Top 12 Managing Editor Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a standout managing editor resume means showing the muscles that matter: editorial rigor, sharp systems thinking, and the calm hand that keeps deadlines from wobbling off the table. Below, a focused set of 12 skills that strengthen teams, sharpen content, and make a publication hum.
Managing Editor Skills
- Copyediting
- InDesign
- WordPress
- SEO
- CMS (Content Management Systems)
- AP Style
- Google Analytics
- HTML/CSS
- Project Management
- Social Media
- Photo Editing (Photoshop)
- Video Editing (Premiere Pro)
1. Copyediting
Copyediting hones language so it’s clean, consistent, and true to the publication’s voice. It hunts down errors, tightens structure, and preserves meaning while smoothing the ride for the reader.
Why It's Important
It keeps your credibility intact. It protects clarity. It creates trust line by line, which is the soil strong brands grow in.
How to Improve Copyediting Skills
Build a shared style sheet, and actually use it. Revisit grammar and punctuation basics regularly. Read widely—news, features, technical docs, scripts—to sharpen judgment across tones. Create checklists for common pitfalls. Edit in passes: structure first, language next, polish last. Swap edits with peers to surface blind spots. Track recurring errors and coach with examples.
How to Display Copyediting Skills on Your Resume
2. InDesign
Adobe InDesign is the engine room for print and digital layout: master pages, styles, precise typography, and production-ready exports that don’t fall apart at press time.
Why It's Important
It standardizes layouts, speeds production, and keeps design consistent across issues, campaigns, and platforms—without kludgy workarounds.
How to Improve InDesign Skills
Lean on paragraph, character, and object styles—no more one-off formatting. Build and maintain templates with master pages and libraries. Use preflight and package to catch problems before they bite. Learn GREP styles for automatic formatting wins. Keep layers tidy and locked where needed. Batch tasks with scripts. Know your export settings (PDF/X, bleed, color profiles) and why they matter.
How to Display InDesign Skills on Your Resume
3. WordPress
WordPress is a flexible CMS for building, publishing, and maintaining content without touching code—unless you want to.
Why It's Important
It streamlines workflows, supports team permissions, and offers endless customization for editorial calendars, content types, and site design.
How to Improve WordPress Skills
Set a clear editorial workflow with roles, statuses, and an editorial calendar. Standardize content types and fields for repeatable quality. Harden security with reputable security plugins, regular updates, and backups. Improve speed with caching, image compression, and lightweight themes. Focus on accessibility and responsive design, not AMP. Track performance with GA4 through Site Kit or a similar integration. Keep a staging site for safe testing. Document conventions so the team stays aligned.
How to Display WordPress Skills on Your Resume
4. SEO
SEO guides content so search engines can understand it—and people can find it at the exact moment they need it.
Why It's Important
It drives steady, compounding, organic traffic that doesn’t vanish when ad spend pauses. It aligns your content with audience intent.
How to Improve SEO Skills
Do rigorous keyword and intent research, then map topics to journeys. Nail on-page basics: titles, meta descriptions, headers, internal links, alt text, structured data. Build logical site architecture and clean URLs. Improve Core Web Vitals with fast pages and responsive design. Earn links through authority content and partnerships, not spam. Track rankings, click-through rates, and conversions. Refresh content on a cadence—outdated material sinks.
How to Display SEO Skills on Your Resume
5. CMS (Content Management Systems)
A CMS is the backbone for creating, editing, approving, and publishing content with traceability and control.
Why It's Important
It reduces friction—clear roles, consistent templates, reliable versioning—so teams can move fast without breaking quality.
How to Improve CMS (Content Management Systems) Skills
Design content models with reusable components and strict fields. Set granular permissions and approval gates. Build workflows with states that mirror your process. Establish taxonomy and tagging rules. Integrate analytics and search to surface what matters. Enforce accessibility (WCAG 2.2) at the template level. Plan for scale: performance, caching, and content archiving. Train the team; document everything.
How to Display CMS (Content Management Systems) Skills on Your Resume
6. AP Style
AP Style is the shared language of clear, concise journalism—rules for punctuation, capitalization, numbers, titles, and usage.
Why It's Important
Consistency is credibility. AP Style cuts ambiguity and keeps a multi-writer publication reading as one voice.
How to Improve AP Style Skills
Study the latest AP Stylebook updates; they change more than you think. Build an internal addendum for house terms and exceptions. Run periodic refreshers and quizzes. Keep a searchable style hub for the team. Encourage editors to explain changes, not just mark them. Review live pieces for drift and coach toward better habits.
How to Display AP Style Skills on Your Resume
7. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA4) tracks how audiences discover, read, and act on your content—events, conversions, cohorts, and more.
Why It's Important
It tells you what to scale, what to fix, and what to drop. Decisions stop being guesses.
How to Improve Google Analytics Skills
Configure GA4 properly: enable Enhanced Measurement, define conversion events, and set clean UTM standards. Build Audiences for key segments and compare behaviors. Use Explorations for funnels, paths, and cohort analysis. Create custom dimensions for content type, author, and section to unlock actionable views. Link Search Console for query and CTR insights. Pipe data to Looker Studio for executive-friendly dashboards. Audit regularly—filters, spam traffic, duplicate tagging—so your numbers stay trustworthy.
How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume
8. HTML/CSS
HTML structures the content; CSS shapes how it looks. Together, they make editors dangerous in the best way—able to fix small problems fast and speak the language of the web team.
Why It's Important
You can ensure layout integrity, accessibility, and quick edits without waiting in a development queue.
How to Improve HTML/CSS Skills
Write semantic HTML and use ARIA only when needed. Master Flexbox and Grid for responsive layouts. Establish a token-based design system (spacing, color, type) to keep styles consistent. Optimize media and use modern image formats where supported. Test against Core Web Vitals. Debug with browser dev tools and learn to read the cascade. Keep accessibility top of mind: color contrast, focus states, alt text, keyboard navigation.
How to Display HTML/CSS Skills on Your Resume
9. Project Management
Project management is the choreography of people, tasks, budgets, and deadlines so content ships on time and on spec.
Why It's Important
It protects quality and sanity. It keeps stakeholders aligned and slippage contained.
How to Improve Project Management Skills
Set crystal-clear briefs and definitions of done. Timebox work with sprints or a Kanban flow. Use RACI to clarify ownership. Centralize tasks and deadlines in a visible system. Run short, regular check-ins; escalate risks early; maintain a risk log. Build buffers around dependencies. Postmortem every large release and fold lessons into the next plan.
How to Display Project Management Skills on Your Resume
10. Social Media
Social platforms amplify stories, spark conversations, and funnel readers back to your home base.
Why It's Important
It’s where audiences gather. You meet them there, learn from their reactions, and carry those insights into your editorial strategy.
How to Improve Social Media Skills
Define platform-specific voices and goals. Post consistently with a realistic cadence. Favor native formats—short video, carousels, threads—over one-size-fits-all. Use alt text, captions, and subtitles for accessibility and reach. Monitor sentiment and join the conversation quickly. Track UTM-tagged links to attribute impact. Build evergreen content libraries and resurface with updates. Prepare a crisis protocol before you need it.
How to Display Social Media Skills on Your Resume
11. Photo Editing (Photoshop)
Photoshop lets you refine visuals—from subtle color correction to complex composites—without degrading image quality.
Why It's Important
Strong visuals lift stories. Clean, on-brand images increase retention and raise the perceived quality of everything around them.
How to Improve Photo Editing (Photoshop) Skills
Work non-destructively with adjustment layers and masks. Use Smart Objects for scalable edits. Build reusable actions and presets for batch work. Understand color spaces, profiles, and bit depth to prevent surprises on export. Retouch with restraint. Prepare clear export recipes for web, print, and social. Keep accessibility in mind—contrast, legible overlays, and descriptive alt text.
How to Display Photo Editing (Photoshop) Skills on Your Resume
12. Video Editing (Premiere Pro)
Premiere Pro shapes footage into a story—cuts, pacing, color, sound, and graphics stitched into something that moves people.
Why It's Important
Video is where attention goes. A solid edit multiplies reach and carries your brand voice into new formats.
How to Improve Video Editing (Premiere Pro) Skills
Organize projects meticulously: bins, labels, sequences, proxies for heavy media. Master keyboard shortcuts. Use Lumetri for consistent color; match shots before you grade. Clean audio with noise reduction, compression, and loudness standards. Build captions and subtitles as a default. Keep a library of motion graphics templates. Export with presets tailored to platform specs and aspect ratios. Seek feedback early—structure before sparkle.
How to Display Video Editing (Premiere Pro) Skills on Your Resume
