How to Edit a Journal Single-Handedly, Effectively?

A couple of years ago I was asked to step up from being assistant editor to editor-in-chief of the international journal Mediaevistik. In its print format, it is a traditional scholarly journal, and the previous editor had done much of the leg-work all by himself. He received the books for review and sent them out by going to the post office, often traveling ca. 50-80 miles across the border from Austria to Germany to get cheaper postal rates. Being located in Tucson, Arizona, I knew that I had to transform the entire process of editing this journal, which normally publishes ca. 5-8 articles and ca. 160 book reviews per issue. I have relied mostly on the technological means available through the web and continue to transform the way how I can handle all the work as an editor. I will here present what I achieved and how I operate now single-handedly. Our journal is on the threshold of being published only digitally, but this is something handled by the publisher. My presentation will focus on the practical steps that I took to edit both articles and book reviews.