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Marketing, Advertising and Creative · Publishing companies
HR for Publishing Companies: Editors, Writers and Production Teams
A publishing company turns writing into books, magazines or digital content on a calendar of deadlines. Here is how to run editors, freelancers and production staff.
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Share your requirementsA publishing company acquires or commissions content and brings it to readers as books, magazines, newspapers, journals or digital titles. Its staff include commissioning and copy editors, writers and reporters, designers, production and print managers, marketing and sales staff, and distribution teams. A large share of the work is done by freelancers: translators, proofreaders, illustrators and indexers. Every title or issue follows a schedule from manuscript to print or release, and one late step moves everything after it. Pay in the industry is often modest, and many people stay because they care about the work. See also HR for marketing and creative agencies.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in publishing companies, you may see
- Deadlines slide down the chain
- Freelancers are managed informally
- Pay is low for the skill
- Editorial and commercial teams disagree
- Print-run seasons create peaks
- Roles are narrow and careers unclear
- Print and digital skills diverge
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in publishing companies
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Commissioning and acquisitions editors
- Copy editors and proofreaders
- Writers and reporters
- Designers and typesetters
- Production and print managers
- Marketing and publicity staff
- Sales and distribution staff
- Rights and contracts staff
- Freelance translators and illustrators
Where HR strains in publishing companies
Deadlines slide down the chain
A late manuscript delays editing, design and printing, and production staff absorb the pressure with long hours near the end.
Freelancers are managed informally
Commissions, fees and deadlines sit in emails, and payments are late or disputed, which damages relationships with good freelancers.
Pay is low for the skill
Editors and designers could earn more elsewhere, and the company relies on passion until a better offer arrives.
Editorial and commercial teams disagree
Editors want quality and the sales team wants titles that sell, and without a clear process each decision becomes a quarrel.
Print-run seasons create peaks
Book fairs, academic terms and festival seasons compress work, and staffing is not planned around them.
Roles are narrow and careers unclear
An editorial assistant rarely sees how to become an editor, and good people leave to move up.
Print and digital skills diverge
Staff trained for print struggle with digital formats and analytics, and nobody has planned their learning.
HR topics for publishing companies
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Relations; Career and Succession Management; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for marketing, advertising and creative, not in general.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a publishing companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Put freelance engagements on paper
A standard commission note with scope, fee, deadline and payment date, and a single place to track who owes what.
What this coversHide
Put freelance engagements on paper
A standard commission note with scope, fee, deadline and payment date, and a single place to track who owes what.
What this coversHideA standard commission note with scope, fee, deadline and payment date, and a single place to track who owes what. HR documentation shows how to keep it consistent.
Work backwards from the production calendar
A shared schedule that shows each title's stages and who holds them, so slippage appears early and peak weeks are staffed.
What this coversHide
Work backwards from the production calendar
A shared schedule that shows each title's stages and who holds them, so slippage appears early and peak weeks are staffed.
What this coversHideA shared schedule that shows each title's stages and who holds them, so slippage appears early and peak weeks are staffed.
Create career ladders in editorial and production
Defined steps from assistant to senior editor or production manager with the skills for each.
What this coversHide
Create career ladders in editorial and production
Defined steps from assistant to senior editor or production manager with the skills for each.
What this coversHideDefined steps from assistant to senior editor or production manager with the skills for each. Role design helps.
Set up a title approval process
A simple meeting and a set of criteria where editorial, sales and finance decide together, which reduces later conflict.
What this coversHide
Set up a title approval process
A simple meeting and a set of criteria where editorial, sales and finance decide together, which reduces later conflict.
What this coversHideA simple meeting and a set of criteria where editorial, sales and finance decide together, which reduces later conflict.
Plan digital skill building
Short training in formats, analytics and tools for print-trained staff, using the learning and development process.
What this coversHide
Plan digital skill building
Short training in formats, analytics and tools for print-trained staff, using the learning and development process.
What this coversHideShort training in formats, analytics and tools for print-trained staff, using the learning and development process.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- List every freelancer paid last quarter, what was agreed and when they were paid.
- Mark the three busiest weeks of the year and who works them.
- Ask an editorial assistant what they think the next step in their career is.
- Review how the last difficult title decision was made and by whom.
- Check which staff have used digital tools and analytics and which have not.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the employment, freelancer-engagement and intellectual-property obligations that apply to your publishing business.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- HR documentation process
Standard letters and notes for staff and freelancers so terms are clear from the start.
- Role design and job descriptions
Defined steps and skills from assistant to senior roles in editorial, design and production.
- Learning and development process
A plan to build digital and format skills in a team trained for print.
- Compensation benchmarking
A view of how your pay compares for editorial and production roles, and where small changes help most.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in marketing, advertising and creative, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Process
A grievance procedure for a company with no HR department
An employee brings you a complaint about their supervisor. What happens next should not depend on who is in the room. A grievance procedure a small company can actually run.
8 min readRead article
HR Management
"What if this person resigned tomorrow?" A succession exercise for small companies
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead article
HR Management
Salary bands for SMEs: building grades when you have never had any
Most salary structures grew one negotiation at a time. How to build grades and bands from what you already pay, without repricing everybody at once.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Agree scope, fee, deadline and payment date in writing before the work starts, pay on the agreed day and keep a simple tracker. Reliable payment is what keeps good freelancers.
Show the schedule to everyone, flag slippage early and set a cut-off for late changes. Fewer last-minute edits reduces the crunch more than extra staff.
Offer a clear career step, real responsibility, recognition and fair review each year. Low pay is more tolerable when people can see progress.
Use a regular acquisition meeting with shared criteria and recorded decisions. People accept outcomes better when they understand the basis.
A few things matter early: written terms for staff and freelancers, leave and attendance records and a path for resolving disagreements. They keep a small team stable.
We would look at who the freelancers are and what was agreed with each, who works the busiest weeks of the production calendar, and where editorial assistants see their next step. A sensible first piece of work is putting freelance engagements on paper and drafting a simple career ladder for editorial. Scope follows in writing, so you can accept or trim it.
More on HR for marketing, advertising and creative
All 3 business types in marketing, advertising and creative · Find another business type
Radio and broadcast stationsSign and printing companiesEmployee Relations in marketing, advertising and creativeCareer and Succession Management in marketing, advertising and creativeCompensation, Payroll and Benefits in marketing, advertising and creative
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.