Behind the success of any magazine, the interviews and features published in it play a crucial role. It is imperative to carefully research your interviewees and make an attempt to understand their interests and requirements. If you have an opportunity to interview a magazine editor, then these are the kind of questions you can ask:
1. How do you manage your daily tasks?
2. What suggestions do you offer to writers who make many mistakes?
3. How do your editing skills improve the quality of content being published?
4. What methods do you use to comply with industry regulations?
5. How would you ensure that content is relevant to a target audience?
6. Which style guides do you prefer and why?
7. What topics would you want to cover in the next three months and why?
8. How would you give constructive feedback to a writer?
9. Can you explain your fact-checking process?
10. How do you plan and prioritize your work?
11. How would you suggest content improvements to senior managers or well-known authors?
12. How do you determine if a piece of writing is good?
13. Have you ever received negative feedback on a piece of writing that you have signed off? What was your response?
14. What has been your favorite project? Which was most challenging? Why?
15. What is the biggest mistake you’ve made as a copywriter? How did you resolve the problem?
16. What do you like about our current content? How would you improve it?
17. What are the failures that you most cherish?
18. What are the qualities that you like least, and most, about your parents?
19. Are you smart, or do you work hard?
20. How do you develop yourself outside of the work environment?
21. What are you most curious about in life?
22. What kind of magazines do you like to read?
23. Do you think people like to read magazines?
24. What is the future of the magazine world in the coming time?
25. What are the benefits of reading magazines?
26. What inspires you?
27. What are your strengths as a Magazine layout?
28. What are the best qualities of your writing style?
29. Why do you want to work for our publication?
30. What topics would you like to cover at our publication?
31. How would you improve our publication?
32. Do you see yourself still working with us in five years?
33. How often do you use social media? Do you use it for identifying new stories?
34. What publications do you read in your personal time?
35. What are some of your strengths and weaknesses in using technology for storytelling?
36. Who do you think our competitors are?
37. How have you managed the stress of tight deadlines?
38. How much experience do you have with content management systems?
39. Can you describe a time you pitched a unique story?
40. What tools do you use to stay organized?
41. Have you ever stretched the truth in your stories?
42. How have you prioritized multiple deadlines in the past?
43. What have you done to increase readership in previous publications?
44. What types of people do you have difficulty working with?
45. What precautions do you take to ensure your collected information is accurate?
46. Can you list at least three stories our publication would be interested in at this moment?
47. Are you familiar with our staff members? Are there any you would prefer to work with?
48. Do you have any particular methods of staying informed with accurate information?
49. Considering all the major stories from last year, which would you have liked to cover?
50. What content would you most prefer to write about?
51. Can you list three concepts or elements you implement into every story?
52. Are there any famous journalists that inspire you? Why are they inspirational to you?
53. If you could improve your writing, what would you change?
54. What was your worst-performing story? What did you learn from it?
55. Would you be hesitant to ask uncomfortable questions?
56. What skills do you employ when interviewing individuals for stories?
57. Would you take on a story that could tarnish someone’s reputation?
58. Tell me about a time you received some tough feedback or feedback you didn’t agree with.
59. What happened and what did you learn from getting this feedback?
60. What is your [writing, editing, design, etc.] process?
61. Tell me about your (writing, editing, design, etc.) experience.
62. Tell me about a time you had to give tough feedback or have a tough conversation.
63. What is the project you’re most proud of completing?
64. What interests you about this position?
65. What are your greatest strengths and biggest weaknesses?