Be an Editor-in-Chief

Blogs are a great way of communicating ideas. Just like newspapers, magazines educate the reader, blogs too make them wiser. So why does a newspaper or a magazine has an editor in chief & blog doesn’t. Answer is simple. Newspapers and magazines are commercial initiatives while blog is a personal venture.

Why do you need an Editor-in-chief? Since blogs are most often personal ventures, bloggers think like a common journalist & not like an editor in chief. They focus on writing an article/post at hand & ways to improve it but tend to forget the bigger picture. They forget that they themselves are the journalist & also an editor in chief.

Who is an Editor-in-chief? He/She is basically a person who controls & is responsible for an entire publication. He/She takes care of all things right from market research, design & layout, editing articles to the long term strategy for advancement of his/her publication.

What’s the job of an Editor-in-chief? His job is to define the role of publication, its goals and the ways to achieve them in a step-wise manner. He thinks about the commercial value of his publication & searches means or ways to increase/optimize it. Managing the legal aspects of a publication are one of his most part of his job.

Advantages of being an Editor-in-chief? It helps in giving your blog a professional identity & the much needed direction. In other words it helps in building an image. Advertisers look upon your blog as well oriented unit rather than fragmented piece of information. Even the not for profit blogs benefit due to increased readership on account of the consistency & increased personal satisfaction.

How to become an editor-in-chief? Its a learning curve. No blogger is capable of functioning like an editor in chief from day one unless he is one. But what one can do is start thinking like an editor in chief. Observing them closely by keeping an eye on some good publications for a period of time gives you an idea. How a popular publication positions itself, carves its own niche, manages to attract readers & maintains its own position is worth pondering.

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