Who is a features editor

For celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter. United States. Type keyword s to search. Features editors work in the print. They are responsible for assigning stories to reporters and for generating ideas for features.

Some features editors work their way up to the position by first working as reporters or copy editors. As the number of editorial positions in the print industry decline, many print editors are now finding work in the online world. The main function of a features editor is to help guide feature length pieces, which generally run between and 2, words, from inception to publication. These stories may run in the publication's feature sections, which may be labeled Family, Style or Arts and Entertainment.

This editor is likely to be responsible for responding to freelance pitches. Because this person is not technically a staff member, he's typically not in a position to accept your query.

This editor is in charge of one specific magazine department or sometimes of a recurring section or column, especially in larger publications. She might be able to respond to pitches if they're targeted to her particular niche.

This is the person in charge of the daily operations of the publication. The managing editor is likely to accept and deal with queries and pitches at some publications. Those in this position are not appropriate editors to query, although an exception might exist in smaller publications such as local magazines or newspapers. These executive editors or editors-in-chief are more likely to be involved with the day-to-day editorial content of the publication.

Some of these editorial positions can be filled by more than one person. It's not unusual for larger publications to employ more than one department editor. When this is the case, try to narrow your efforts down to the one who commonly handles material such as yours. Even if your guess isn't quite correct, she might direct you to the proper party if she likes and has an affinity for your work.

Make use of social media. Do some research. Go to the publishers' pages to get up-to-date info on the latest goings-on and staff changes there.

It generally costs more money and takes a lot more time for publishers and magazines to update their websites and often the first trickle of this type of information can be found on Twitter or Facebook. Don't send your work to multiple publications at the same time, and most definitely do not send it to more than one editor in-house because you're not exactly sure who to query.

You're effectively saying that you don't have much confidence either in your work or in the recipient if word gets out that she's not the only one who's received your pitch.

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