Job Q&A
by Eileen O'Reilly
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Susan Enfield is the research editor at Outside Magazine in Santa Fe, New Mexico. With a circulation of 1.6 million readers, Outside has been a National Magazine Award nominee for the past fifteen years, winning the award for general excellence for the last two years running.

Monster.com: How did you build a career as a magazine editor?

Susan Enfield: It's hard getting into magazines. You often have to intern and work for minimum wage, more or less. After college I applied for an internship at The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour. A friend's sister recommended it, so I called and set up an interview. Some people go to graduate school for journalism. A lot of our interns at Outside are from Medill at Northwestern. I would be uncomfortable going into a lot of debt for a journalism degree when it's not a high-paying field and you can really learn on the job anyway.

Mc: How was working for a nightly news magazine?

SE: Great, but the pace of daily news was draining. I could see that MacNeil-Lehrer was a small, prestigious organization and it would take a long time to rise there. I didn't feel that at the lower levels there was much creativity, and I was impatient. I went to work at US News and World Report, but on weekends I would visit friends in New York and started thinking about moving there. A friend called and told me about a job at Manhattan Inc. -- a business magazine that folded in '91 -- and I went there and worked for a few years.

Mc: Was this the "dues-paying" part of your career?

SE: It was a great place. I started as an editorial assistant and worked my way up to fact checking, and then eventually I got a staff writing position. I took a year off to travel through Asia and do some freelance writing. Then I returned to New York and worked as a senior editor at Avenue Magazine. That was a small staff, four people, which meant you got to do a little bit of everything -- planning the story line up, writing and reporting, helping to style photo shoots, approving layouts and writing headlines.

Mc: So, would you recommend starting at a small magazine?

SE: It's good to have both. MacNeil-Lehrer gave me a prestigious name on my resume and Manhattan Inc. had a reputation for doing real journalism. And everyone who was at Manhattan Inc. has gone on to do well -- as it turned out that was my best job contact-wise.

Mc: Is that very important?

SE: The magazine world is like a game of musical chairs; just because you leave a place or a magazine closes, it isn't a bad thing. It disseminates your contacts more broadly. The lesson is (ITALICS HERE) keep in touch with people. I would go to journalism networking parties, which were quasi-social -- the people at these parties were my friends -- but it's an information business. Writing for magazines has to be so timely. You need to keep track of what everyone else is writing, and it's important to keep in touch with people outside your office. You may need to move to another magazine, or if you freelance, you need to know as many editors as possible.

Mc: How did you end up working in New Mexico?

SE: I was always interested in travel writing. A contact from Manhattan Inc. who was working at Outside called about a job as travel editor. They ended up using someone already on staff, but I kept in touch with my contact and another job came up.

Mc: Research editor?

SE: Yes. Research as a career choice can be an end in itself, and I wanted to write, but Outside has done such interesting, original stories -- "Into Thin Air"and "The Perfect Storm" both were originally Outside stories -- that I knew the research would be interesting.

Mc: What do you do as a research editor?

SE: At Outside you are responsible for supervising the fact checkers. They work with authors to make sure all facts are correct. I oversee them, and I also research story ideas to see if they are worth pursuing. I get to write and edit, whereas at most magazines a research editor might just oversee fact checking.

Mc: What skills do you need?

SE: You need to be interested in the world around you. It helps to be a news junkie. Start reading everything. Be curious -- if you read a story, think beyond that; critical thinking and critical reading are good instincts that lead to story ideas. And you should know your way around a library, as well as the Internet. You should also build a Rolodex. I call people a lot -- they are often the best source of information.

Mc: How are the salaries?

SE: Magazine salaries start in the low 20s and go up to 80 or 100. At the very top -- editor-in-chief -- you can make a couple of hundred thousand or more, but there are not many of those jobs. Most hover in the 40 to 70 zone.

Mc: So, what do you like most about this work?

SE: People do it because the subject matter changes all the time. You get to learn and be nosey for a living and it's kind of glamorous. And your co-workers are usually witty, creative types. Living in New Mexico is fun. We have a nice office with a gym, a steambath and a fireplace in the lobby, and some of the offices have balconies overlooking an old railyard. It's not a corporate atmosphere -- I always wear jeans. The people here are pleasant and are always organizing mountain biking and hiking expeditions.