The Language You Need When Hiring An Editor (aka Brand Storyteller)
by Chandra Turner
Editors and journalists have long lived in our own universe—separate from corporate America, with its tidy acronyms, business lingo, and marketing frameworks. In fact, we editorial types prided ourselves on being different. We had our own hierarchies (Senior Associate Editor; ha!), our own slang (think “TK” and “zhuzhing”), and job titles that meant something completely different outside of publishing (Creative Director comes to mind).
But now that journalists are leaving traditional media in droves to work for corporate America in media-adjacent areas like content marketing, branded content, and thought leadership, it’s important we use a common dictionary. Otherwise job descriptions are misaligned, cover letters get lost in translation, and interviews can miss the mark.
So here’s your translation guide. Whether you’re an HR lead, a hiring manager, or just someone trying to understand the difference between writing copy and copywriting, this is your cheat sheet for hiring just the right editorial pro your team needs.
p.s. I actually wrote this reverse dictionary a while back to help editors understand corporate jargon. Consider this post the flip side: a guide for companies trying to make sense of editorial speak.
Copyediting
What it is: Grammar, spelling, punctuation, consistency, fact-checking, style-guide adherence
What it’s not: Editing for structure, concept, or voice.
Copywriting
What it is: Writing to sell, convert, or persuade usually in an ecommerce or product-driven capacity
What it’s not: Writing copy, articles, or content in a journalistic way.
Creative Director
What it is: Someone who manages the visual direction of an editorial product, including photography/video, illustration, and graphic design
What it’s not: The person designing your email banners and seasonal ad campaigns—that’s a brand CD. In editorial, the EIC sets the vision.
Developmental Editing
What it is: Reframing a story’s architecture with big-picture organizing, reshaping, and refocusing content
What it’s not: Line-level polish.
Editing
What it is: Ideating, strategizing, and conceptualizing a piece of content to ensure it delivers the intended message to the reader, viewer, or audience
What it’s not: Copyediting, proofreading, and fact-checking, although a strong editor usually can do these things as well.
Fact-Checking
What it is: Word-by-word verification of factual accuracy
What it’s not: Putting your story through ChatGPT
Line Editing
What it is: Sentence-by-sentence improvements for clarity, flow, and style with a focus on tightening
What it’s not: Rearranging paragraphs or big-picture restructuring
Longform Narrative
What it is: In-depth stories that are often personal or deeply reported.
What it’s not: badly edited stories that go on too long because the author is in love with their own words Managing Editor
What it is: Someone who manages the editorial workflow, contracts, production, and often outside vendors and relationship with the sales team
What it’s not: Someone who manages editorial work (although many MEs are also copyeditors)
Packaging
What it is: The strategic presentation of content across platforms—how stories, headlines, visuals, and formats work together to create a unified experience that draws readers in and keeps them engaged.
What it’s not: Throwing every asset into a CMS and hoping it looks cohesive on the other side.
Producer
What it is: The person who makes the content happen. In broadcast, online video, social media, and audio/podcast, they usually shape the story and steer the creative.
What it’s not: The person who is project-managing the process—budgets, timelines, and deliverables (common in marketing) or managing the CMS (common in digital publishing).
Proofreading
What it is: Essentially copyediting at the final stage of the publication process with a keen focus on typos and any design mistakes or abnormalities
What it’s not: The same person who copyedited the first round
Service Writing
What it is: Helpful, source-based, how-to journalism that helps people solve real problems
What it’s not: That chat window where you ask about your delayed order—though great service writing can feel just as helpful.
Voice Development
What it is: Helping a brand discover and stick to a consistent, ownable editorial tone
What it’s not: Overwritten exclamation-riddled copy to shock and awe
Zhuzhing
What it is: A light polish or glow-up without a rewrite.
What it’s not: A fancy French cooking term or something you do to your hair before a date—though honestly, it’s not far off
Admittedly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. What other terms from traditional media do you think should move to the mainstream marketing culture — or at least be understood by everyone? Pop me a note and let me know!
Chandra Turner is the founder of The Talent Fairy, a boutique recruiting agency that specializes in placing editorial and content marketing talent for brands, non-profits, and media. She also serves as a career coach for editors, writers, and brand storytellers.
Interviewing for Editorial Talent is a Whole Different Animal