Reader questions answered

Via email:

“As Alt-weeklies are moving towards the web, what do job descriptions for editorial-side web editors look like? Web editor being different from IT guy or webmaster/ programmer but an actual editorial role?”

Good question!

What is a web editor?

In the broadest terms, a web editor is responsible, just like a section editor, for the content of an alt’s website.

The key difference between an IT person/webmaster and a web editor is journalistic decision making. A web editor might perform production-related tasks, such as resizing and cropping images, but they should also take on a number of editorial roles.

What does a web editor do?

The boundaries of responsibility between print and web editors vary from institution to institution, but the duties of a web editor might include:

• Uploading stories to the website, or overseeing the folks who do
• Making decisions about the play of content on the site - what stories are given prominence on the homepage or section fronts (Ideally, these decisions are made independent of where stories are printed in the traditional print sections)
• Being a part of redesign teams and new product launches
• Monitoring and moderating comment forums and other user-generated content
• Working with writers, designers, and photographers to create web content, which could range from additional stories and photo galleries to video features
• Being a resource for best-practices web content, helping editorial staffs to learn new skills
• Making “in the heat of the moment” editorial decisions, such as when advertisers demand stories be removed from the site, or writers want to fix a mistake without adding an editors’ note.
  

  How should you handle making corrections to content that’s published online? Check our Editorial Policy.

• Planning, assigning, and editing web content
• Monitoring traffic stats (metrics) to give editorial folks insight into their web reading audience

What skills should a web editor have?

Ideally, a web editor should be comfortable with the web. Experience with blogs, social networking (MySpace, Facebook), popular web applications and a general knowledge of web users’ behavior are all desired, as well as a working knowledge of basic HTML, Photoshop, and content management systems (CMS). A strong sense of journalism ethics and the ability to think critically about emerging technologies are especially valuable.

But the great news is that anyone who is dedicated and hard working can pick this stuff up rather fast.

How can a new web editor improve their skills?

• Read! - this blog and others devoted to online journalism are great places to start - check our links section for recommended reading.
• Network! - Attend as many learning opportunities as possible, and be sure to stay in touch with your new friends so you can pick their brains.
• Experiment! - Teach yourself new technologies in trial batches. Whenever I stumble on a new technology or website, it stays top-of-mind until I find some way to use it. The more you engage with websites and their functionality, the more you will learn, and the more ideas you can steal.
• Watch! - Be a ‘trend sponge’ - pay attention to media trends that work, and think critically about how they can be altered to help your website.

  and of course …

• Question! - Ask lots and lots of questions - of each other via listservs, and emails, and certainly of web.aan.org!

A good read: Further Notes on the New Journalism Skillset

Have anything to add?

What is the role of web editor at your paper?