating. And OP is quite right that this is often a team exercise. But one
way or another, the best editors get the vision right. I've heard it said that
a successful magazine isn't just a collection of articles; it's a thrilling
club that invites the reader in, to become part of an almost-magical grouping
of like-minded people.

What's not covered -- but should be -- is the question of how long a visionary
can stay ahead of everyone else. The longest-serving editors often have a
period of decline near the end, when they become quite cranky and rule by
fear. Staff turnover becomes high. The old vision starts to feel stale or
brittle. People keep waiting for the boss to have another flash of inspiration
that will get it all on track again, but such hopes are satisfied only
intermittently, if at all.

It's hard to be brilliant. It's even harder to be brilliant for more than a
decade.

~~~
forapurpose
Thanks; it sounds like you have a lot of experience in the field. Where have
you written/edited, if you don't mind sharing? (Sorry if I'm the only one on
HN who doesn't know.)

~~~
GCA10
Perfectly reasonable question, sorry for having been opaque in the original
post.

Print or online magazines: Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg Businessweek on a
sustained basis.

Plus a little freelancing for Parade, Harvard Business Review, MIT Technology
Review, TheAtlantic.com, SmartMoney, Via, Readers Digest, Stanford alumni
magazine and,in the throes of book promotion, a couple of the airline flight
magazines.

~~~
forapurpose
Thanks. Always good to hear from people who actually know what they are
talking about!

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forapurpose
On a tangent: If you want to understand what Robert Silvers and the New York
Review of Books was/is about, and a compelling vision of what an intellectual
publication can be, read the posthumous tributes to him by the writers
(including some names you will recognize):

[http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/03/21/remembering-bob-
silv...](http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/03/21/remembering-bob-silvers/)

IMHO (very H), the London Review of Books attains that passionate vision while
its NY aunt strives for it.

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dredmorbius
Language note: What's with the use of "plurality" to indicate merely
_multiple_ or _many_?

That's usage I largely see in obfuscated patent filings, and which should be
avoided even there.

