production manager

This position really depends on what field it’s in … production managers/assistants at tv/radio are very different than book publishing which is different than magazine publishing which is different than web and any other fields out there.

For magazines, the production manager is usually the person who receives/processes/handles all the ads/insertions and makes sure they are fit to print, and they also create the “laydown” (aka page map, flat plan, etc) and update it as needed as ads/edit pages shift and change. The position at my magazine is actually called ad services coordinator, so it can go by many names.

The production managers/staff at magazines are often also the people who deal directly with the printer: they make sure the printer is doing the job well, and also that the magazine is submitting the files to the printer correctly. And sometimes that includes managing the art departments and workflow. As such, the job requires technical knowledge in terms of imaging/prepress/printing technologies/etc.

It’s rare for production positions at magazines to do any designing. Sometimes you’ll have production assistants who DO help with the editorial design, but it’s typically flowing in/formatting copy in pre-designed layouts, where all the design decisions have been made, you’re just implementing them. In that case, you’d obviously need to be adept in the layout program but not necessarily a “designer.”

As for skills/education needed, it tends to be one of those areas of magazines where it’s not as prescribed as the others. Typically any college degree will do, and it’s more about hands-on experience. If you’re still in college, get experience on your school publications handling the page maps/ladders/pagination and dealing with the actual submission of files to the printers. Maybe get an internship with a local printer so you gain an understanding of the printing process and how it’s done, since production managers have to know that stuff and often do press checks. It would also help to get a handle on a variety of the programs publishing uses, including database systems, font management systems and all that. If you’re good with computers, that too helps.

As for books, web and other areas, I personally don’t know what they typically entail. But why don’t you just search mediabistro and the like for “production” jobs, read their job requirements and do more research based on what you find there.

hi, i believe that the entry level version of that job is production assistant. here’s a sample job listing for a production assistant in book publishing: http://www.bookjobs.com/viewjob.php?prmJobID=840402

i’d imagine that the requirements and description would be quite similar in other media.