Lou's Commentary

Digital Content: Seven Questions

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

• Is your digital content strategy delivering results?
• How do your digital content offerings compare to the competitive marketplace?
• Do you have the correct portfolio mix of digital content and services?
• How can you better monetize your digital content offerings?
• Are your digital content offerings appropriately positioned and priced?
• What best practices can you learn from the competitive marketplace?
• How do consumer, business, technology, and content trends stretch us to expand our view of what publishing is and deliver to our intended audience?

Seven Game-Changing Steps to Position for Recovery

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Most economists say the worst of the recession is behind us, but they stress that recovery is going to be slow and extremely difficult. The GDP grew 3.5% this past quarter and consumers are spending money again. But the recession has changed the attitudes of these consumers, who are now demanding more and better content for their money.

Although many companies won’t survive the journey over the mountain, it is noted that the recession has created a level playing field for many organizations. Ultimately this is an opportune time for a company that wants to gain ground and compete at a level they never imagined pre-recession. Over the next three months I will examine seven key steps to help position your company for recovery and expand your market share. The following is a brief summary of each step.

Assess Performance

Before you cut more costs, look at your pre-existing business strategy and assess your current position. Focus on where you are now and be prepared to build a plan on your foundation. Pay special attention to core activities and how you can improve on them. Do you have a defined vision for the future? And how do you communicate a value proposition to your customers?

Innovate

Don’t waste the crisis. Involve everyone on your team; in a recession, everyone is a marketer. Can you accept new ways of thinking and abandon crutches of previous years? What is something you have always wanted to try? Companies that innovate are going to have an advantage as they move out of the recession period.

Protect Profits

Protect your profits by improving competitive tracking, price testing, and trying to maximize revenue. And it is a priority to identify and nurture the customer segments that can lead you through recovery.

Revenue Diversification

Construct a detailed picture of your new and loyal customer. Make sure you focus on how new customers find you product and look at what they are buying. If you have the pulse of your customer, this can lead you to create new products and services. Diversified revenue spreads your risk.

Partnering

To reduce costs and expand opportunities, look to partner for business development, shared learning, and marketing needs. When looking for a partner, evaluate complementary competencies, how they can help minimize costs, and create other business opportunities.

Staff Hiring and Retraining

Many businesses today require a smaller, more flexible work force with diverse skills. Smart staffing decisions will save your business and help it grow during the recovery. Make sure you keep long-term staff and positive people on-board to boost morale. Also offer training and career growth opportunities to your entire staff.

Accountability with Customers

See your business as your customers do…the solution to a problem or problems. Take their pulse and measure your success.

In closing, businesses that embrace these practices can develop new revenue, effectively manage resources, develop a stronger team, and position themselves for strong growth moving forward. Each of the seven steps will be examined in greater detail in our bi-weekly blog/newsletter.

If you would like more information about this topic, contact us at http://www.sabatierconsulting.com for more information.

Assessing Performance - The First Step to Position for Recovery

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Over the next three months I am going to analyze the “Seven Game-Changing Steps to Position for Recovery.” The first step is to assess your publications past and current performance. In order to establish a plan for the recovery, it is important to first understand where you are. Now is the perfect time to step back and rigorously analyze your advertising sales strategy, your circulation numbers, and the performance of your staff.

Asking simple questions like, “How have things changed in the past year, three years, five years?” and “What does our company data really mean?” will give you a clear picture of where you are. Once you have determined the strength of your foundation, it is important to ask three key questions as you build a plan for the recovery.

How do you improve your core activities?

The core activities are the building blocks of your business. One of the biggest mistakes many publications make is to not examine their core offerings and operations. Often there is a routine that many companies get stuck in and continue to count on. This is a new age and things have changed dramatically. Although it is important to understand your core, by not questioning it and evaluating every element of its performance, you risk falling behind and missing your chance for recovery.

Take a look at your mission, your readers, and your advertisers to see how you can improve on your core activities moving forward. What do you do well? What needs work? By focusing on improving your core and not just resting on your routine, you will strengthen your potential for growth and success.

Do you have a defined vision for the future?

Take the time to create a planning committee of key members of your publication and allow everyone company wide to make suggestions for content and business operation improvements. Once you have built a team, make sure everyone stays on the same page as you move forward through a documented plan.

Even though many publications have big plans for the future, there is often a lack of communication between decision makers. It is more important now than ever before to have a “defined” vision for the future. Make it clear, build it on your core products, and make sure everyone involved stays informed and are held accountable for their positions.

How do you communicate a value proposition to your customers?

Today’s readers want more than a free umbrella, old news, and a gift subscription rate. While planning for the recovery, it is essential that you find creative ways to communicate a value proposition to your customers. Most of them have heard all of the “pitches” and they are use to turning an eye to traditional forms of marketing. Figure out something new to offer them and most importantly live up to your promises. More content. Better content. Real-time delivery. These are all things readers are demanding and if you can’t give it to them, they will move on. Another publication is competing for the same readers and might be cheaper, more accessible, and more creative than you. Be prepared to offer something extra and make it count.

Your ability to communicate a value proposition to your customers is integral in order to maintain and grow your readership. If you fall short, you will the opportunity for a new reader or in many cases, keeping the ones you have.

In the next post I will focus on how to innovate and move forward creatively in your recovery process. The most creative and forward thinking publications are going to best meet the dynamic and increasingly demanding needs of readers.

If you would like more information on this topic or have another publishing question, contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit our website and http://www.sabatierconsulting.com.

Seven Game-Changing Steps to Position for Recovery

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Most economists say the worst of the recession is behind us, but they stress that recovery is going to be slow and extremely difficult. The GDP grew 3.5% this past quarter and consumers are spending money again. But the recession has changed the attitudes of these consumers, who are now demanding more and better content for their money.

Although many companies won’t survive the journey over the mountain, it is noted that the recession has created a level playing field for many organizations. Ultimately this is an opportune time for a company that wants to gain ground and compete at a level they never imagined pre-recession. Over the next three months I will examine seven key steps to help position your company for recovery and expand your market share. The following is a brief summary of each step.

Assess Performance

Before you cut more costs, look at your pre-existing business strategy and assess your current position. Focus on where you are now and be prepared to build a plan on your foundation. Pay special attention to core activities and how you can improve on them. Do you have a defined vision for the future? And how do you communicate a value proposition to your customers?

Innovate

Don’t waste the crisis. Involve everyone on your team; in a recession, everyone is a marketer. Can you accept new ways of thinking and abandon crutches of previous years? What is something you have always wanted to try? Companies that innovate are going to have an advantage as they move out of the recession period.

Protect Profits

Protect your profits by improving competitive tracking, price testing, and trying to maximize revenue. And it is a priority to identify and nurture the customer segments that can lead you through recovery.

Revenue Diversification

Construct a detailed picture of your new and loyal customer. Make sure you focus on how new customers find you product and look at what they are buying. If you have the pulse of your customer, this can lead you to create new products and services. Diversified revenue spreads your risk.

Partnering

To reduce costs and expand opportunities, look to partner for business development, shared learning, and marketing needs. When looking for a partner, evaluate complementary competencies, how they can help minimize costs, and create other business opportunities.

Staff Hiring and Retraining

Many businesses today require a smaller, more flexible work force with diverse skills. Smart staffing decisions will save your business and help it grow during the recovery. Make sure you keep long-term staff and positive people on-board to boost morale. Also offer training and career growth opportunities to your entire staff.

Accountability with Customers

See your business as your customers do…the solution to a problem or problems. Take their pulse and measure your success.

In closing, businesses that embrace these practices can develop new revenue, effectively manage resources, develop a stronger team, and position themselves for strong growth moving forward. Each of the seven steps will be examined in greater detail in our bi-weekly blog/newsletter.

If you would like more information about this topic, contact us at http://www.sabatierconsulting.com for more information.

How fast does a new word move on the web?

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Guest post: Senior Consultant Ed Fitzelle 

It’s no fun being a celebrity these days.  Keeping your name and picture in the headlines is not easy.  There is one sure fire way, however, to get ink, and that is to bear children or to adopt from a third world country.  Like over-sized handbags, lavish jewelry, and goofy hats, the baby bump is a sure fire way for a star to get noticed between films. 

For men, the question of how good of a celebrity father you are is cause for a paroxysm of coverage, especially if the relationship that originally sponsored the offspring has broken up or is on rocky ground.  Good is to be seen with lots of kids climbing all over you at some public function, better is to be seen heading to court with your lawyers in tow to assert your parental rights, and best is to bring the kid from the broken relationship to dinner with your new love interest.  Let’s just say that children in Hollywood, Washington, and New York have become accoutrements or very noticeable accessories for the people who show up regularly on the gossip shows.

Now to the point of this blog.  We aren’t just rambling on about the ethical or moral implications of this adoption of kid power by the power elite.  It would take someone with a far higher moral calling than me to do that.  The purpose here is not to express indignation, but to run a scientific experiment to test how a word can get diffused through the web.

Writers for tabloids and celeb mags love to coin words for shorthand references to celebrities and their lives.  Think of Branjelina or TomKat.  In that spirit then, we are offering up two coinages that we think will be quickly adopted by the working celeb press and offer them gratis for their use:

1. “ACCOUTREMENFANTS”  This term describes children acquired for headline purposes whether through natural causes like all the little kids appearing after photos of every stage of pregnancy by the mom-to-be have appeared at every supermarket checkout counter in the universe, or through legal means involving a foreign trip and the intervention of the U.S. State Department.

2. “ACCESSORIES-AFTER-THE-ACT”  This refers to children acquired the old fashioned way, only we think its most apt usage will be to describe the results of encounters for which there may have been an ulterior motive on the part of one of the participants.

So there you have it.  We are releasing these terms onto the ‘net, tagged like fish in a biologist’s field study.  As soon as you see one in print or hear it on a cable show, let us know.

Publishers Beware: States are Hungry for Tax Revenues

Friday, September 18th, 2009

State governments whose revenues are dramatically lower because of the recession and are required to balance their budgets are reluctant to cut spending. Thus, state tax authorities are looking everywhere for additional revenue and turning their collections people loose on easy targets.

Who might be an easy target? Could be out-of-state publishers that do business within that state. State authorities might look at whether or not the “foreign” seller of a product has been collecting taxes on sales made within their state and whether the seller has been paying state income taxes.

Out-of-state publishers usually feel protected because they don’t believe they are required to collect taxes and where they don’t have any physical location or employees in-state, they believe that they are exempt from state income taxes. But in one instance that was recently shared by someone, aggressive state tax authorities came up with novel interpretations of what it means to have “nexus” in a state and therefore to be subject to taxation. A publisher who distributes data via CD’s mailed to customers in other states got caught up in just such a mess. It took thousands of dollars and countless hours of staff time to fight this in just one state!

Another area to watch is states that determine state tax liability where a publisher has hired a collection firm to dun overdue accounts. And who hasn’t done this? The collection agency is considered an agent of the seller which, through creative interpretation, mean that the foreign company has a location in that state.

Last? There is no statute of limitations on back tax liability.

Talk to your lawyers and review your situation.

Follow the Leaders; Print Brands That Value Digital

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Don’t miss the recent announcement by the Magazine Publishers of America [MPA] a couple weeks ago, http://www.magazine.org/ditital/14321.aspx, wherein they detail their members’ digital initiatives for all of 2009. These examples are great reading and hopefully provide incentive for other publishers to serve their audience with more offerings. While not referenced, these actions represent a wide range of financial investment.

Look at the titles. I don’t call them leaders because they are members of MPA. They are leaders in their respective fields and the point should not be missed that the leaders continue to evolve, step out, and experiment with digital tools and resources.

Here are my TOP Ten 2009 magazine digital initiatives:

1. More Magazine responded quickly to digital sub request from outer space and launched a blog

2. People en Espanol’s virtual makeover tour that drew 60 million visitors!

3. Women’s Health iPhone pre-loaded workouts

4. Scroll Motion’s iPhone app work with distribution and revenue models

5. Martha Stewart’s Martha University online

6. National Geographic’s Web site user generated content print pub: Your Shot

7. Sports Illustrated’s Web site relaunch: user friendly just got friendlier

8. Zinio’s partnership with hotels; guests can read digital magazines in room

9. This Old House June issue - all user generated from a community Web site

10. ESPN begins to charge for online content.

 It is my hope that many of you will step out and follow the leaders.

The Walters Museum in Baltimore and a Gentle Reminder about Progress

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

What to do when there are piles of files, albeit organized, on all corners of your desk and your email in box has 200 messages to be read? Take a couple hours and go clear your head. The Walters Museum in Baltimore beckoned me and two friends this Saturday afternoon.

First, who was Walters? There were two…father and son. Father was a self-made millionaire who scored his fortune in wholesale liquor and the railraod. Son was a faithful sidekick who was equally successful. They spent all their money on art and antiquities and when their collection got too big, they built themselves a museum. And a very interesting one at that.

The reason for this post, however, is not to talk about Walters or their museum. No, out of four floors on two buildings, one small cubby that housed an exhibit about communication stuck with me. The graphic was prepared for school children, but often the simpler the presentation, the more profound the message.

 There was a timeline that read as follows:

Hieroglyphics 3000BC     Pictograms 3500BC     Alphabet 1700BC     Parchment 200BC     Paper 105AD

Books 400AD     Printing 1455AD     Digital 20th century

A gentle reminder that you can’t stop progress. The difference between today and the last 4000 years is that it is transpiring at a much faster pace. A question we are asked frequently and that I pose to you is:

How do you respond to and manage change in your publishing operation? I believe this is a fundamental issue that separates the boys from the men.

Privacy: Friend or Foe?

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Today’s Washington Post, August 11, 2009, pages A2 and A3 [yes, I read the print version], gave pause to the topic of privacy. Much of our work with clients is about strategy, business models, tactics, creating, measuring impact, making and keeping readers, visitors, and customers happy to meet missions and make money. Rarely do conversations focus on privacy.

Few would question the impact that social networking [and tracking technologies] have made with how we communicate.  And guess what? With today’s announcement that Facebook purchased Friend Feed, if you are so inclined, your friends can track what you are doing on social media sites. The Post also reports that the Obama’s aides view social networking as good for you and me…something about transparency…and good for government. [George Orwell is flipping in his grave on this one.] And the government’s information czar indicates that as long as we can “opt out” on government sites, it’s not a big deal.

Here comes the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy and Technology, among others, to protect U.S. citizens.

Congress has fiddled with this topic recently, but nothing major to report yet. 
Take heed, privacy policy is going to become increasingly important to content creators and consumers from a personal and a business perspective.

FutureReady DC Conference

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

“A challenging experience!”

“…great presenters and content that was on target. An incredible experience.”

“Thanks for a fabulous learning experience.”

“So much information in such a short time!”

“There was a TON of valuable content.”

“I knew nothing about usability before attending and I am already putting the information to work with my Web site.”

Cia Romano, President of Interface Guru, and I presented the inaugural FutureReady digital media seminar last week at the University of Virginia/Virginia Tech graduate center. Class participants [limited to 25] received 24 hours of content and team exercises about:

digital trends - content strategy - site strategy - social media tools - generating revenue online and with digital tools - usability case studies and guidelines - metrics - advertising that works online.

The relevant and rigorous curriculum presented a 360 view of digital publishing. Coming soon: tools and materials from FutureReady content that you can use with your staff and advertisers.

Gated/Premium/Paid Content Online?

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Many sites gate their content for lead or customer management purposes. This is a solid marketing objective. Examples of successful publishing sites doing so include ConsumerReports.org., Taunton.com, Chemweek.com and eRepublic.com.

There is ongoing discussion among publishers about why gated content might not make sense for websites. This thinking is predicated on sharing content as broadly as possible. Putting content behind a wall cuts off conversation. Using editorial content to drive traffic can be an audience development tool. But this is done within boundaries of business rules. 

Key questions to ask include what are the business goals, i.e. how do you convert the increased traffic into more members and/or more revenue from existing customers or members?

At the same time, some sites that have relied on site advertising as the primary source of revenue are qustioning whether this is a sound business model. The reason cited is that CPMs (cost per thousand) are going lower and the bar is rising higher on how much traffic is needed to generate online advertising revenue. Creating online revenue in addition to advertising is highly recommended.

Online veterans Jeff Jarvis and Alan Mutter had this to say in March 2009:

Point: “In the old-content economy, one could make maoney selling many copies of a product. In today’s link economy online, we need only one copy, and it is the links to it that give it value. We should be spending our effort figuring out how to get more links to original reporting to support it” [Jarvis]

Coutnerpoint: “It is vital that publishers produce content that is sufficiently unique, authoritative and valuable to motivate customers to pay. If there is powre in the brand, consuemrs recognize quality and value.” [Mutter]

To read more, go to http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-mutter-jarvis19-2009mar19,0,5832874,full.story 

Trend? 

According to a December 2008 business to consumer (B2C) paid content five-year forecast conducted by Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research firm, there will be a decline in transaction based content sold online. There will most likely be a rise in sites that rely on advertising revenue to provide free content in two ways: 1) most content free and ad supported with premium services available for sale and 2) give content away and drive purchases in a more profitable channel such as events or products.

Sabatier Consulting recently queried several database fulfillment companies to ask if their publishing customers are gating content online. All responded that they are noticing an increase in both gating and charging for premium content. Approximately 25 to 30% of their clients are following these practices .

Member OrganizationsSNAP, the Society of National Association Publications that serves several hundred publishers providing publications to members in print and online, conducted an e-publishing trends survey in 2007 [most recent]. When asked how content is made available online, 64% indicated that they place some content and/or publications behind a gate [password protected] while 11% put almost all content behind a gate.Information provided by SIPA (Specialist Information Publishers Association) indicates the following reasons why people pay for access to some niche sites. These include:   

• When the organization has privileged access to source material, e.g. insider industry information
• When the site has a specific personality
• The site aggregates information which saves the visitor time
• The site hosts a specialist community
• Charging acts as a filter to ensure members have a reason and interest in participating
• Exclusivity
• Passionate about a subject and want to submerge themselves
• Training
• Help sites

SIPA goes so far as to say that the future of internet publishing is niche.

News and Portals

Primarily news sites [pure play and some publishers] and portals are the group dominating the conversation about gated/premium/paid content. They have legitimate concerns and face big challenges, but their issues are not quite the same as those of most consumer, B2B, and publishers serving membership organizations.Closing

Let’s stop wringing hands and focus on sound business principals: strategy and planning with clear voice and value proposition online supported by additional sources of online revenue. This is the challenge, not free vs. paid.

Audience Development Conference Recap

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

The Audience Development Conference ‘09 wrapped up yesterday in Chicago.  Sessions and conversation focused on digital magazines, building traffic and audience online, social media and marketing databases.

The two keynote sessions were particularly good. Brian Wolfe, Consumer Marketing & Sales at Time, Inc. encouraged audience developers to help create a great editorial product by testing cover images, subjects, colors and lines; to increase innovation; and optimal use of data.

Gordon McLeod, President of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, shared his vision and strategy for his network. Of particular importance, he believes in registering users, serving a mix of Free and Paid content [versus either or] and bigger ad units with more functionality resulting in less clutter on sites and better results for advertisers. It was interesting to learn that McLeod’s group is producing and uploading 120 videos a week and he shared that they are “aggressively trying to figure out paid video.”

McLeod’s “Five Rules for Online” are: 1) Free and paid content, 2) Own your customers, 3) Present clear and consistent consumer proposition, 4) Holistic circulation strategy, and 5) Digital commerce technology.

Viral Marketing Online, presented by Jason Jercinovic, VP Content & Dev at Complex Media was a great send off. He’s a savvy marketer and his seminar presented tips and guidelines in an entertaining presentation.

Eight Questions to Ask about your CMS

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

With literally hundreds of products available, how to choose? Do you know the eight questions that are critical to answer before you search for a new or alternate solution for content management? Technology consultant, Bob Atkinson, has updated our content management system overview.

Click the Contact Us tab, provide your email address and ask for our free white paper. Good information - no strings attached. 

Digital Magazine Editions for Mobile Devices…Waste of Time

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Advertising Age ran an article today (4/28) titled, “Publishers Seize on iPhone as Great White Digital Hope for Print”

Despite the mention of a couple of information apps, 90% of the article is about print pubs trying to be relevant (and profitable) by re-purposing their content as mobile editions and subscriptions or as stripped-out articles with attendant images and ads, delivered to current mobile devices. The information apps can and will work (I use some on my Blackberry now), but the attempts at digital magazine editions for mobile devices is a waste of time. Similarly, there are more than enough mobile aggregators out there already (Google News’ mobile format, etc.) to make it tough to make money breaking your own stories out for mobile with display ads.

But the bigger flaw with the story is that it is talking about current hardware (iPhone, Blackberry, Kindle, etc.). None of that hardware (including the current iPhone or the little new one due out this summer or Palm’s neat little Pre) is suited for digital/mobile magazine or newspaper distribution or re-marketing.

No mobile device out there at the moment (or announced yet) matters to print content producers. That includes Kindle and Sony’s eBook reader, both doomed by technology choices, proprietary formats and pricing.

The battle will be fought on the NEXT generation of mobile devices, the first of which is slated to appear before very long.

Bob Atkinson

Technology Lead, Sabatier Consulting LLC

Should We All Just Go Home?

Monday, April 6th, 2009

The B-to-B magazine sector has just gone through a terrible quarter, following a terrible year.  It was just announced that there is no buyer for Cygnus, a large multi-title trade magazine publisher, echoing the news from last year that there had been no buyer for Reed Business Information after it sat on the market for months.  Print advertising is way down, continuing its long, familiar decline.  Even online advertising is down.  The implication is that the industry is dead.  What should we do?  Should we all just go home?

The first big magazine transaction I worked on was for McGraw-Hill back in the mid-1980’s.  We simultaneously sold American Machinest and 33 Metal Producing to Penton and Engineering & Mining Journal and Coal Age to Maclean Hunter.  Coal Age was spun out of E&MJ in 1909.  E&MJ got started in 1866, ten years before Sitting Bull won the battle of Little Bighorn and Custer made his last stand.  The irony of this is that we were dumping those “smokestack” titles to increase our focus on faster growing computer titles like Byte, each issue of which was a doorstop.  Now, Byte is gone, while AM, 33MP (now Metal Producing and Processing), E&MJ and CA are all still publishing.  I don’t put any great significance in that; publications have life cycles, some longer than others.

Perhaps what is significant is that we have had bad quarters before.  We have had disruptive technologies affect our industry before.  What we do, though, in the B-to-B business is timeless.  The publisher of AM, Dick Larsen, said to me on his way out the door on 6th Avenue for the last time, “No matter how many computers you have at the front end of a metal fabricating process, you still need someone down on the shop floor who knows what metal will cut another metal and how to make things work where the cutting takes place.”  In B-to-B we know how to help people who work “where the cutting takes place” in any industry do their jobs better.  That won’t change, and that’s where the future of the industry lies.  And yes, doing that well is what creates value for publications and the companies that own them.  Back to work.

Ed Fitzelle

Senior Consultant, Sabatier Consulting LLC

Getting Through Dark Times

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

I have stopped reading any press release, article or blog that reports on layoffs and pubs going out of business. No, I am not burying my head in the sand, I just choose to spend any spare time in a search for business models, ideas, processes, etc. that can help publishers (print and digital) weather the economic storm. Here are sound principals to consider:

-Assess performance (evaluate strategy and tactics in all areas of your company; the days of flying without a current plan are over)

-Consider partnerships (for everything from content development to marketing to back office functions)

-Innovate (tap into your audience/readers/customers for co-creation)

-Protect profits (enhance customer relationships, realign priorities, improve competitive tracking, leverage pricing and  maximize revenue)

And last, study the leaders in any category. There are reasons they are number one.

Positively Green Magazine is Positively Good

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

While making a daily stop at the local Whole Foods market I noticed a new magazine at checkout titled Positively Green (Good. Simple. Solutions.) I paid $4.99 for the quarterly and later discovered that my five bucks was well spent. The content, directed toward women, is sophisticated…green without grunge.

The companion web site, positivelygreen.com is smartly done. I like this launch because it is different and speaks to an audience of women that have been left ignored until now; women who like a bit a glamour, but who have conscience.

Let’s just hope the business plan is as good as the product. Selling four issues a year for $14 with a promise to donate $2 to charity means advertising better “be there”. The inaugural issue carried 15.3 advertising pages (out of 114 total).

Who launches at a time like this? As Rex Hammock of Hammock Publishing recently noted, it can and has worked for the right idea at the right time.

Positively Green is a good concept at the right time. Let’s just hope the business plan is as good as the product and the timing.

Esquire’s 75th Anniversary Issue

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Earlier today I was a woman on a mission. I had read numerous articles and press blurbs about Esquire’s 75^th Anniversary special edition with a digital (E-ink) cover. And then I started receiving email from colleagues saying this “thing” is so interesting. Our business manager went to Borders to buy a copy which was shiny, but did not blink. Wondering what’s up with that, she began contacting bookstores in the DC metro area to ask if they had any digital copies in stock.

Calls revealed that sales are brisk; most stores are down to one “dog-eared” (their words) copy. Clerks described the special edition as “the fun thing that sparkles” or “the blinking thing”, etc.

Out of curiosity she checked eBay and you bet - it’s there. The current auction closed with 18 bids and the winner paying $18.50 plus $5 shipping versus the $5.99 cover price. Printing only 100,000 copies for sale on the newsstand feeds the passion of collectors.

As reported in the New York Times, Esquire’s publisher states that he fully expects to see this cover featured in a museum. Gotta go - my copy is on hold somewhere in Virginia.

The Folio: Awards

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Publishing trade magazine Folio: just released the list of finalists for their annual Eddies (editorial) and Ozzies (design) awards with winners to be announced soon in Chicago. There were hundreds of entries in both tracks and the competition is fierce to win the coveted awards.

This year, as in years past, I was one of many judges across North America that received a large box of magazines and single article entries to evaluate. There is no real promotional advantage to being a judge, but there is a great advantage for someone like me who spends hours each week working with publishers of every ilk. Serving as a judge allows me to pause and read great writing that I might otherwise not read or even be aware of.

Maybe I was particularly lucky to get the assignments I did; the writing in my categories and entries was good… really good. As I wrapped up reading entry number 56 I was reminded how proud I am to be associated with an industry that brings information, entertainment and creative genius (at times) to the public (whether consumer, trade, or non-profit).

Thanks to the Editors and Designers who strive for excellence. For many, mission accomplished.

Adapting to a Changing World

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

While preparing to teach an editorial seminar I read something written in 1990 by a very wise colleague in publishing.

“There’s no time for anything any more says more than we realize. We march in double, even triple time. We eat, pay attention, converse, even read on the run. Despite all the talk of quality time, there is no more children’s hour. The line between school and play has blurred for youngsters, as the line between work and recreation has blurred for adults.

Consider how often people do two or more things at once. Sony Walkman enables them to listen as they walk. Computers encourage work with travel. We have cordless phones, car radios and tv sets that allow us to watch two channels at once.

Not only have the times of day become blurred, but so have the stages of life. Today it is difficult to recognize when childhood ends and adulthood begins, when people are in their prime or really old.

There are good reasons to argue that most of this rush is due less to the pressure of life and labor than to our sources of information. The media are life’s metronome. It is the information flood that keeps us running -not to escape it, but to keep up with the many choices it offers.

The way readers read has been changed by much more than accelerated time, but rather by changes in the media, which constantly transform how our audience reads, watches and listens. The walls between the senses have melted. Reading, watching and listening used to be distinct functions. Modern technology has so improved and amplified communication that people have facts and ideas coming at them from all directions. It is as if all the containers were overfilled, and knowledge is spilling out of its compartments  and merging into a great pool of information and theory from which everybody can drink.”

Musings from someone ahead of his time. We miss you Jim Mann. RIP

media management monograph, nov/dec 1990