WHAT DOES AN EDITORIAL ASSISTANT DO?
Updated: Mai 29, 2025 - The Editorial Assistant collaborates with a small team to produce exhibition catalogs and other printed materials, handling tasks such as sourcing artwork, organizing image files, and coordinating new photography shoots. Responsibilities include obtaining image rights, drafting captions, fact-checking, and assisting with research for essays and texts. Additionally, the role involves managing department inventory, tracking incoming and outgoing packages, and overseeing accounting tasks such as expense reports and invoice processing.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Editorial Assistant
1. Editorial Assistant Duties
- CMS Operations: Responsible for working within proprietary content management systems, and with Writers, Editors, and Senior Writers.
- Content Finalization: Prepare and finalize all of content ensuring that it’s ready to be published.
- Editorial Process Improvement: Responsible for continual process improvement by helping with special projects and other assigned editorial tasks.
- Content Readiness: Responsible for ensuring that newsletters and social content are ready for publishing and distribution.
- Collaborative Understanding: Work with all members of the Publications team to understand each aspect of the content being published.
- Systems Proficiency: Gain an understanding of each of content management systems and the way Publications utilizes them to publish content.
- Editorial Planning: Work with the Operations Lead to identify editorial tasks and set up a plan for prioritizing each task.
- Content Setup: Prepare final content in each of content management systems.
- Email Marketing Systems: Gain an understanding of email marketing systems and how we utilize them.
- Process Enhancement: Work with Lead Editors and Engineers to identify and make basic improvements to the content publishing process.
- Tech Advancement: Stay on the cutting-edge of content management system technologies and integrate that knowledge into workflows.
- Objective Identification: Identify key objectives and results in order to help improve overall content management processes.
- Team Efficiency: Support a full-fledged Publications team, consistently working to improve systems and workflows so that we can scale and grow efficiently.
2. Editorial Assistant Details
- Journal Commissioning: Supporting commissioning activities geared towards driving submissions to journals.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitoring and tracking the success of commissioning activities and providing regular reporting and feedback on the status of invitations.
- Strategic Research Assistance: Assisting in performing research and analysis in support of strategic commissioning objectives.
- Editorial Scheduling: Monitoring the editorial schedule and details of the publication of regular articles as well as planned special topics, special issues, and special articles.
- Marketing Coordination: Coordinating editorial input for marketing efforts that will ensure increased journal usage, visibility, and authorship.
- Publishing Liaison: Liaising with Editors, Authors, and Reviewers for publishing operations.
- Information Management: Working with internal business units to maintain the most current information for journal titles for online display and print product.
- Presentation Preparation: Assisting in preparing presentations, reports on journal metrics, and other supporting documents for conferences and editorial board meetings.
- Web Production: Daily web production of text and multimedia content on multiple publishing platforms.
- Content Promotion: Promoting Breakingviews through social media, email newsletters, and other means.
- Project Oversight: Overseeing special projects and multimedia, including podcasts, videos, graphics, and e-books.
- Event Organization: Organizing regular editorial events, including dinner-debates and panel discussions.
- Contact Management: Maintaining and growing lists of VIPs, customers, and editorial contacts.
- Editorial Support: Supporting Breakingviews editors with administrative, travel, and other assistance.
3. Editorial Assistant Responsibilities
- Administrative Coordination: Providing administrative support to senior staff in all aspects of the creation and management of the monthly Early Childhood, Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Grade Book Clubs, as well as a variety of Special Offers.
- Database Management: Entering and maintaining all title information in various databases.
- Information Update: Updating list changes to communicate to staff in various departments.
- Financial Reporting: Running P&L reports for potential acquisitions.
- Deal Documentation: Creating deal memos for acquired titles.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborating with the design team, marketing, and copywriters to assist in the creation of print catalogs, and with the online team for additional merchandising opportunities.
- Content Review: Reviewing Scholastic Trade titles and material from outside publishers and packagers for possible inclusion in Club offers.
- Market Research: Keeping abreast of trends in publishing, popular culture, and the Early Childhood through Early Elementary curriculum.
- Product Development: Brainstorming with the Product Development group to concept and develop new and exclusive items for Clubs.
- Translation: Translating nytimes.com articles from English to Chinese.
- Editorial Assistance: Assisting senior editors to copyedit, produce, and publish articles.
- News Management: Assisting editors to handle breaking news and other related projects.
- Social Media Promotion: Promoting content on social media platforms.
- Story Translation: Translating morning briefing and other stories.
4. Editorial Assistant Job Summary
- Editorial Support: Supporting the Manager of Developmental Editing and in-house/freelance editors with the operation of all publications and/or assigned projects.
- Project Execution: Providing project and content-development support and executing a variety of projects for the editorial team.
- Editorial Tasks: Performing editorial tasks such as checking typeset proofs (i.e., light proofreading), light copy editing, reviewing manuscripts to identify punctuation and grammatical errors, verifying facts, and fixing references and citations in manuscripts, tagging and preparing electronic manuscripts for typesetting.
- Permissions Research: Researching and obtaining permissions for figures and tables.
- Online Content Review: Reviewing and proofing online content against final and approved newsletters.
- Publication Design Review: Reviewing layouts and designs for publications.
- Marketing Collaboration: Collaborating with marketing and sales to ensure product announcements are accurate.
- Deadline Management: Ensuring adherence to deadlines.
- Project Organization: Maintaining project folders and related housekeeping tasks for organizational purposes.
- Invoice Processing: Ensuring invoices for freelancers/vendors are submitted for processing.
- Meeting Coordination: Setting up and managing launch meetings and related documents.
- File Management: Uploading and downloading files to and from freelancers/vendors via FTP and SharePoint.
- Information Research: Researching company information (online and over the phone).
- News Analysis: Analyzing news stories to ensure relevant updates are picked up.
5. Editorial Assistant Accountabilities
- Editorial Assistance: Working with a small team of Editors to assist in all aspects of producing exhibition catalogs and other types of books and printed materials.
- Artwork Sourcing: Sourcing and organizing artwork files from gallery archivists, artist studios, and/or third-party photographers and agencies.
- Photography Coordination: Coordinating new photography shoots, reviewing and maintaining an organized collection of image files, and helping organize hi-res files for book designers and color separators.
- Rights Management: Obtaining and managing image rights, approvals, and reproduction agreements.
- Image Research: Conducting image research and fact-checking, as well as drafting and maintaining image checklists for catalogs.
- Text Drafting: Drafting artwork captions, credits, and colophons according to house style, reaching out to institutions and private collectors to confirm preferred credit lines.
- Text Review: Reviewing texts and rounds of copy edits.
- Research Assistance: Assisting team members and outside writers with research relevant to essays and text preparations.
- Library Management: Ensuring the department's on-site library and catalogue closet are well-stocked with recent and relevant titles.
- Research Material Provision: Providing team members and outside writers with research materials, as requested, from on-site inventory.
- Publication Support: Addressing and responding to internal staff requests regarding recent and past gallery publications, including providing color-corrected photography, digitized materials for sales or press purposes, and more.
- Logistics Oversight: Overseeing and tracking/preparing all incoming and outgoing packages for the department, assisting with drafting and coordinating catalog distribution lists, arranging travel when applicable, and more.
- Financial Coordination: Preparing and assisting with department expense reports as well as being the accounting liaison, ensuring invoices are sent and paid on time as well as submitting reimbursements.