1. Attract top talent

The first step is getting the right people on the bus. This all ties back to your brand or value proposition as an employer. Are you clear on why you’re a great place to work and who your ideal editorial team candidates would be?

Craft value messaging that will appeal to the creative team you’re seeking. Your guiding principles as an employer should flow from your overall organizational brand, mission, and vision while providing clarity to potential team members about your work environment. Clearly communicate to candidates your organizational values, what they can expect in working for you, and why they should consider it.

Be thoughtful and clear about aspects like career growth and how individuals can expect to be rewarded as they work for you. Make sure your compensation and benefits provide an attractive package. By providing clarity about your organization’s and publication’s mission, the people who resonate most with them can find you.

When you’re ready to start accepting candidate interest, tap into the best places to find editorial and writing talent—like the job boards of Mediabistro or the American Society of Magazine Editors. Ask for writing samples or a trial document that aligns with the type of content you’re creating.

Once you have the right team in place, perform a talent assessment of the team and each individual’s skills and strengths, then assign responsibilities and roles from that information. While there is a lot of crossover in the skill sets of writers, editors, proofreaders, and reviewers, it’s important to place people in roles where they shine and are doing work they love. If you find there are gaps in the skill set of your team, consider where you can find other help, like freelancers who can fill in. 

2. Keep your team engaged and high-functioning

The best teams can work like a well-oiled machine if given the right guidelines and tools to set them up for success. Make sure you’re providing your team with editorial and style guides to help them move in the same direction and stay consistent in their usage and tone. Online project management tools like Airtable and Asana can also provide groups with insight into overall projects, division of assignments, and progress on deadlines.

Make sure all team members are aware of your editorial process, content strategy, and calendar. Provide them with guidelines on the best ways to utilize new technology like artificial intelligence to help them work smarter while still maintaining creative and editorial integrity.

Since so much work is done in hybrid and remote work settings, it’s important to help your team stay connected with their colleagues. Find the right balance for your team and don’t forget to bring everyone together regularly to brainstorm and generate fresh ideas. In creative roles like writing and editing, it’s critical to foster a culture that provides a degree of editorial autonomy with strong collaboration.

3. Retain the best team

Make sure your editorial team members have ample opportunities to stay fresh and creative. Offer and publicize educational and career development opportunities. Provide them with stipends and even paid time off to take classes on the topics that most excite them. Provide mentoring programs so that team members can learn from each other, share tips, and bounce ideas off one another.

And don’t forget to continue to display the reasons why your association and your publication provide a great working situation for the team. Provide an atmosphere of collaboration, continual learning, innovation, and open feedback. Foster work-life balance and ways your team can stay engaged, fresh, and creative in both their work lives and their personal lives.

Simple perks like paid subscriptions to industry publications, paid research days, or “creative free days” can help your team feel great about the work they do and the organization they do it for.

Keeping your editorial team working like a well-oiled machine takes thoughtful planning and strategy, but the effort will pay off in a final product that reflects creative cohesion and your association’s mission and vision.