How to hire a features editor

How to hire a features editor, step by step

Here's a step-by-step features editor hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a features editor job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new features editor
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a features editor do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a features editor, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a features editor to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a features editor that fits the bill.

   This list presents features editor salaries for various positions.

   Type of Features Editor	Description	Hourly rate
   Features Editor	Editors plan, review, and revise content for publication.	$17-46
   Editing Internship	An editorial intern is responsible for assisting the editorial department of an organization with publishing various media and digital content. Editorial interns shadow tenured editorial staff on researching stories, validating information, writing captivating articles, interviewing target audiences, and screening submitted manuscripts... Show more	$12-21
   Editorial Internship	An editorial intern is responsible for assisting the editorial team in publishing digital and media content, writing articles, and managing readers' reviews. Editorial interns must have excellent knowledge of the industry they work for, suggesting the latest trends and featured topics, taking notes of the tenured employees' advice and observations, and actively joining brainstorming sessions... Show more	$12-18

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Editorial Content
   • Layout Design
   • SEO
   • Adobe Indesign
   • Lifestyle
   • Feature Stories
   • Editor-In-Chief
   • Staff Writers
   • Comics
   • Editorial Calendar
   • Adobe Photoshop
   • News Articles
   • Web Site
   • Editorials

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage SEO and Adwords, and social media content.
   • Film and edit all video content as well as managing the YouTube channel and social media feeds.
   • Manage weekly flash fiction competition.
   • Manage communication between editorial, photo, video and production departments.
   • Market via facebook, twitter and blog.
   • Report to editor-in-chief and oversee feature reporting staff.

   More features editor duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your features editor job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A features editor can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, features editors' average salary in alaska is 62% less than in new york.
   • Seniority. Entry-level features editors 63% less than senior-level features editors.
   • Certifications. A features editor with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a features editor's salary.

   Average features editor salary

   $59,420yearly

   $28.57 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level features editor salary

   $36,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average features editor salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New York	$92,021	$44
   2	California	$83,737	$40
   3	Connecticut	$81,272	$39
   4	District of Columbia	$78,807	$38
   5	California	$77,024	$37
   6	California	$76,625	$37
   7	California	$75,828	$36
   8	California	$73,287	$35
   9	Illinois	$66,628	$32
   10	Pennsylvania	$64,673	$31
   11	Massachusetts	$64,279	$31
   12	Washington	$58,587	$28
   13	Georgia	$55,881	$27
   14	Texas	$55,681	$27
   15	Alaska	$34,466	$17

   Average features editor salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Roku	$109,979	$52.87
   2	Saint Xavier University	$77,084	$37.06
   3	BuzzFeed	$64,875	$31.19	2
   4	Dow Jones	$63,080	$30.33	5
   5	U.S. News	$60,920	$29.29
   6	NBCUniversal	$58,901	$28.32	42
   7	WGBH	$58,644	$28.19	1
   8	Paramount	$58,480	$28.12	36
   9	MediaNews Group	$54,888	$26.39	8
   10	University of Alaska	$54,155	$26.04	3
   11	Go	$53,218	$25.59
   12	New Star Realty &Inv	$52,144	$25.07
   13	Screen Rant	$47,119	$22.65
   14	Hearst	$45,421	$21.84	123
   15	Morris Herald-News	$39,909	$19.19
   16	New York Post	$38,483	$18.50	18

4. Writing a features editor job description

   A good features editor job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a features editor job description:

   Features editor job description example

   The Features Editor drives discussion around games, the industry, and the gaming community. This role collaborates with the news, social, and other editorial leads to determine topics of interest to our readers and creative ways to cover those topics. By leveraging our staff's deep knowledge and expertise, we seek to contextualize, inform, and entertain in our features. The Features Editor not only identifies the issues we and the rest of the industry should be talking about, but, just as importantly, also guides our team on how we should be talking about them.
   
   IGN's editorial team is made up of all kinds of people that share a common love of games, TV, movies, comics, tech, and all things geeky. We strongly encourage people of every race, gender, sexual orientation, and background to apply.
   Responsibilities
   
   Get IGN out in front of the big discussions we need to be having in the industry and help develop our reputation as a mature leader on these topics. Own the intersection between news and the conversations around it, adding commentary and opinion to news coverage and overall trends and important topics you identify. Collaborate with the internal team of writers and video editors -- as well as freelancers -- to create content that spans multiple platforms from IGN.com to our YouTube and social pages. Onboard, assign and edit freelancers with topical expertise and work with them to create opinions and investigations that fairly explore all angles of a given story. Maintain a features calendar that takes advantage of big releases, events, and anniversaries and also helps sustain traffic during cycles of low preview and review output. Work with the video production team to discover and curate opportunities to adapt features content into video components. Foster IGN writers'/editors' natural inclination and interest in gaming topics, including varying contributors and points of view to coordinate regular opinion pieces (e.g. columns). Spearhead the production of quick response videos, interviews, podcasts, and commentaries based on trending topics. Coordinate with IGN's commerce team to facilitate editorially-appropriate content.
   Required skills
   You have established experience as a senior writer and editor. You consider yourself embedded in tracking gaming news, and seek to constantly reframe the biggest stories through follow-up features and commentary. You understand how to write for IGN's audience and can collaborate with our audience development team to optimize your pieces for both search and organic discovery. You have strong editorial opinions, excellent writing and editing skills, and are already writing about gaming (please share the published work your proudest of with us!) You have established contacts in the gaming industry.
   It would be extra awesome if...
   You have good camera presence and can speak extemporaneously on games and entertainment-related topics. You have experience in the entertainment or tech industry, in addition to games. You have management experience and/or have managed a freelance budget worked and worked with contributors on a regular basis. You have regularly covered trade shows and conventions. - If you think this sounds like the job for you, please apply here and make sure to provide a resume, and cover letter. (If you're having any issues uploading multiple documents, feel free to combine them into one.)
   
   #IGN

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right features editor for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your features editor job on Zippia to find and attract quality features editor candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as problogger, media bistro, journalismjobs.com, content writing jobs.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit features editors, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new features editor

   Once you have selected a candidate for the features editor position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new features editor. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a features editor?