9 reasons why every brand needs an editor-in-chief

An editor-in-chief will have your brand stamped through them like seaside rock. They are also the last word in any content disputes, the buck stops with them. 

Every brand needs to tell a variety of stories from driving sales and developing partnerships to engaging internal audiences and external stakeholders. To do this well you need a cohesive content strategy and a storyteller with a clear vision, in other words an editor-in-chief. 

No-one likes a hard sell. Just thinking about being in a car showroom or at the end of a sales call can make you squirm. On the other hand, being excited, educated or entranced by something makes you feel warm or drawn to the brand. You want to find out more. To get your next hit. And to see what you’ve been missing out on. 

So how can you create the right circumstances for that kind of content to be created? 

Whether you think of Vogue and Anna Wintour or Martin Lewis at Money Saving Expert, having an editor with a vision makes a remarkable difference to the coherence and continuity of brand messaging and the quality of the content.  

In the age of generative AI, it can be easy for brands to think all you need to do is feed a few things into ChatGPT or equivalent and you’ll get lots of blog posts and articles at minimal cost that your customers will be happy to read. But if you do that, all you’ll get is an amalgam of everything that everyone else is saying. Even if you try to tweak the tone of voice or the angle.  

Nine reasons your brand needs an editor-in-chief

So, what’s the answer? An editor-in-chief, of course, for nine key reasons… 

1. Strategy and vision

Being able to see the big picture, where your brand fits into the landscape, who your customers are and what their needs are is essential to help you achieve long-term success.  

Writing ‘flavour of the month’ content doesn’t fulfil your brand purpose. It may give you a few page views but can be damaging long term if it’s not what you should be talking about to your audience. Knowing who you are and where you need to get to (and how to get there) requires nuanced understanding of complex markets. Good editors can anticipate the market and adapt or refocus to meet changing needs while maintaining a vision about what they are trying to achieve. 

2. Direction

Experience counts for a lot. Knowing what works, what doesn’t work and what doesn’t work any longer. An editor-in-chief can sense when the tectonic plates around them are shifting.  And a good editor will be able to understand the ripples created by changes and safely navigate through them. They’ll help you avoid the brand fails where there’s a shift in direction only for it to be reverted as it wasn’t the right way to go.

3. Editorial judgement

This is a seriously undervalued skill. An editor is the bridge between the business and the reader. An editor-in-chief understands the difference between what a business wants to say and what a customer wants to hear. The difference between interesting and boring. Fresh or old hat. Good taste and bad taste. Editors also bring a culture of rigour, fact checking and discernment – no hallucinations or plagiarism in sight. Editors-in-chief understand where the line is and know how to walk it. 

An editor-in-chief will look at the messages internal stakeholders want to share with others while thinking “Who cares?” on behalf of the audience. They know what’s a story and what isn’t. They know where time, energy and resources should be directed in your marketing mix. In turn saving you time, energy and resources from misdirected efforts.

4. Originality

Editors love coming up with a new idea. This can reveal itself in all sorts of ways: spotting a new trend, finding a new angle on an evergreen topic or interviewing someone with an original viewpoint who hasn’t been heard from before. A good editor will help a brand cut through with a particular take that stands out from the rest.

5. Creativity

As well as coming up with new ideas, editors-in-chief can nurture creativity in the teams around them. New ways to present information alongside clever ways to reuse and recycle content across the web, white papers, infographics, video, social, podcasts and events maximises the value of content. This kind of creativity can make your budget go further as well as showcasing cohesive messaging. 

6. Engagement

Humans love to tell and listen to stories. From ancient people sitting round the fire swapping tales to listening to a podcast while you exercise, people find stories engaging. But being able to tell a story well and maintain interest isn’t a gift everyone has. Just think of the number of articles where you might read a couple of paragraphs and skip the rest. A good storyteller will draw you in and keep the audience hooked. An editor-in-chief can spot a good storyteller from ten paces. 

7. Curiosity

Curiosity is the reason that many people become writers and editors. They want to find out more. They want to understand what the impact of a change is. They want to discover something new. Curiosity takes editors to new places. It means they are eager to find out what their customers are interested in and create relevant and useful content for them. It means they never stop striving to discover something new, answer questions and solve problems. 

8. Surprise

Every brand needs moments of delight, even the staidest B2B brand. Creating content that touches your customer in some way will make your brand more memorable. Something unexpected but pleasing will linger in the mind. Your creative and curious editor-in-chief will enable this kind of surprise. It can also get people talking about you, amplifying your message.