West Virginia·Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations·SOC 27-3041

Best Editor programs in West Virginia, ranked by enrollment

Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material.

8 schools in West Virginia run programs that feed this job, graduating 199 people a year. The job pays a median of $56,630 in West Virginia across about 260 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledEditorNews EditorSports EditorNewspaper Copy EditorCensorReaderReviewerArt Editor
Graduates / yr
199
in West Virginia
Median pay · West Virginia
$56,630
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
260
people employed
Schools
8
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
51%
across those schools
Median net price
$17,325
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in West Virginia that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

6 programs in West Virginia that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in West Virginia (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own West Virginia page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1157
78.9%
2$34,515$24,250
2
Creative Writingmain feeder
10
5.0%
2$28,725$25,250
310
5.0%
2$34,858$25,000
49
4.5%
1$34,858$25,000
57
3.5%
1$36,931$24,500
66
3.0%
2$28,725$25,250

Top 8 schools in West Virginia

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 3 of the 8 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV Public · 3 feeder programs
151Journalism$34,07565%89%
2Marshall University
Huntington, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
18Journalism$23,16951%96%
3Concord University
Athens, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
9Mass Communication/Media Studies39%93%
4West Liberty University
West Liberty, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
9Communication, General60%97%
5Fairmont State University
Fairmont, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
7Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other44%99%
6West Virginia Wesleyan College
Buckhannon, WV Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
3Creative Writing57%$17,32593%
7Shepherd University
Shepherdstown, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
1Professional, Technical, Business, and Scientific Writing51%97%
8West Virginia State University
Institute, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
1Mass Communication/Media Studies$26,35139%96%

All 8 schools in West Virginia

Every school in West Virginia with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in West Virginia that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
West Virginia UniversityMorgantownPublic1513
Marshall UniversityHuntingtonPublic181
Concord UniversityAthensPublic91
West Liberty UniversityWest LibertyPublic91
Fairmont State UniversityFairmontPublic71
West Virginia Wesleyan CollegeBuckhannonPrivate not-for-profit31
Shepherd UniversityShepherdstownPublic11
West Virginia State UniversityInstitutePublic11

What editors earn in West Virginia

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in West Virginia
$56,630
Mean annual
$62,040
Jobs in state
260
What the range looks like
10th pct$28,180Median$56,63090th pct$100,910
Versus the national median
-27.3%

U.S. median $77,920. West Virginia pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.64×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+0.6%
Little or no change
Openings per year
9,800
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
700
115,800 → 116,500
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Editors page.

How to become a Editor

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree
Work experience needed
Less than 5 years

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

Reading ComprehensionWritingActive ListeningCritical ThinkingSpeakingActive Learning

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in West Virginia

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 18 majors mapped to Editors18 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 09.0100Communication, General
  • 09.0102Mass Communication/Media Studies
  • 09.0401Journalism
  • 09.0402Broadcast Journalism
  • 09.0908Technical and Scientific Communication
  • 09.1001Publishing
  • 09.9999Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other
  • 23.1301Writing, General
  • 23.1302Creative Writing
  • 23.1303Professional, Technical, Business, and Scientific Writing
  • 23.1304Rhetoric and Composition
  • 23.1399Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies, Other
  • 23.1401General Literature
  • 23.1405Children's and Adolescent Literature
  • 23.1499Literature, Other
  • 52.0501Business/Corporate Communications, General
  • 52.0502Grantsmanship
  • 52.0599Business/Corporate Communications, Other

Common questions

Answers for people weighing editors programs in West Virginia.

What degree do you need to become an Editor?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Journalism, which awarded 157 degrees in West Virginia in 2024-25, 78.9% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming an Editor?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 6 programs to this occupation. The largest are Journalism, Communication and Media Studies, Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies, Communication. Together they graduate about 199 people a year in West Virginia.

How much do editors earn in West Virginia?+

The median is $56,630 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 27.3% below the U.S. median of $77,920. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for editors growing?+

BLS projects a +0.6% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 9,800 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in West Virginia?+

8 institutions in West Virginia reported graduates from at least one of the 6 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do editors work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Editor, News Editor, Sports Editor, Newspaper Copy Editor among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 27-3041.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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