Building a Global Editorial Team

When I created the Destinations team, the reorg brought together 8 editors across both print and digital channels. Within two years, I’d grown the team to 15 direct reports, expanding beyond destination editors to include app content, copyediting, and guidebook product development.

The Challenge

Lonely Planet’s destination content operation is genuinely global. Editors work across 10+ time zones, managing networks of hundreds of freelance authors and cartographers. Each guidebook requires coordinating research trips, manuscript delivery, fact-checking, and production across multiple contributors who may never meet in person.

The team I inherited had been through years of organizational upheaval: ownership changes, pandemic layoffs, strategic pivots. Morale was fragile, processes were inconsistent and siloed, and there was no unified team identity across the US and international editorial groups.

What I Built

Team Expansion & Restructuring: I grew the team from 8 to 15 direct reports, making the case for each new hire based on production data and strategic needs. I merged the previously siloed print and digital teams into a single cohesive unit, creating shared processes and a unified editorial identity.

As the Destinations team proved its value, I made the case to expand my scope beyond destination editors. I brought guidebook copyediting under my leadership to ensure quality control across production, added a dedicated app product editor to support mobile app content strategy, and created a guidebook development editor role to lead the 2027 format redesign. This expansion reflected organizational trust that editorial operations could successfully manage cross-functional content initiatives.

Budget Oversight: I oversee $5M in annual content operations: ensuring guidebook production costs stay within the $4M publisher-set budget (author advances, research costs, production expenses) and managing a $1M digital content budget executed cross-functionally with the digital team. This requires constant prioritization and trade-off decisions between maintaining our backlist and investing in new content.

Managing Through Change: During this period, Lonely Planet went through significant organizational restructuring. I focused on shielding the team from unnecessary disruption while being transparent about changes that would affect them. We maintained production quality and hit every deadline while the organization transformed around us.

Contributor Network Development: I diversified our contributor base, prioritizing authors with genuine local expertise and building relationships with writers from communities we’d historically underrepresented. Better representation also made our content genuinely better and more authentic.

Leadership Philosophy

I hire people who are experts in their regions, give them clear expectations and the resources they need, and get out of their way. My job is to remove obstacles, fight for their budgets, and make sure the broader organization understands the value of what they do.

That said, I stay in the details when it matters: reviewing content strategy for key destinations, stepping in when production timelines are at risk, and having honest conversations when work isn’t meeting standards.

Impact

• 88% team growth (8 to 15 direct reports) with expanded scope into app content, copyediting, and product development
• 200+ guidebooks delivered annually without missed deadlines
• $5M in content operations overseen across guidebook production and digital budgets
• Unified team culture across previously siloed editorial groups
• Diversified contributor network improving content authenticity and representation