Magazine staff roles and responsibilities in a nutshell:

All magazines have a publisher - both in the sense of the entity (organisation) that owns it and the person that manages it. With an independently published magazine this can be the same thing. In a large publishing organisation there will often be ‘group publishers’ who manage a number of different titles, typically organised in genres such as ‘lifestyle’, ‘motoring’, etc. (Above this level will be a publishing director or a board of directors - this is at the upper levels of the business, and it normally follows standard business management structure conventions.)

The publisher’s role is to:

1. manage the overall strategy of a magazine
   
2. Long-term direction
   
3. Big advertising deals (not the day-to-day ones)
   
4. Any large-scale economic considerations
   

They will not normally get involved in the day-to-day running of a magazine; that is done by the editor and the rest of the editorial team.

The structure of a magazine’s editorial structure will generally be something like this:

Editorial assistants

• Researching for others
  
• Writing smaller items
  
• Picture research
  
• Admin
  
• Milk and sugar in your tea?
  

Staff writers

• Ideas for stories, features and news
  
• Write large portions of a magazine
  

Section editors

• In charge of parts of the magazine
  
• May write content, may commission staff writers or contributors
  
• Liases with the design team for illustrations, photos, etc. for articles
  
• In conjunction with the editor, proofs and signs off pages as they go through production
  

Art editor

• Responsible for the look of the title and visual content of articles
  
• Art-directs most photo shoots
  
• Commissions photographers and illustrators
  

Designer/junior designer

• Tackles the normal design tasks; customising feature layouts, etc.
  
• Liases with photographers and illustrators
  
• May also do production work
  

Production editor

• Manages the production of layouts and final artwork
  
• In charge of the actual production of the artwork
  
• The voice of God when press day comes around: do NOT cross the production editor!
  
• Needs to be a multi-tasking detail meister and control freak
  

Sub-editors/production subs

• General layout production
  
• Proof-reading and copy-fitting
  
• Work with page templates and house styles
  

Editor

• Legally responsible for what gets printed
  
• May write a lot, may not (often determined by the size of the publication, which dictates the overall workload)
  
• Proofs and signs off pages as they go through production
  
• May have a deputy editor who helps share the load