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I am a software developer and now i have to deal with a project regarding magazine editing.

I am not sure about the different hierarchies through which an article is passed and edited and the roles and duties of these hierarchies. Can anyone explain the process?

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    Why don't you ask your client? All editorial departments work differently. The publishing process can include one author or a team of writers, sometimes overseen by a head writer, an editor or an editorial team, proofreaders, researchers, typesetter(s), a marketing and a financial department, and so on, all of which influence the form and content of a text prior to publication. For example, texts have to be composed for easy deletion of passages to fit the text into the layout (so the layouter cuts text!).
    – user5645
    Aug 6, 2014 at 11:24
  • @what The layout person has authorization to cut text? Is that from experience? I haven't seen that myself.
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Aug 6, 2014 at 14:29
  • Well, maybe that person has to ask someone to authorize a cut, but I learned that magazine and news articles have to be composed to allow easy cutting of less relevant content so they can be fit into the fixed formats. No matter how much you count letters, you'll never know how a specific text breaks into the columns of a magazine or newspaper, so the person pasting that text there has to be able to delete text. I called this person the "layouter", in German it is "Hersteller", i.e. the person overseeing the second half of the production from finished manuscript to printed magazine.
    – user5645
    Aug 7, 2014 at 6:26
  • @what: Depends. Maybe they write generic software they are going to offer to various customers.
    – SF.
    Aug 7, 2014 at 8:07
  • OP: Are you interested in News portals (online-only) too? I worked for one, which used 99% of news agencies content, and only kept a token crew of actual journalists (as opposed to army of editors), more for marketing purposes than out of actual need?
    – SF.
    Aug 7, 2014 at 8:10

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Sadly, best answer is: "Depends on specific company" I will describe you, how I do it in our little group of fandom newspaper which we publish just for fun:

Roles:

1) Head editor: Agrees of content of the whole new edition (new issue of the magazine), agrees on timelines (who delivers what and when), is responsible for overall look and structure of the new issue. in our case also puts the final issue to the print

2) Writer: Writes the agreed content

3) Editor: Checks the content of the article. Fixes tpyos and grrrammmatycal isssues

Process:

1) All agree on what should be written (Pavel doees the interview, Alice does the article on X and Bob delvers the funny story)

2) Writers submit they work for peer review: Every writer submits their first version. Everyone then has a discussion about the article (Pavel, you should also ask about the hedgehog!)

3) Once peer reviewed, writer tweaks on their story and submits new version to peer review

4) Once everyone (or most of the group) agrees on the article is final, the article is sent to editor

5) editor check the article for grammar issues and after finished, sends back to head editor

6) Head editor puts all articles into issues and posts first version of whole magazine (PDF file) to peer review. Everyone checks for layout issues, left out typos and overall look and feel of the magazine

7) The whole magazine issue goes through tweaking and peer review once all (or most of the group) agrees on the whole issue is final.

8) new issue of the magazine is published

Side note: We publish four issues a year, so we can afford having quite thoughtful process. And obviously, one person can have two or more roles

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