Content Production Manager

Posting Date: 4/13/2023

Location: Rockville, MD

Cluster/Team: Publications Cluster

Coach: Director of Operations & Product Management

Salary Range (Non-Negotiable): $70,619 – $78,466

FLSA Exemption Status: Exempt

Description

The purpose of this position is to help ensure ongoing excellence in the production and dissemination of ASHA’s scholarly journals, other serial publications, and their derivative products and editions. Working in close collaboration with the serial publications director of operations and product management, production staff, and others in the unit, the incumbent plays a central role in achieving the program’s strategic aims and operational goals through continuous development and refinement of workflows, production systems, and publishing platform capabilities.

Working closely with authors, fellow staff, and publishing service providers, the content production manager has responsibility for maintaining the journals’ reputation for high quality and stature in the field. Through daily monitoring of production work and provision of feedback to vendors and contractors, the incumbent ensures that editorial standards and required turnaround times are met. By balancing resources against the continual flow of manuscripts, the content production manager works in tandem with other Serial Publications staff to provide maximum predictability and reliability of publication of individual articles, issues, special issues, collections, standalone editions, and alerts.

Leveraging expertise in XML coding and the metadata requirements associated with integrated publishing platform components, the incumbent is tasked with on-the-fly updates to deliverables and systems to provide expected functionality of a wide range of content and content features and elements.

Responsibilities

1. Provide daily oversight of the work of a copyediting service provider, offshore compositors, and freelance proofreaders to continually publish manuscripts for ASHA’s online journals, related serial publications, and derivative products.
2. Issue specs and requirements to vendors and contractors, and provide feedback as needed, to ensure that standards for quality and timeliness are met.
3. Provide APA-style proofreading and/or copyediting support on an as-needed basis for Serial Publications in the event of overflow work or unaccounted-for needs.
4. Ensure the accurate incorporation of author, freelancer, and compositor revisions, resolving any unforeseen copyright, permission, or figure quality issues.
5. Operate and issue reports from an XML-based production tracking system to sustain a continuous flow of manuscripts and their associated files and metadata to all production vendors
6. Work with fellow Serial Publications staff to continually refine the production tracking system, submission and peer review platform, and semantic publishing platform to accommodate new deliverables and added metadata elements.
7. Inspect and modify XML coding as needed to resolve problematic content elements or to achieve manual resolution of display issues until automated fixes can be determined and implemented.
8. Respond to occasional phone calls or e-mails from authors and/or potential authors regarding points of style and usage, permissions issues, and information on submission of articles.

Qualifications

Knowledge Typically Acquired Through

• Obtaining a bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, or a related field
• A minimum of 4 years of experience as a copyeditor/production editor in a scholarly publishing environment
• Progressively advancing responsibilities with production systems and publishing platforms

Scope and Depth of Technical Skills/Knowledge

• Extensive knowledge of editorial style, with thorough knowledge of APA style strongly preferred
• Exceptional knowledge of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and usage
• Intermediate experience with production planning and scheduling
• Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat/PDF annotations
• Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel
• Familiarity with use of FTP servers
• Basic knowledge of XML and HTML
• Basic knowledge of screen capture and annotation tools
• Basic to intermediate experience with publishing platform “back-end” tools such as content loaders and development and testing environments

Scope and Depth of Non-Technical Skills/Knowledge

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment
• Ability to address the needs of a variety of audiences, including fellow staff, journal editors, and members of the association
• Time management and organization skills
• High levels of initiative and drive to seek solutions and develop systems and functionality