Feature writers are assigned to cover stories and prominent in-depth articles that draw readers to magazines. A feature writer may be asked to interview a celebrity, conduct research on a presidential candidate or write about the history of his home city depending on the magazine's focus. Editors and publishers choose feature writers based as much on their ability to track down interesting stories as their exemplary writing skills.
Entertainment magazines employ reviewers and critics to handle the flood of screeners, trade paperbacks and other freebies sent to busy editors. These writers are asked to analyze movies, new restaurants and local theater and provide their opinion. The space for each review is often limited to 1/4 or 1/8 of a page, forcing reviewers to write concisely to get to their points quickly.
An editorial cartoonist creates cartoons for each edition of the magazine to reflect the publication's theme or a current event of particular interest. These cartoons range from single circular panels poking fun at a governor's latest foible to three-panel cartoons that convey a discussion about the latest pop culture icon. Editorial cartoonists often have to start out at small magazines and alternative newspapers before gaining enough credibility to work at magazines. This field is rewarding creatively for cartoonists with strong opinions but the month-to-month uncertainty can be difficult for young artists to handle. These magazine writers/cartoonists must be able to write concisely and, obviously, with humor.
Copy editors can alternate between being contributing writers and formatting tasks depending on a magazine's publishing schedule. The copy editing process starts with an edit of each article for grammar and usage problems. Copy editors also ask writers to clarify sentences and arguments that may have been left dangling throughout the article. These editors act as fact checkers at small magazines, looking into questionable statements by writers to avoid negative publicity after an issue is sent to subscribers. A copy editor finishes her work when she has edited and formatted each article properly to be printed within the magazine's standard template.
Larger magazines like "The Atlantic," "The New Yorker" and "Time" send out special correspondents to follow stories over multiple issues. These correspondents are asked to cover hot-button issues like wars, political campaigns and ongoing protests around the world. Magazines use foreign correspondents to bring human touches to stories that are often treated distantly by television and radio reporters. Special correspondents may be paid a bit more than their writing colleagues back home but these positions come with the chance of injury, illness and death in extreme circumstances.