The "Three Eras" of Modern Publishing and the "Three Types" Competency Building of Editors

This paper divides modern publishing into the scientific era, the digital intelligence era, and the integrated development era from the perspective of technology-driven industrial development. The three relationships are not substitutes but iterative or overlapping relationships. Each era is marked by its prominent features or newly added features, which in turn impose new and higher requirements for editors. The new era we are currently in is an era of integrated development that combines the content of the scientific era and the digital age. In this era, the publishing industry requires both scholarly editors and technology innovation editors, as well as content management editors. To be precise, it is a composite and progressive ability structure based on scholarly editors and extending to technology innovation and content management editors. Editors should not only develop expertise in content but also cultivate technical and business competencies, thereby promoting content innovation through technology and business, and expanding business scope and industry boundaries through content. These are the technical requirements, market requirements, and era requirements for the development of publishing innovation. Under this main line, with the continuous evolution of publishing forms and technological environments, "three types" editing is not the end point, and more forms of editing competency structures may emerge in the future. However, no matter how the form changes, the core of editing work should still return to understanding and adhering to knowledge, content, and social responsibility. The evolution from traditional single-role scholarly editors to "three type" editors is not just about the editors themselves; it is also not only about the transformation of their personal roles and the improvement of their personal abilities. It reflects the broader trajectory of talent development in the publishing industry under the new situation, as talent development is the key to determining the future of the publishing industry. Building a new type of publishing talent team is a historical imperative and a glorious and arduous mission entrusted to the publishing industry by the times. This requires not only the vision and vision of enterprises but also national strategy and top-level design. Based on the current situation and reality of the editorial team in the publishing industry, it is necessary to balance the ability pressure and panic arising from the "dual growth" of the two benefits to editors and reasonably formulate a "transformation" training frameworks. Such frameworks should ensure that editors possess both the intrinsic motivation for "transformation", and the time and opportunity for "transformation", without compromising routine editorial responsibilities, while also providing enough time for continuous learning and improvement. The pressure and requirements should not be unilaterally directed toward individual editors. Publishing institutions and relevant national management departments should face the evolving requirements of the new era for publishing work and editors and carry out institutionalized, systematic, scientific, and rational layout and arrangement so that editors can be trained and improved under a scientific and rational system and smoothly achieve the transformation of "three types" editors.