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

What is a senior managing editor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Bradley Shreve

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior managing editor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $37.16 an hour? That's $77,284 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 senior managing 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.

ScoreSenior Managing EditorUS Average

Salary

6.0

Avg. Salary $77,284

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 6.49%

Black or African American 3.76%

Hispanic or Latino 8.60%

Unknown 4.65%

White 76.24%

Gender

female 50.31%

male 49.69%

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 senior managing editor

Explore senior managing editor education requirements

Most common senior managing editor degrees

Bachelor's

80.9 %

Master's

12.4 %

Doctorate

3.5 %

Start to develop specific senior managing editor skills

Skills	Percentages
Web Content	20.79%
Editorial Content	16.17%
Video Scripts	8.05%
Content Creation	6.91%
CMS	5.73%

Complete relevant senior managing editor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior managing 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 senior managing editor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior managing editor resumes.

Research senior managing editor duties and responsibilities

Manage all instructional design editorial projects.
Manage office workflow and serve the editor-in-chief in any functionality require.
Coordinate with editor-in-chief and managing editor to organize overall content of daily college newspaper.
Analyze and develop web strategies by following and interpreting web analytics, SEO performance and online best practices.

Get senior managing editor experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior managing editor. The most common roles before becoming a senior managing editor include managing editor, editor team lead and senior editor.

Prepare your senior managing editor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior managing 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 senior managing editor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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