Whether you think direct mail is making a comeback or it never went away, the truth is publishers are returning to direct mail. The good news is that it does not have to be that expensive and a good example of this is the double postcard format.

Double postcards will not work for every publication or occasion—for instance, new magazine launches—but certainly in many cases, especially if your magazine is well-known, a double postcard may be just what you need to get back into the mail. True, you are limited in the amount of copy you can use, but sometimes less really can be more.  

Consider offering “Risk-Free Issues”—always a good seller. Can you give away a gift? If so, why not test a premiu More...

It’s easy to understand what a print magazine is. When our readers sign up for a print subscription they know what they’re going to get. But a “digital subscription”—with an ever-growing array of devices and platforms— is such a broad term nowadays. It can be confusing for our readers to understand what we are offering them.

If we offer the iPad edition, readers will also ask about the Android version, the Nook edition, the Kindle edition or the Google Play version. And where does that leave our beloved web-based digital edition—that link we email our readers? What version or edition do we name it so we don’t confuse our readers?

We need to show our audiences and our readers that they now trul More...

That rainbow of lines you get from your analytics team in those monthly reports aims to give you a quick snapshot of the different sources of traffic to your websites.

Here's what that graph looked like for TheAtlantic.com in a recent month. At Atlantic sites, the blue line tracks users who type in our Web address or bookmark our site directly; the purple line follows those who arrived via search; the red line reports links from other sites; the green line monitors referrals from social media.

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Being a “digital first” publisher is quickly becoming the new standard. Readership is shifting from print to digital devices and the number of devices that your readers are using is growing at a phenomenal rate. According to a recent study by the NPD Group, U.S. homes have more than half a billion devices connected to the Internet.

Even more shocking is that the number of connected devices per house (currently at 5.7) is more than double the average number of people per household. In only a few years publishers have gone from serving an exclusively prin More...

One of the promises always made by consultants and system providers offering integrated audience solutions is “the single view of the customer.” 

“You’ll tie together all of the ways you reach your audience—publications, newsletters, web traffic, webinars and events—and be able to see how each unique member of the audience engages with you.”

It’s a promise that puts stars in the eyes of b-to-b media executives. But beyond a few mysterious references to “complex algorithms,” very little gets said about the nuts and bolts involved in creating that single view. Namely, how do you match up all those engag More...

This month, LinkedIn celebrated its 10th birthday (that’s two more years than YouTube) and within the past decade, the social media network for professionals has really grown up. What was once viewed as solely a job-hunting destination has now evolved into a multi-faceted media channel, a place to consume thought-provoking content, digest POVs and commentary from industry leaders, share articles and access updates on-the-go via the beautifully designed LinkedIn app.

But you may be asking yourself: Why publish content on LinkedI More...

Move over social media. Something new has come along for publishers that’s making audience development (nearly) sexy: Marketing automation.

Seemingly overnight, media blogs, webinars and conference sessions are hailing marketing automation, behavioral targeting and lead nurturing as the new panacea, offering publishers opportunities to deepen their relationships with audiences and sponsors. And within all the hype is more than a kernel of truth. Marketing automation can give publishers tools to engage with their readers more intelligently, and add value to their customer relationships by providing richer, more nuanced views of what prospective buyers are doing.

For my organization, GreenBiz Group, we’ve fo More...

[Editor's Note: Al DiGuido is a publishing vet and a savvy direct-marketing and digital innovator with a track record of success that spans executive positions in a host of companies. Like many other industry watchers, he sees the spin-off of Time Inc. from Time Warner as an opportunity for whoever becomes the company's new CEO to make some significant changes. Here, in his second post on the matter, Al offers his take on what a new strategic plan might look like. Digital, of course, features heavily in his plans.]

I’m not sure why there is so much confusion and mystery around char More...

In an attempt to recapture marketing dollars lost to customer content marketing initiatives, many publishers have pulled the trigger on launching their own internal marketing services operations. This “go where the money is” mentality is both strategic and logical, but once up and running most soon witness the plethora of challenges occupying this arena. To run a successful marketing services business, publishers require more than personnel and publishing know-how; several other factors play a critical role in this business.

1. Learn Your Areas of Proven Capability
The term “marketing services” is almost comically More...

The American Business Media Annual Conference last week in Jacksonville, Florida, was a really interesting one, for a whole lot of reasons. This year's conference was certainly the last of a breed.

With the ABM membership voting last week to approve a merger with the Software & Information Industry Association, the ABM is no more, at least as the 107-year-old independent entity it once was. Now, really, all is up in the air. Whether CEO Clark Pettit stays on board beyond the fall is an open question. Probably not. Same for CFO Todd Hittle. I'll be following up in the days ahead with the SIIA chief, Ken Wasch, for answers on these and other questions.

In the meantime, some observations:

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“This was supposed to be a list of engineers at the car manufacturers. Why have you got so many people in here at supplier companies, like Bosch and Goodyear?”

It was a  reasonable question. The BPA statement for our automotive industry magazine showed the circulation neatly categorized by vehicle manufacturers and automotive parts suppliers, and then by job. I should have had no problem delivering a list made up only of design engineers at companies like Ford, GM, and Honda.

Or so you would think.

As I explained to the sales rep fuming over the list he’d requested, all those BPA numbers really represented w More...

In the midst of a national crisis—a senseless shooting in Newtown, CT, a natural disaster in Joplin, MO, or a terrorist attack in Boston—social media becomes a source for instant information.

And the recent events surrounding the Boston Marathon underscore just how complex managing these social channels has become. Misinformation spreads on Twitter, the front pages of major newspapers identify innocent men as suspects and witch-hunts begin in forums like Reddit.

As an industry, publishing is in a unique position: Even if we’re not all go-to breaking news sources, we are media outlets whose core mission is to inform. 

So, how should we handle these sensitive situations? Isn’t it our dut More...