June 2006

The Care and Handling of Writers

An editor's primary task is to bring great stories and writers into the magazine's columns. Good writing certainly makes your job easier, and talented writers will make your publication stronger, giving it more credibility and respect.

Beware the Corporate Deal-Wrecker

Anyone who has dipped a toe in the turbulent waters of buying and selling media properties has likely encountered the notorious in-house deal-wrecker. This individual;typically a business development vice president charged, ironically, with evaluating properties for acquisition;has crafted a secure...

Print Advertising Is Dead. Long Live Print Advertising

Media market watchers these days are intensely focused on online ad revenues. Reports are measuring double- to triple-digit growth in online ad spending. A Merrill Lynch report says online advertising surpassed magazine advertising this year.

Search Engine Optimization

"What we're trying to do is serve the reader, not serve an algorithm. The inverted pyramid of journalism is going to guarantee you're going to get your keywords up high in the article anyway." Chris Peacock, Vice President and Executive...

A View Into Integrated Sales

Much has been said about integrating print and Web ad programs, but insight into the kinds of specific projects is often hard to come by. Bob Maund, vice president of sales, West, at BusinessWeek, illustrated three different programs at the...

Content on the Go

Podcasts, like blogs and Webinars, can be yet another piece of a larger content strategy to service readers' anywhere-anytime needs. And, as new product initiatives go, podcasts can be launched fairly cheaply and quickly with minimal risk exposure to the...

Digital Magazines: Why Users Like Them

Digital magazines are seeing increasing penetration because of the ease with which readers can use, save and pass along information found in both editorial content and online advertisements, according to a new study by Texterity Inc. and BPA Worldwide.

The Scoop on Stochastic Screening

Stochastic printing is not a new technology; In fact, it has been around for more than 40 years. Of course it has changed since the early days of 1965, when German printing expert Karl Scheuter began studying the concept of...

The Custom-Association Magazine Connection

The custom publishing business is booming, growing faster than any other form of print media right now;doubling to a $48 billion market since 1999. Associations often aren't inherent publishers, so it is no surprise many are inclined to utilize the...

Get Relevant For Trade Shows

Most trade show audiences are a diverse mix, seeking knowledge across a variety of disciplines. So why are you still sending them the same marketing brochure? Gartner Group is seeing improved response from individualized marketing pitches. "If we get relevant,...

Working With Your Printer

Printers and magazine publishers are trapped together in a vicious circle of downsizing and price-cutting. Magazines, hammered in recent years by declining revenues, downsizing and advertisers pushing them on price, are pushing printers in a similar manner on price. Talk...

(More) Effective Launch Events

The launch party is a staple for consumer magazines, with new publications looking to generate buzz with swanky soires. But just how effective are parties when it comes to jumpstarting an enduring brand?

Evaluating the Competition, By the Numbers

When it comes to financial metrics, publishing companies, both consumer and b-to-b, like to play it close to the vest. So how does one gauge how the competition is performing? Metrics vary not only by consumer and b-to-b but by...

Enthusiast Media’s True Believer

Aspire Media CEO Clay Hall remembers when he realized the extraordinary value of enthusiast magazines. He had spent the early part of his career in city magazines and moved to enthusiast media in 1983 when he was hired to run...

Memo to Editors: Get Involved in Customers’ Growth

"If your customers' business is growing, your business is growing." Dan McCarthy The church-state divide is one of the strongest psychological barriers in publishing. Nothing gets an editor worked up faster than when someone from the "ad side" seems to...

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

I love talking about reader research. It always makes me chuckle -- especially in the context of using reader research to help sell advertising. When I was new to publishing, I'd make plenty of sales calls in which someone would...

Re-energize Web Revenues

MediaTec's Certification Magazine, a 50,000-circulation title targeting IT pros, could only stand idly by as IT jobs evaporated in 2001, along with two-thirds of the magazine's revenues, during the dot-com crash. However, Web traffic at Certmag.com never faltered, averaging 100,000...

Face Up: Banking Strategies

This month: Banking Strategies Issue: March/April 2006 Frequency: Six times a year Launched: 1924 Circulation: 31,500 Editor: Pat Allen Publisher: BAI Art Director/Design: Pressley Jacobs: A Design Partnership Photography: Dan Goldberg