Magazine Copy Editors: Average Workload?

redblackpen · **Posted:** Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:29 pm

As a long-time copy editor for a major magazine publisher, I am wondering about the "standard" or "average" workload for copy editors in that realm of publishing.

It seems to me that most magazine copy editors are responsible for one or, at most, two monthly titles or the equivalent thereof. If this true? If not, what is considered the "standard" or "average" workload? Importantly, how many pages (total and nonadvertising) are edited each month?

Your replies will, I hope, help a colleague and me be paid at least a semblance of what we're truly worth.

Nessie3 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:22 am

redblackpen wrote:

Your replies will, I hope, help a colleague and me be paid at least a semblance of what we're truly worth.

But didn't you just say you worked in publishing?

McGarry · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:14 am

I could be wrong, but I think most magazine copy editors are more like proofreaders, whereas newspaper copy editors do that work as well as substantial content editing.

Nessie3 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:24 am

McGarry wrote:

I could be wrong, but I think most magazine copy editors are more like proofreaders, whereas newspaper copy editors do that work as well as substantial content editing.

That has flamebait written all over it.

egable · **Joined:** Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:24 am **Posts:** 310

McGarry wrote:

I could be wrong, but I think most magazine copy editors are more like proofreaders, whereas newspaper copy editors do that work as well as substantial content editing.

I thought magazine copy editors did far more extensive fact-checking than newspaper copy editors usually (have time to) do, but I don't really have anything to base that on. Anybody?

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:27 am

My magazines (two, about to become three) don't have anyone working strictly as a copy editor or proofreader. All five editors perform these functions. All also do varying amounts of writing and assigning.

One magazine is published six times a year; the others are published four times a year. It's a world apart from newspapering.

The fact-checking and proofreading, from cover to cover, are far more extensive than possible at any daily newspaper or even a weekly magazine, I imagine.

Every story gets an edit from at least one and usually three editors other than the assigning editor, who begins the fact-checking and writes the display type. The second editor offers an alternative headline.

Heartodixie · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:29 pm

I worked at a couple of trade magazine publishers that put out two publications each. Both were bimonthly, so it was one title a month with a workflow similar to what Wayne describes. Pay was low but better than some newspapers for my job and experience. About $250 a week at the first one (the early 90s in a dying Rust Belt town with no college degree); salary of $35K (to dodge unlimited OT) for the second one (about eight years ago, still no college degree, Southern California).

As to the proofreading crack, magazines, especially ones that rely on contributed, non-staff-produced material, are edited extensively. The first pair I worked at was for engineers and technology buyers, so the editors had quite a lot of rewriting to do.

McGarry · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:12 pm

My comment on proofreading was not meant as a crack. Perhaps I was misinformed by several acquaintances who work on the staffs of national magazines. It did seem to explain why magazine copy editors at national magazines in Manhattan were making 25K a year.

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:41 pm

Going back to the original question, I don't know that there is any "standard" or "average" workload; I would think that would have to be dependent on the size of the magazine and the number of copy eds.

We're weekly, so what I might consider average for me isn't necessarily going to extrapolate. And an average would be misleading anyway, since I might have six pages one week and 16 the next. It's always different and depends on whether we're fully staffed or missing people, the total pages for the week, how long the cover package is, how many times the proprietor rewrites his editorial...

(We no longer have proofreaders and we do it ourselves, but we do have fact checkers. And I'll check things myself when I think there's a reason to. There are several layers of editors above us, so for the most part we don't get into substantive editing, although I never hesitate to flag and pursue anything I see as problematic.)

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:44 am

McGarry wrote:

My comment on proofreading was not meant as a crack. Perhaps I was misinformed by several acquaintances who work on the staffs of national magazines. It did seem to explain why magazine copy editors at national magazines in Manhattan were making 25K a year.

Name names, please. I gave up getting out of bed for that sort of expense/income balance when I was 16.

Tom Berger · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:56 am

I work in NYC for a magazine that comes out 11 times a year (10 regular issues and one supplement). We usually have 60ish edit pages. I also copyedit items for the website. We have full-time researchers and, when getting an issue out, a freelance copy editor. For each story, we usually have three copy reads, two research reads, and a couple of rounds with the story's editor (not in that order, of course; each story goes back and forth between the various editors and the art people).

Maybe at some magazines the copy editor is more like a proofreader, but here we make or suggest some substantive changes.

infomaniac · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:35 pm

I've worked as a copyeditor and copy chief for both trade and newsstand mags for many years, and I agree with SusanV's comment.

SusanV wrote:

Going back to the original question, I don't know that there is any "standard" or "average" workload; I would think that would have to be dependent on the size of the magazine and the number of copy eds.

I've also found that your boss's level of ineptness/neurosis has a significant impact on your workload. I was copy chief for a business magazine that was extremely successful before the dotcom bubble burst. That magazine's ME had virtually no publishing experience of any kind (I kid you not). To make matters worse, he had OCD to beat the band. As a result, he insisted that two people proof the same version of each story simultaneously. And then he would review both versions and decide which changes he would accept. (Did I also mention that this guy was a control freak who had the habit of re-copyediting your work to his liking? But I digress. . . .)

The magazine I speak of came out monthly and could easily run more than 400 pages an issue, so working well past midnight was not at all unusual. Talk about a nightmare job!

One final comment to the original poster: Judging from the wording of your question, I sincerely and seriously urge you to consider brushing up on your grammatical skills before attempting to determine your worth as a copyeditor.

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