Should You Hire a Web Editor? When to Outsource vs. Hire Internally—CASE STUDY
Here at Locable, we strive to help publishers create plans that are both profitable AND help them manage their time better. That’s why we created our Publisher Concierge Program to help busy local publishers have an effective presence online while still staying profitable.
Recently, we have been getting a lot of questions from publishers about when it makes sense to participate in publisher concierge or if they should hire someone in house. Let’s take a look at the difference of outsourcing web duties vs. hiring a web editor.
What types of activities you can outsource:
Content: Many publishers would be surprised that you can outsource most content, even local content. Most activities tied to sourcing community stories can be completed remotely online or by email. We have developed these methods to create high quality, effective content for a fraction of the price of hiring a web editor.
Sponsored Content/Native Advertising: These are articles paid for by local businesses or sponsored guides. They span topics like featured recipes from a restaurant, a pet of the month column sponsored by a local vet or larger seasonal guides sponsored by any number of local businesses.
Community Outreach: Reaching out to community groups and organizations about events or other community topics can easily be outsourced. These help build out your calendar and directory and are also a great way to find new prospects for premium directory listings.
Social Media and Newsletter: It’s also very effective to outsource your newsletter and social media tasks. This frees you up to spend more time concentrating on ad sales and your print product. Speaking of ad sales...
What you can’t outsource:
Ad Sales: This is the one area that you’re better served keeping in house. When we partner with publishers we are able to help train and educate your staff about digital advertising sales but due to the diversity of other offerings in print and the fact that many advertisers go with a print/digital combination package, this is better suited to stay in house.
So when does it make sense to outsource?
Here is the breakdown for our starter publisher concierge package:
-2-3 original articles per week
-1 local guide per month
-2 local newsletters
-All community outreach and social media necessary to effectively distribute that content
If you are trying to achieve this level of content production and promotion but struggling, we can help.
Most publishers and content creators wouldn’t be able to spend less than 40 hours per month to accomplish these tasks. You’ll be partnered with your own dedicated web editor in our publisher concierge program, they will have set tasks related to your publication so they are able to work in a highly efficient manner. You will also not have to worry about the hiring/training/retention side of things.
In addition, you receive a high level of community outreach and social media management leaving you to focus on the most important tasks on your plate.
When does it makes sense to hire your own web editor?
If you are creating approximately 4x the content than the plan outlined above, then you would probably want to take your team in-house. That means you are posting12-20 original articles per week, sending a weekly newsletter, and doing 1-2 original guides per month. You may be doing this for one publication or you may have several.
If you are operating on this level, you would want to have someone on your team, and it would likely make more sense from a financial standpoint as well.
According to, Payscale.com, the median Web Content Editor position commands $46,231 annually(And that doesn't even include the cost of community outreach or social media). The base level of our publisher concierge program that we outlined starts as low as $900 per month, that's a savings of over $35,000 annually!
If you would like to learn more about our publisher concierge program, schedule a free strategy session and needs assessment now....
