Understanding the Multi-faceted Role of a Content Editor
1. Introduction
A Content Editor, often referred to as a webmaster, web publisher, or even mockingly as a “copy-paste person,” plays a crucial role in creating and managing content on websites. But what does a Content Editor’s job really entail and can we just reduce it to copy-pasting?
I say: we cannot. But to answer this question, we need to look at the roots of the webmaster role and understand its evolution. The webmaster is responsible for editing and creating pages in Content Management Systems (CMS). Graphics, texts, and translations (if it involves localization) are provided in ready-made templates and formats, and the webmaster’s job is to input this content into the appropriate fields in the CMS and publish the page upon approval. Knowing the basics of popular systems such as Drupal, WordPress, or AEM is sufficient for most tasks.
So, is that all that the person responsible for editing content on websites does? It turns out that a CMS can significantly facilitate the creation and modification of different types of websites. However, to effectively work on various types of content, there’s a division into categories. An article or promotion page looks entirely different from a product page or online store. Both, however, have metadata that are vital for the page’s visibility in search engines. Therefore, the person editing the page needs to understand additional elements to navigate more advanced aspects of the CMS freely.
In an ideal world, a webmaster’s duties would end with “copy-paste” tasks. However, to meet the demands of the modern market, they must know at least two CMS very well, and it’s also worth familiarizing yourself with the ones most commonly used by the company, for example Drupal and AEM. These systems significantly differ from each other and have their specifics of work.
2. Unpacking the Role of a Content Editor
Is that all? Here’s just the beginning of the specialist’s role — the Content Editor. Clients often need small landing page websites for promotions, contests, or other temporary events. Installing, configuring, and preparing a full CMS for such needs seems excessive. For this purpose, they often utilize the knowledge and skills of a frontend developer. Programs have been created where you can build a simple website without writing a single line of code, such as low-code and no-code programs. Examples of such programs could be WebFlow or Pinegrow. To offload the frontend developer and be more competitive, our Content Editor should acquire additional knowledge in working with this type of software. Despite numerous descriptions about the simplicity of such programs, they are not entirely intuitive, and learning the available features takes time. Especially if we want to build a website that has specific requirements and is not just a simple blog.
The next aspect is the pictures sent to us, which are often not prepared for placement on the site. This is where elements related to the basics of image processing come in, such as resizing, cropping, and framing. Often there is also a need to edit the photo to erase redundant text placed on it (for instance, in the case of files without layers) to put new content dedicated to a particular region and/or language. Often, we have to prepare a completely new image based on an existing one, e.g., icon graphics, very similar to each other or in the same style to indicate the product’s function. Ultimately, the knowledge of someone even minimally interested in graphics is required.
At the end of the web work, it’s worth paying attention to the entire page and all changes that have been introduced. People working with a specific page often know its elements very well. The ones that stand out are those missing or significantly different from other contents. Information and comments about this are reported to the client through the appropriate people, often even before the production process is completed. After all, everyone wants the page to look good and be consistent.
3. Beyond Web Content: Diverse Responsibilities of a Content Editor
However, websites are not everything. Marketing campaigns are often carried out, whether via emails or SMS. Here comes the topic of managing marketing campaigns. We may have a one-time mailing, but it can also be a very complicated and extensive communication system with an advanced dependency database. We get help as needed from small and larger applications, as well as very large and advanced systems for comprehensive management of such campaigns. Often entire teams are formed around this topic. However, an integral part is the need to prepare everything in a specific application. An example can be Braze or one of the SalesForce modules. Handling this type of software (due to occasional modifications) can successfully be done by our content editor.
Another element generated by marketing actions is the issue of preparing appropriate banners (specified size graphics along with HTML/CSS files with a few lines of code). We have all gotten used to ads on the internet, vertical, horizontal, and square banners of various sizes — all to place as many ads on the page as possible. Since our specialist already needs basic knowledge on the subject of graphics and HTML/CSS for his tasks, such a completion of preparing banners can also be done by him.
Each of us has encountered advertisements in the form of films/animations (one of the first examples outside of television is the YouTube service). Does every animation always have to be prepared from scratch? In many cases, yes, many companies make one ad for several months, which is completely different from the previous one (even if it is prepared in the same style). However, if we start paying attention, it turns out that there are also brands that need to replace only a fragment of their advertisement. The change concerns, for example, the products that are currently on promotion. In such a case, the structure of the advertisement remains the same, and only its fragment changes. As a result, the animation or static graphics of the product changes along with the attached text. I probably won’t surprise anyone if I say that our specialist will also find competences for such work at his disposal. It relieves animation specialists, giving them more time to prepare new, more interesting animations than repetitive work associated with replacing elements of the “old” advertisement.
4. Asset Management: Keeping the Digital House in Order
From the perspective of a large company, we have a lot of graphics, animations, texts, whether for a website, email, or SMS. How can you manage all this and facilitate communication of the relevant departments working on these aspects? Here comes a topic often called asset management. Who can manage this, having general knowledge about almost all elements, which often during further sending undergo preliminary verification? Right, a content editor.
With the development of knowledge and acquisition of broad skills, the role of a content editor can no longer be called a webmaster or “copy-paste man”. Where does the name content editor come from as a role with broader skills and knowledge? All the mentioned elements relate to the so-called content. Hence the name content editor.
5. The Future of the Content Editor Role
In conclusion, I will add that in recent months there has been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and the possibilities it offers. How will this change the IT market in the world? It is still difficult to answer this question unambiguously. However, I am convinced that there will be additional tasks here, with which the content editor will have something to do.
