How To Become A City Editor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a city editor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Bradley Shreve

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a city editor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.41 an hour? That's $48,698 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -5,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a city editor?

Bradley Shreve

Editor, Tribal College Journal

Be flexible. An undergraduate degree in history offers a solid liberal arts background, but not a skill set that is finely tuned for most jobs. Think outside the box, and understand that the job you land probably won't be in the history profession.

ScoreCity EditorUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $48,698

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 6.98%

Black or African American 3.46%

Hispanic or Latino 7.79%

Unknown 4.54%

White 76.96%

Gender

female 41.67%

male 58.33%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a city editor

Explore city editor education requirements

Most common city editor degrees

Bachelor's

86.3 %

Master's

7.7 %

Associate

3.9 %

Start to develop specific city editor skills

Skills	Percentages
Editorial Board	15.41%
Staff Reporters	11.82%
News Stories	8.65%
Web Content	7.98%
Editorials	6.26%

Complete relevant city editor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New city editors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a city editor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real city editor resumes.

Research city editor duties and responsibilities

Share editorial writing with the managing editor and fill in for her as needed at internal and outside meetings.
Manage copy editing and proofreading responsibilities of weekly business newspaper and special supplements.
Enter news and photographs into a content management system, the newspaper web site and Facebook page.
Collaborate with copyrights team base in the UK to ensure publishing integrity standards weremaintain.

Prepare your city editor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your city editor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a city editor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable city editor resume templates

Build a professional city editor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your city editor resume.