A Day in the Life of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Jason Feifer

I can’t remember the exact date I went into a store and purchased my first ever Entrepreneur Magazine. What I can tell you is that I’ve been a fan of the magazine and brand for a while.

They always shed light on interesting businesses and entrepreneurs. Which ended up being a catalyst to ignite the entrepreneurial bug inside me. If I was to choose a magazine as a gift from someone I would always choose Entrepreneur.

In order to get a better glimpse of where the magazine stands today and where they want to go, I thought it would be fitting to sit down with their Editor-in-Chief Jason Feifer. So that’s exactly what I did.

We got talking about several things ranging from what the term “Entrepreneur” means today, where they want to take the brand and magazine, plus I got an insider look into what a day in the life of an Editor-in-Chief of a big magazine is like.

Before we get into the juicy stuff let’s share a bit of Jason’s background and how he rose to become Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine.

He grew up in Florida and started his media career in community news, working for a few different newspapers in Massachusetts. Starting off as a journalist that would do stories on anything and everything that was newsworthy at the time. He would then go on to quit the newspaper after a few years and become a freelancer.

This came with its struggles because at the time social media hadn’t arrived yet so getting your stories, voice, or content out there was extremely difficult. Feifer persevered and managed to make ends meet and experienced a big break when he landed stories in The Washington Post and Boston Globe.

Feifer eventually got hired at Boston magazine, then moved to New York and became a senior editor at Men’s Health and Fast Company, before venturing shortly over to MAXIM, and then landing at Entrepreneur Magazine in 2015.

His story should shed light on the fact that he started from the bottom and worked his way to the top. Two people’s paths are never the same and Feifer’s has taught me that no matter where you come from you can make it big one day. If you truly want to be the editor of the top magazine that you buy every month, you can do it.

You just have to have the proper mindset, put in the work, and realize that it won’t happen overnight. There will be many sleepless nights and overdue bills that will pile up. This is a sign of hard times you must overcome to get you to be where you want to be.

Now that you know Feifer a little bit better, let’s dive into Entrepreneur Magazine and share some insight into where the magazine wants to go in the next few years.

Owning a domain like Entrepreneur.com and Intellectual Property associated with “Entrepreneur” holds a lot of recognition and prestige. In my conversation with Feifer, he had some great insight into how being an entrepreneur has changed today compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago.

The magazine has prided itself on showcasing small business owners over the years and really been the go-to place to learn about business. But today, being an entrepreneur has changed from being just a small business owner into something Feifer said that is very interesting.

“An entrepreneur today is an identity and attitude. We want to harness that energy and build a culture of entrepreneurship” says Feifer.

This is something I completely agree with because being an entrepreneur today has a certain attitude. You either have that attitude or you don’t. You can be a teacher with an entrepreneurship attitude or a startup founder. This attitude doesn’t just belong to small business owners anymore.

It’s growing across industries and disciplines around the world. Entrepreneur Magazine wants to be the one to harness this attitude together within their community.

Feifer told me that moving forward Entrepreneur will be changing a bit of their direction with the magazine as Feifer wants to focus more on storytelling in the form of longer stories, and also profiling some bigger-name influencers and public figures.

A Day in the Life

During my conversation with Feifer I wanted to learn more about what a day in the life of an “Editor in Chief” for a big magazine was like, so he gave me some great insight.

Feifer is essentially the face of the Entrepreneur brand. He’s meeting with entrepreneurs, filming videos, discussing partnerships, while also finding time to host Entrepreneur organized events. This is a day in the life of an Editor in Chief.

Each day for him is different and on top of all these duties, he does on a regular basis he is still editing every story in the magazine. You can imagine that he is a very busy guy.

If you were someone like me that thought an Editor in Chief just edits the magazine, I guess we were both wrong. He helps steer the magazine in the right direction, and a new direction at that.

Take a look at the magazine in some of its most recent issues and you will see that they have changed the design and layout. Trying to show a more appealing design for a younger generation that is continuing to be a focus of many brands; millennials.

Millennials and Generation Z hold the keys to the future of most small and medium-sized businesses because they outnumber baby boomers. If you are a brand similar to Entrepreneur Magazine that has been around for close to half a century then it’s important to always keep innovating and improving your model.

This is why being an entrepreneur today is more of an attitude versus an occupation. You can choose to innovate and change, or stay the same and become extinct. If I were you I’d take the advice from Feifer and try to put a fresh coat of paint on your brand every few years.

 

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