Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · Holland code ACE

Editors

Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material. May review proposals and drafts for possible publication.

Also called: Features Editor, Newspaper Copy Editor, Opinions Page Editor, Sports Editor, Acquisitions Editor, Assignment Editor, Business Editor, Legal Editor.

O*NET 27-3041.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $77,920; Middle half earn $57,300 to $106,100. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 4 of 5; Considerable preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: +1% · Slower than average; 115,800 jobs in 2024, projected 116,500. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Editors".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Verify facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.
Write text, such as headlines, stories, articles, editorials, or newsletters.
Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.
Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal.
Allocate print space for story text, photos, and illustrations according to space parameters and copy significance, using knowledge of layout principles.
Confer with management and editorial staff members regarding placement and emphasis of developing news stories.
Oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, computer typesetting, and printing, ensuring adherence to deadlines and budget requirements.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Reading Comprehension5.0 / 5
Writing4.4 / 5
Active Listening4.0 / 5
Speaking4.0 / 5
Critical Thinking3.9 / 5
Active Learning3.3 / 5

Knowledge areas

English Language4.8 / 5
Communications and Media4.8 / 5
Customer and Personal Service3.9 / 5
Design3.8 / 5
Administration and Management3.6 / 5
Computers and Electronics3.3 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic1
Investigative32
Artistic73
Social26
Enterprising52
Conventional61

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

book publisher · DE Buchverleger/Buchverlegerin · FR éditeur/éditrice
book editor · DE Buchredakteur/Buchredakteurin · FR directeur de collection/directrice de collection
writer · DE Schriftsteller/Schriftstellerin · FR écrivain/écrivaine
fact checker · DE Faktenprüfer/Faktenprüferin · FR vérificateur de faits/vérificatrice de faits
magazine editor · DE Zeitschriftenredakteur/Zeitschriftenredakteurin · FR rédacteur en chef de magazine/rédactrice en chef de magazine
newspaper editor · DE Zeitungsredakteur/Zeitungsredakteurin · FR rédacteur en chef/rédactrice en chef

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Newspaper, periodical and broadcast editors (2491)43,100 employed
Newspaper and periodical broadcast journalists and reporters (2492)45,100 employed
Senior officers in fire, ambulance, prison and related services (1163)8,000 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “著述家，記者，編集者”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥352,700; Middle half earn ¥267,600 to ¥479,000 a month.
Workers in the category: 43,770; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the higher third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +1.13. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (27-3041).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test