Content channel editor

Hello! My name is Anil. From February 2018 until April 2019, I worked for Macmillan Cancer support as a Content channel editor.

Despite its interesting title, a content channel editor is someone who copies and pastes text from one place to another. The job involves using a Content Management System (CMS) to find text and create pages called 'components', which are then slotted into another page called a 'wrapper'. This wrapper is then added to a webpage. It is a cumbersome process. Most other content management systems create a webpage with a single click, enabling content to be added and worked on quickly.

Another task is copying and pasting text in InDesign - a publishing package - for booklets. InDesign styles are preset with no user control.

These processes are repetitive, boring and carried out in an old-fashioned factory type environment, where all editors sit in rows, back-to-back, less than half a metre apart, often cramped when everyone is around. Desk space per person is about a metre. Noise from people sitting in the opposite side of the building is deafening on most days. For months, construction of the Thames tideway tunnel added to this din.

There's no control

A content channel editor has no control over their work. Every step is prescribed and has to be marked in Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to indicate it had been completed. Spreadsheets and word processed documents are used as the 'nurses' - staff who were former nurses but now content authors - apparently didn't know how to use any other packages, such as project management or database software . Regularly, this work is subjected to endless, repetitive alteration.

There was a 1970s feel to it. The CMS, rather than being efficient, is a burden and barrier. This is largely as it is disorganised, full of duplicate information and has a search function that would frustrate even a 5-year old. Recently, Macmillan spent £2 million on rebranding which introduced a few colours, a new font and took away 2 words from their strapline. Nothing had been spent on a new CMS. Technology investment was at a standstill.

Salaries for content channel editors are around £2-5k below average. But given this is a limited job, compared to other content editing and production work, it is reasonable. Nevertheless, it's low pay for inner London.

Read more at: "No prospect for IT/Digital professionals" and "The worst company to work for"