A successful magazine editor is now a ‘good collaborator’

A successful magazine editor is now a ‘good collaborator’

Publishers at Hearst Corp., Time Inc., Condé Nast and Meredith Corp. have reconceived the definition of a magazine editor. The notion of editors consumed with getting those pages out the door seems old-fashioned. Editing and designing — the old Harold Ross and Harold Hayes and Clay Felker part of the business — is increasingly a smaller part of the job. In the past, the editor ruled and the publisher simply sold. Now, the new editor is the handmaiden of the publisher. To be an editor these days is to be — as one Condé Nast award called it — a good collaborator.