--- title: How to pick an editor ;) description: What are the requirements on the editors of the future --- [![logo (2)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(2).svg)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/) [![logo (3)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(3).svg)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/) - [Home](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/en-gb/) - [Advisory](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/advisory) - [121 Consulting](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/121-consulting) - [Content Review](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/contentreview) - [Testimonials](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/testimonial) - [Contact](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/contact-us) # How to pick an editor ;) [Alan Hunter](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter) 31 October 2025 9 min read **What are the requirements on the editors of the future** This week [Dmitry Shishkin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitry-shishkin-bb9b88/), currently strategic editorial adviser at Ringier Media, wrote a piece on LinkedIn headlined: [“](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-time-promote-your-audience-engagement-lead-dmitry-shishkin-m68re/?trackingId=zsh3BVjhVN5%2Bqw8hKFEVBQ%3D%3D)[It's time to promote your Audience Engagement lead to Editor-in-Chief.”](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-time-promote-your-audience-engagement-lead-dmitry-shishkin-m68re/?trackingId=zsh3BVjhVN5%2Bqw8hKFEVBQ%3D%3D) Hear hear! I’ve long admired Dmitry’s work – he was the prime evangelist for the user needs model that many of you will be using – and it’s great to see him weighing into a key issue of the future development of news media. To be blunt, it remains the case that most editors owe their position to their success in print, a medium which is rapidly declining in importance. If the industry wants to see off the challenge of the tech and AI giants then it needs to get more forward- not backward-facing skills into the key role in their operations. Dynamic editors can change things very quickly because of the power they hold – I compare it to that of a ship’s captain who can do everything from marrying to imprisoning their charges. We need to have people in those positions with a native understanding of the challenges we face. In 2021, I wrote a list of the responsibilities and skills that I thought an editor-in-chief of the future would need – I was running a session for potential future editors at a Scandinavian publisher. Inspired by Dmitry, I have dug out the list and am pleased to say I think that if that future is now, it’s a pretty solid take. Though you do have to accept that the move away from print remains a work in progress and that an understanding of the potential of artificial intelligence is now a prerequisite of any modern editor. Here they are: Responsibilities Ensuring the journalistic side of the business produces content that aligns with the company’s overall strategy (ie, don’t be producing tons of clickbaity SEO-based content chasing high traffic volumes if your business is subscription-based). Producing compelling content for owned digital platforms, the tech giants’ bespoke news offerings, social media (current and as yet unthought of), video, audio … oh, and print. Transforming your newsroom, being careful to get the balance right between building new digital capabilities and preserving print operations – though in most cases you’ll probably need to push harder at the former, which is going to upset a lot of people. Managing teams of reporters and editors, alongside audience strategists, social media journalists, newsletter editors, video and audio specialists, developers and product people – and really, truly understanding what all of them do! Ensuring that the priorities of product development are aligned with editorial and business objectives, and aren’t just guided by what someone said to you at dinner or what you like in the New York Times app. Increasing the diversity of your newsroom, in every single way – race, age, sex, gender, socio-economic background. You’ll also want to bring in some digital people who have never set foot in a newsroom before. Skills Ability to set a clear editorial direction for your staff, while remembering that “you are not your readers”. In print, you could produce a paper for the reader of your imagination. Now, in digital, we know exactly who our readers are and what they are interested in and you’ve got to respond with content that resonates for them. That’s a lot of people to be thinking about while making sure there is a coherent whole. Deep understanding of different data points and, crucially, how to derive insights from them. You need to be able to see what lies behind an outwardly impressive “big number” because your staff will be quoting them all the time. A familiarity with different kinds of storytelling and what stories work best in which format. A knowledge of strategies for off-platform distribution of content because you need to be able to ask tough questions of your social team (among others). It’s not enough to say proudly: “We’re on TikTok” – you have to know why you’re on TikTok and what the expected outcomes are. A thorough understanding of product thinking – designing a service or product based squarely on meeting both customer and business needs and balancing the two off against each other. In a world of finite development resources you need to understand the importance of setting priorities for your roadmap and sticking to them. You also need to be able to talk knowledgeably about these things in order to bring the rest of the business with you. Understanding of digital development processes, knowing that everything takes more time than you might think and has multiple dependencies. This means you won’t be asking for a new product feature on a Tuesday and expecting it to be in the app by Friday, because you know this will discombobulate a finely ordered development process. The ability to manage diverse teams. Each will require a different style of communication at the very least. Millennials, for example, are a lot more likely to respond to the sense of a shared goal, while Gen Xers are more willing to accept that they’ll just do what the boss says. A talent for change management. Journalists are like most people – we don’t like change – and you are going to be leading them through the biggest change in our industry for years. You are going to need subtle skills as well as resilience to make the transformation stick. You can’t do it all yourself – as you could, at a pinch, try to do in print days – so you’re going to have to be adept at the skills of delegation. The humility to understand that to do all this you are going to have to listen to people who may be younger and less senior than you but know a hell of a lot more about the subject at hand than you do. The flexibility to realise that all this is going to change again, and much sooner than we think. So, there you go – get hiring! ## Next blog post ## [AI everywhere](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/ai-everywhere) [Read more](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/ai-everywhere) ![logo (2)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(2).svg) Hunter Brunt Media Ltd. Company number: 13546179 Registered address: Aston House, Cornwall Avenue, Church End, London N3 1LF - [Privacy Policy](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/privacy-policy) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Alan Hunter", "url" : "https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter" }, "dateModified" : "2026-11-06T17:15:28.233Z", "datePublished" : "2025-10-31T16:00:00.000Z", "headline" : "How to pick an editor ;)", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/how-to-pick-an-editor", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ```