I have now served as main editor for...
I have now served as main editor for the Heterodox Economics Newsletter for slightly more than 7 years. And although I do not feel tired of the job at all – it’s actually a quite inspiring task with a great team –, I sincerely believe that the Newsletter could profit from some fresh perspectives. Let me shortly, explain why.
Generally, I found that during the time of my editorship two things gradually changed: one of these things is exogenous and relates to the increasing importance of social media in scholarly and public communication. In the past the Newsletter has managed to achieve some prominence on social media, but our content is largely limited to the Newsletter itself. While I do not necessarily view this as a bad thing, the option to more fully develop the social media potential of the Newsletter is currently left unexploited (you can visit our accounts on major social media platforms here and here).
Another observation is more endogenous: when I started working on the Newsletter I tried to expand its coverage and outreach by increasing the diversity of material presented. I aimed to make the Newsletter more inclusive by considering a greater number of topics, disciplines and geographical areas. And although I had some success with this approach in the past, my creativity in this regard seems somehow exhausted – not only, but also, because other obligations have become more pressing in recent years. Notwithstanding this development, subscription numbers are still growing continuously and, all in all, the Newsletter is quite a successful adventure.
Against this backdrop and as I see a lot of merit in continuity, I have decided to explore the possibility to implement a joint editorship for the Heterodox Economics Newsletter. So in case you would be potentially interested in editing the Newsletter jointly with me and the existing team, I would like to invite you to send me an email and shortly explain your background and motivation. Basically, we are seeking somehow who is passionate about and (up to some degree) knowledgeable on heterodox economics as well as willing to contribute to a public good. Ideally, you would increase the diversity of our team (currently all white, german-speaking Europeans ;-), have an interest in social media and the web in general and would be willing to bring in your own ideas on how to further develop the agenda of the Newsletter.
However, as the role as Newsletter-editor is (obviously) not a paid job, there are probably no hard requirements at the end of the day. So if you are interested in the task, but have doubts with regard to your suitability, please ignore the latter and write me anyway. We can then, in a second step, explore patiently whether & how a successful long-term collaboration could be established.
Many thanks for your thoughts & responses on this in advance!
Best,
Jakob