Sara Zailskas, a content strategist with Realtors.org, tells us why it takes more than intuition or seriousness of purpose to consistently deliver engaging content.

I recently took a job as a Web content strategist for an association’s Web site after four years in editorial with a group of housing industry trade publications.

When I shared my new-job news with colleagues in the publishing world, 99 percent of the time I had to explain what content strategy is.

And fair enough! I had only discovered the term a little over a year ago, which is shocking because it’s essential. Content strategy is important, and if we all employed it, we’d be more efficient and more successful.

What is content strategy?

Content strategy is determining the best way to present information to your audience so that it’s valuable and makes them want to come back for more.

Sounds like what you do, right? Probably to a degree. But as an editor, my team and I got so caught up producing and editing copy it was easy to forget to plan for it beyond the basics.

As a content strategist, I ask our content producers (read: writers and editors) questions like these:

• What’s the goal of publishing this? What are you trying to accomplish?
• Who are your trying to reach?
• Is this the best format (Q&A? List? Video interview?) for this information?
• What related content is in the pipeline?

I take a look at the content and ask myself how Joe User would react to the information. I consider where Joe would expect to find it. I think about whether Joe would find it useful. And I assess the likelihood Joe would return to – or better yet, refer to -- us as a resource.

In the middle of discussions or debates, my supervisors will always come back to our guiding questions: what’s best for our audience and what makes the most sense. And isn’t that what all businesses want for their customers?

Why you should care

If you give people useful information, they’ll come back for more. And if they’re coming back from more, that means your traffic, audience feedback and audience loyalty are going up – which hopefully means more money in the bank.

Of course, caring isn’t enough: you need to back up your strategy with metrics. Start with one piece of content. Come up with strategy, employ it, track the numbers, tweak what’s necessary, and keep that top of mind for the future.

Hiccups and how to get rid of them

Content strategy can be tricky. Here are just a few challenges you might face and solutions:

• Time to plan. You’ll have to make it part of your planning routine. If you need to post a list of content strategy questions next to your computer to ask yourself, do it.

• Resources. You likely don’t have a content strategy team to turn to for help and thus are your own content strategist. This isn’t a bad thing! Consider the payoff for your business and for your career.

• Team or management buy in. The fact you’ll have to do a lot of educating about the topic means it’ll take longer for folks to wrap their heads around the concept – and devote money to it. Have patience.

• Silo’ed thinking. Cross-promotion is a buzzword among us content strategists, but that’s difficult to grasp if you have a specific beat or focus to your work. Keep Joe User’s perspective in mind throughout.

• Knee-Jerk publishing. The urge to “file away” information or “just get it out there” as opposed to optimizing it. Don’t stop at the first answer you think of.

If you have a content strategist, have discussions with him or her. And if you don’t, I challenge you to become one to elevate your content. Hopefully your traffic, audience loyalty, advertising and other important measures of success will rise too.

Sara Zailskas loves her job the National Association of Realtors as a content strategist for Realtor.org and relies on her editorial background every day.

Labels: Editing, editorial

As the editor of a business-to-business publication, I rely on outside contributors to keep our pages stocked with insightful content – content that’s especially relevant to our readers because it was written by somebody in the same position as them.

Whether the author is a company executive with high-level knowledge or a field professional with a firsthand understanding of the issues that keep our readers up at night, contributed content is the lifeblood of any b-to-b brand. But as essential as outside contributors are, they can present their share of challenges, as well.

Outside contributors have knowledge we can’t possibly possess about the industries we cover – but they also lack an understanding of the ins and outs of a newsroom. As journalists, we can’t expect contributors to know exactly what we do any more than we know exactly what they do. We do, however, have a responsibility to them and to our readers.

Here, then, are three best practices for working with outside contributors.

1. Be as clear as possible with expectations up front. We have a thorough document outlining the submission guidelines for our particular publication, which includes a mission statement, readership, deadlines, and pointers on style and voice. But outside contributors are busy with their day jobs, and while it’s ideal that they review and follow our three-page submission guidelines, it helps to cut to the chase. For us, the most important aspects of any contributed content are that it be nonpromotional and discuss the “how” just as much as the “what and why.” I make sure to emphasize that in the email where I accept the pitch, and attach the submission guidelines for their review.

2. Fact check, fact check, fact check. Never assume that your author has the facts straight just because of who they are. Cross-check every number, date, name, and fact. While you’re at it, run a plagiarism check. Often, plagiarism from an outside contributor isn’t a purposeful attempt at deception as much as it is a lack of understanding about what is and isn’t OK to quote at length. Recently, while fact-checking some figures in a story, I ran a block of text through Google to try to find a particular news story cited in the contributed article. That block of text came back – as having been pulled directly from a U.S. Patent application, along with about 600 additional words that appeared in the contributed story. It always pays to check – and check again.

3. Be flexible. Industry experts have so much to offer, so don’t stop at “no” after asking for a 1,500 word how-to article. If they’re too busy, find out if you can contact them later in the year, when the topic may come up again. Look at other formats – maybe they don’t have time to run an article, but they have 15 minutes for a phone call that will result in an informative Q&A. Maybe they can write a brief blog post. Be creative, and look for ways to leverage their knowledge in your publication.

When handled well, an outside contributor can be a rich source of content for your publication over time. They can offer referrals to other contributors, and keep you informed on industry angles you might not pick up in the midst of your own day-to-day tasks. Extra time spent with a contributor on the front end can pay off handsomely in time saved in the long run.

What about your own best practices? What have you found has helped you work better with industry contributors and get the content you need? Share them here in your comments.

By Christina Pellett

Christina Pellett is the editor of the Agent's Sales Journal, a business-to-business publication for life and health insurance agents. Follow her on Twitter at @cpellett.

Labels: best practices, Editing, outside experts

Web Video Editing: When to Use It, How to Do It
A Step-by-Step Walk-Through for B2B Editors

WHEN: Wed., Sept. 29, 2010, 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. (Coffee, juice and pastries provided.)

WHERE: First Third Bldg., 600 Superior Blvd., Cleveland: 1^st Floor Conference Room.

Readers of business publications are increasingly demanding Web video from publishers as those publishers design ever-more-sophisticated online presentations to complement their traditional print coverage. Yet a superior translation of material to an online video format isnt easy.

For one thing, not all subjects are appropriate for Web video treatment. For another, even if an in-house Web video is a good approach, getting up to speed to produce it requires investments in time, staff energy, and start-up costs — although perhaps not as much as commonly thought.

Veteran B2B editors, with storytelling skills already honed in print media, though, now are finding ways to extend their editorial skills into video editing without unreasonable penalties. It takes patience, and a willingness to experiment and make mistakes, and the experiences of those who have successfully gone before can be a big help.

In this half-day workshop, REALTOR magazine Senior Editor Robert Freedman will host a discussion of the types of coverage that lends itself to Web video, will demonstrate camera and staging basics, and will provide a detailed walk-through of the technical aspects of video production. Hell concentrate on these editing basics:

• Transferring video from your camera to the editing platform
• Editing video to create a sequence
• Adding transitions
• Underscoring with music
• Providing voiceovers
• Enhancing badly shot or lighted footage
• Exporting to a playable file
• Uploading to hosting sites

AGENDA:

Labels: Editing, seminar, video

By Maureen Alley
Journalism and new media experienced a front-end collision in the last few years. Social media, faster news cycles and increased demand from all angles are driving journalists to report more at faster rates. And with more to do with less time to do it, journalists often fall to the numbers.

What do I mean by falling to the numbers? Simply: Quickly posting content that cites statistics because they sound interesting. People love stats, and love to cite stats to back up their beliefs. And knowing this, you grab the articles that have numbers and post them. You’ll increase your traffic and user engagement. However, you may be hurting the very people you’re trying to report to.

During my time as managing editor for Website Magazine, I quickly learned that any headline with statistics would drive huge traffic numbers to the website. It would increase retweets on Twitter and ultimately discussion. And isn’t this all what it’s about? Well, not really.

Anyone who is a close follower of politics knows that it’s easy to sway stats in your favor. And anyone who attended journalism school knows it’s important to look at all the numbers to really know what they mean.

So while we need to report and provide the information our readers want/need, we also need to remember our journalistic foundation. You could be providing information to your readers that is inaccurate or doesn’t take into account the whole story. It might take a little longer to report the story, but you’ll know you’re reporting accurate information. Your readers will recognize it, and so will your advertisers.

Maureen recently left her job at Website Magazine to move closer to home in Madison, Wis. She's currently looking for a new writing/editing gig, so give her a shout at malley13@gmail.com if you know of anything in that area.

Labels: Editing, Journalism, Management, Maureen Alley

By Rosalie Donlon

When you publish B2B content you often rely on professionals for articles sharing their expertise or insight. My authors are attorneys and other professionals who write for a nonlegal audience. It has always been a challenge getting them to write for our journals and share their knowledge for glory instead of cash.

In the current economic climate, I find that professionals are more aware of the importance of getting – and keeping – their names in front of potential purchasers of their services. I used to have more success with senior associates or junior partners who were trying to build up their practices than with senior or name partners. Recently, I’ve found that professionals at all levels understand the value of contributing to B2B publications, and their firm’s marketing department often helps encourage them to publish articles. I’ve gotten to know the directors of marketing for several professional firms and they do a great job of finding authors. They also nudge the professional for you many times, which has been a big help. In the last year, I’ve had marketing directors contact me asking about publishing articles or other content from their firms.

I’ve found a related problem with professional authors that can be difficult to deal with. Often, a professional will commit to writing an article, but miss the deadline because of the demands of billable work, which always comes first, especially in 2010. One solution we’ve tried is to turn the planned article into an interview. The professional is more willing to give us an hour of time to share his or her expertise than to sit down and write from scratch. If the professional’s time is really tight, we’ve e-mailed a list of questions, received answers, then followed up by e-mail and finally by phone. Our authors also help us find other professionals, either in their firms or among their colleagues.

To help promote the professional’s article, we usually offer a limited number of free reprints and permission to post the article on the firm’s website (with attribution, of course). In certain circumstances, we allow the professional to use the article as part of a handout for seminar or conference materials (again with attribution). We find that this encourages other professionals within the same firm to contribute to our publications and it helps us by keeping the publication’s name in front of potential subscribers. In the current economy, we’ll use whatever channels are available to promote our authors’ contributions and our publications.

Rosalie Donlon is an acquisition editor with Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, focusing primarily on corporate compliance and employment law issues. A graduate of the University of Toledo College of Law, Rosalie has worked in the business and professional publishing industry for more than 20 years. She can be reached at Rosalie.donlon@wolterskluwer.com.

Labels: Editing, Management, Rosalie Donlon, Writing

By Jim Sulecki

Rare is the opportunity to see the beginning of a new media platform, and rarer still to be in a position to help shape it. Yet in the digital age, this is precisely the fortuitous place that we early 21st-century journalists occupy. As was the case with the pioneers of television, many of the approaches we take today to online media will no doubt be refined over time but they also will help to define this completely new way to view and describe the world.

This portends great things for B2B editors and writers, and especially for those who can retain their journalistic backbone while shaping a whole new outer identity. Like early TV journalists trained in radio who first merely read the news to the eye of the camera before discovering television’s potential for visuals, we must put aside our own print assumptions and adapt the online medium as a new and unprecedented means of multiplatform communication and interaction.

Here, in no particular order, are 10 trends – currently in various stages of adoption – that have the potential to make or break our editorial careers, depending on how well we adapt.

1. We will be measured. Gone are the days when we as print journalists could proclaim an article a success if we received a handful of favorable calls and letters or emails. Today the online brand with the most opens, unique visitors and pageviews wins. And this will be true for individual writers and articles as well. Audience response is not everything – there always will be room for the important story that absolutely must be published – but metrics increasingly will be how the money people keep score.

2. Our content will become “co-creative” with our audiences’. That is, we’re going to share more and more of the authorship of our media products with the people who consume them. Article comments and online polls have been joined by sparks of dense, peer-to-peer interactions in online communities and growing numbers of blogs by industry experts – natural descendants to magazine columns. Coming now or soon: far more audience-supplied text, images and video, which itself will spin off more audience interaction. And how long will it be before our B2B sites begin true crowdsourcing – issuing “open calls” for collective, problem-solving contributions from our communities? B2B media historically has published articles identifying pressing industry challenges; now we can become instrumental in their very resolution.

3. Editorial-produced content will focus predominantly on analysis and exclusives. I think we’re in the middle of a long-term decline in the need for what used to be called “news of record.” Major company and people announcements, meeting news, and tradeshow coverage become commoditized when they hit everyone’s websites at the same time. Remember too that we’re not alone in using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to follow the slipstream of daily developments. In the future we’ll spend less time and attention on non-exclusive news reporting and more of our efforts on (a) expert analysis of the meaning of and likely reverberations from breaking developments, and (b) editorial presentations that our brands alone are known for – rankings of companies and people, expert predictions, exclusive columns and blogs, etc. A deeper and more expert knowledge of our markets than often has been true in the past will be needed for us to do this.

4. We are in the entertainment – as well as information – business. B2B media historically has been resistant to much of the entertainment value of consumer media, but in an online realm where disparate worlds can and do collide, we may be at liberty – in fact, compelled – to discard some of our businesslike soberness in order to remain relevant. Some marketers already have discovered the great value of using humor in viral video, such as Blendtec and its faux-retro “Will It Blend?” series. Prediction: video and audio scriptwriting is in your future; in fact it already is reality in some corners of Meister Media, where we recently constructed a video production studio. Likewise, the very graphic presentation of B2B websites will evolve, as Flash and other forms of animation come to the editorial webpage as surely as consumer-like 4/c forms chased cover-to-cover b/w from our magazine pages. Editors increasingly will work with designers and web developers in “directing” animated presentations.

5. We (not publishers) will be the primary marketers of our own content. Posting our content, once the coda of our work, now is setting off a secondary step of “placing” links in social media; monitoring metrics; and modifying story angles, headlines, ledes, etc. in a gambit to reap more pageviews. Again, this duty will fall on the individual journalist as surely as the work of crafting the very story itself.

6. It’s nearly certain that no member of our audience is going to pay us or our publishers directly for our content. The Wall Street Journals of the world notwithstanding, the vast majority of the media will have little to no success turning around the deeply ingrained expectation for free content online. It’s been estimated that as few as 5% of online users will pay for digital news. As is the case with controlled circulation magazines, this reality will require editors to continue working with their publishers and their advertising community to attract commercial support that pays the freight.

7. The fading “bright line” between editorial and sales may get even dimmer. Publishers and salespeople are as challenged by the transition to online as editors are, with the famed “print dollars to digital dimes” devolution reducing revenue and profit margins for many media outlets. Publishers need audience engagement like never before. Web metrics are like nonstop readership studies – they’re conducted year-round, year in and year out. In order to generate more pageviews and, hence, ad impressions, the editor’s creativity and knowledge of audience needs and behavior will be in even more demand, sometimes directly in the service of the advertiser. This is not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, it’s probably good for the longer-term employment prospects of the editor – but emerging discussions about online ethics are very timely, as the differentiation between editorial and advertising is not always as distinguishable online as it is in print.

8. In just a few years our content will be just as likely to be read on mobile devices as on desktop and computer screens. In fact, as I wrote this, a report in min predicted that mobile will overtake desktop web in three years. Text for smaller screens must be pithier and more useful on the go, and its development even faster – nearly instantaneous. Graphic images must be more workmanlike and immediately useful, less ornamental. And video played on handhelds is on the verge of a breakthrough.

9. Print content will go the premium route. In a web-first environment our online content often will be priority one on a day-to-day basis, but that doesn’t mean print will go by the wayside. In my view, print publications will be developed for a more select audience worthy of the additional costs of printing and distribution. To coexist in an online world, print content will need to improve overall and reassert its unique value. I envision a return to larger trim sizes, higher-quality paper, and more lavish editorial and graphics – but again, for a more select audience, and likely at a less-than-monthly frequency.

10. The Millennials will want our content, but in different packages. I recently wrote in my emedia blog about my college-age daughter’s disinterest in newspapers. But a rejection of the medium doesn’t necessarily equate to a rejection of the content. Example: the Beatles are more popular now than they have been in years, in part due to Rock Band’s popularity with the iGeneration. The Millennials of course will demand content that is relevant to their specific needs – a challenge for every generation of journalists – but what they consume must be served in a context that they like and are used to: far from reliant on paper; mobile (of course); entertaining and irreverent (think Nickelodeon, their cable channel of preference growing up); interactive (think Facebook); and customizable (think iGoogle).

As a media platform the web already has been around for 15 years or more, so isn’t it funny that we should still be talking about how to adapt our content for its uses? I don’t think so. The early 2010s for emedia are roughly analogous to the early 1960s for TV, which is to say: the infrastructure has been laid, the technological novelty (and intimidation) is wearing off, the audience is reaching a critical mass – and attention now turns to the quality and value of the contents that are pulsing through this pipeline rather than on the technical marvel of the pipeline itself. For anyone involved in the creation of content, it’s an adventurous time to be alive.

Jim Sulecki has more than 25 years of editorial, publishing management and sales/marketing experience in business-to-business and consumer media. Currently he manages Meister Media Worldwide’s 20 brand and custom websites, 12 branded e-newsletters, custom e-media, webinars, and online video/audio, crafting sales and marketing strategies and developing online content and search engine optimization programs. He was named “Innovator in Business Media: Online Executives” by BtoB Media Business magazine in June 2009.

Labels: Digital, Editing, Jim Sulecki, Management

By Howard Rauch

Labels: Editing, Howard Rauch, Journalism, Management, Writing

By Howard Rauch

Routine E-news Coverage Will Be Our Downfall!!

This commentary is based on the 50-site e-news survey I just finished and is a combination of my e-news philosophy and information that I found during the study that goes against that philosophy.

Reaction A: “Wow!!! What a terrific article!!”

Reaction B: “These people just don’t get it?!!?”

These two outbursts – clearly at opposite ends of the opinion poll – came to mind often depending upon whose e-news I was evaluating. The occasion of this evaluation was the several months spent conducting a 50-site study of B2B e-news delivery. Unfortunately, the former reaction was rare. The latter squawk occurred more often as I examined 446 e-news articles encompassing dozens of B2B industries.

Was the anguish justified? Maybe not. It depends upon which e-news philosophy you embrace. Mine is simple enough. No matter what day it is, breaking news highlighted in e-newsletters must be “best in show” calibre. Specifically, when assessing the presence of urgency on the basis of being High, Medium or Low, there is no room for Low. Knowingly or not, that is what we all signed up for when we embraced the web. Further, if enterprise is being judged on the basis of High, Medium or Low, “No” is not an option. Even so, two-thirds of the articles rated were in the “No” category.

Of course, there are obvious reasons – we all know them – why “best in show” remains elusive. “Time” tops the list. “Resources” also is up there somewhere. Most of us have had to add website responsibilities to a job description that includes print, show business and, most recently, digital. In some cases, the need to deliver hot news on a regular basis is a new adventure for veteran staffs.

With all this, we must do everything possible to avoid making routine coverage a regular habit. Here are five items … some major, others admittedly minor … that we might consider as we plan future e-news:

(1) Every e-newsletter edition must lead off with dynamite coverage. What is dynamite? Try this: When it came to reporting regulatory news, most items rehashed a press release and stopped there. On rare occasions, writers saw the wisdom of producing a reaction story. In at least one case, the staff in question definitely was hard pressed in terms of workload. But the desire to excel won out and a terrific reaction story was the result. When evaluated during my study, the article earned 89 out of a possible 100 points, making it number two out of 446 on the e-news delivery scale. The “best in show” article scored a remarkable 98. Most articles fell into the 40-50-point range.

(2) Clearly distinguish your coverage from competitors’. Before starting this blog, I was running some “like item” analysis as part of a competitive analysis project. “Like item” refers to how two competitive sites cover an identical event. In the case of one article, it immediately was clear that both parties rewrote the same news release. Even the quotes were exactly the same. Unfortunately, this happens a lot. It’s lack of enterprise coming back to haunt us.

(3) Make statistical articles more digestible. Numbers generate hot news, so it’s no surprise e-news reports often focus on the latest survey results. However, when you run a 600-700 word article that recites all sorts of percentage increases and decreases, you’ll probably lose the reader. Instead, follow the “one picture is worth 1,000 words” principle and run one or more quick-read charts.

(4) Use at least one stimulating quote in every article. Quote-barren articles definitely are insufficient if we’re looking to engage e-news visitors.

(5) Ban “source first, news next” articles. Yes, I keep harping on this one. If a person’s name, title and affiliation use up 11 words or more, please don’t launch an article with that albatross weighing it down. One factor measured in my survey is lead value. This is the number of words wasted before a key story point is reached. Most articles reviewed were pretty good, meaning the key point was made within ten words. But there were enough cases where anywhere between 20 and 150 words elapsed before a meaningful connection was made. “Source first” was the culprit in almost every case.

Labels: Editing, Howard Rauch, Journalism

By Howard Rauch

Occasionally we need to remember that there is life beyond websites and digital issues. Basic editing snafus — especially those of a legal nature — can land us in hot water. Even experienced editors fall into an occasional trap involving libel or some other snag. Here are three reminders worth including in your editorial manual if you have one … or in a policy statement distributed to all staff members.

1. Avoid midstream reporting of undecided legal disputes. For example, the fact someone is charged with committing a crime or otherwise violating a regulation doesn’t mean the accused will be found guilty. In my editorial director days, I dealt with several situations where an editor interviewed the plaintiff in a dispute while the case was still in progress. The interviewee took some serious pot shots at the defendant’s character. If the article made it into print, we would have been up the creek. However, we had a policy that all articles of an inflammatory nature had to be cleared by a member of top management. That policy kept us out of trouble.

A variation on this theme is that X, one party to a dispute, issues a press release announcing intent to sue Y. The release includes a description of stiff penalties Y would incur if found guilty. You publish that information at your peril. Instead, wait until the case is settled. Meanwhile, obtain a copy of the complaint as a way of verifying the accuracy of the information contained in X’s press release.

2. Fact-check information excerpted from other media before it gets printed. If certain details are misleading or totally inaccurate, you may end up on the wrong side of a complaint. The fact that the excerpted material did not originate with you is no defense. In my consulting practice, I constantly needle editors who frequently use excerpted material in news sections. The better practice is to use, say, a newspaper article as a lead only. Then develop your own exclusive slant by following up with sources cited. Most likely, you know the parties quoted in the original story. If not, now you have an opportunity to make a new contact.

A variation on the above theme occurs when editors routinely reprint information from websites without obtaining clearance to do so. Remember that copyright privileges apply. Aggrieved parties are within their rights to make your life miserable.

3. Beware of using “endorsement language.” At the very least, resulting infractions will haunt you forever with important contacts. In this case, typical goofs occur in the way we edit (or don’t edit) new product announcements. I’m sure you know the drill. A product announcement lands on your desk filled with glowing descriptions of an item’s value to your readers. Experienced editors assume a “glow must go” position and routinely red-pencil all the puffy stuff. But from what I’ve seen, this is not real life at every publication. Among the glitches that sneak through are statements alleging that product X is better than all competitors. Or the announcement will claim that the product is the only one of its kind out there … or the first one in its field. You had better verify that competitive claims are true. If you can’t do that, please have a policy in place describing how to field complaints from competitors who have a legitimate beef.

Howard Rauch is president of Editorial Solutions Inc., a consultancy focusing on B2B magazines. Rauch is the 2002 recipient of ASBPE’s Lifetime Achievement Award. You can contact him directly at howard@editsol.com.

Labels: Editing, Howard Rauch, Journalism

The ASBPE National conference in Washington, D.C. last month was a resounding success.

Even more so, given the current economic climate in which many associations have had to cancel their annual gatherings.

Sessions at the conference examined:

• Innovative responses to today's troubling times
• How to use social media to advance your brand, generate editorial leads, and increase readership
• Ways to sell your ideas to company executives
• How to keep your print publication relevant in a digital age
• Print and digital workflow strategies
• Alternate ways to present content using visual journalism techniques
• ASBPE Magazine of the Year winner case histories.
  

Here is a short video clip that captures some of the golden moments.

- by Steven Roll, ASBPE immediate past president

Labels: ASBPE Conference, Editing

By Howard Rauch

Most editors are knocking themselves out facing the dual challenge of creating great content for websites and printed media. But be warned: When it comes to electronic media, you must prepare for the eventuality of a competitive analysis attack.

How will you respond to opposition claims that their website is clearly superior? Do you already conduct regular electronic media strengths/weaknesses reviews? If snafus in your content delivery are detected, do you remedy them promptly?

I’ve been thinking more often about stuff like this since I began handling e-newsletter/website review projects. My evaluation process usually begins with a check of how publications drive readers to their websites. Among other things, it’s surprising to find magazines that don’t even include an “on the web” contents page.

The next phase – which is where the rest of this column is focused – is e-newsletter evaluation. As a former newsletter editor, I am especially vexed about one aspect of today’s typical electronic approach. That is . . . most e-newsletters function as a contents page for the website. There is very little independent news value readers can take away without going further. In terms of competitive comparisons, we need to think about how existing information value can be enhanced.

Anyway, here is a list of seven e-newsletter factors that could prove burdensome if your competitors have the edge. In the future, I expect my list to swell to at least 25 items.

1. Dedicated editorial webstaff. This should be the top concern. It’s impressive for competitors to emphasize that advantage if it exists.

2. Evidence of enterprise. One way to get this point across is by identifying several articles that are web exclusives. Linking to newspaper articles or copies of corporate press announcements, while informative, is not the best sign of enterprise.

3. Informative news previews. Several e-newsletters simply list a bunch of headlines. Instead, each head should be accompanied by at least a three- or four-line blurb.

4. Content variety. Instead of a total news item focus, provide a longer preview of a current blog. Include interesting excerpts from current reader forums. Run a problem/solution contest; advise visitors that winners’ names will be posted in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

5. Tightly edited copy. Blurbs linking to news articles that consist of a parade of 30- or 40-word sentences won’t do. In one recent e-newsletter analysis involving 20 news articles, almost half of the sentences used ran beyond 30 words; several were in the 40-50 range.

6. No junk allowed. Most e-newsletter editors understand that featured news blurbs should link to high-value, in-depth website articles. But sometimes less than best-of-show items sneak through. For instance, be wary of allowing three-sentence newsletter blurbs that link to “full” articles (sometimes of a puffy nature) consisting of four or five sentences.

7. Emphasize statistical expertise. If your competition rarely publishes original research, your e-newsletter is an important way to exploit that shortfall. Perhaps you can even include occasional self-contained data summaries – no need to click for additional details.

Whether or not you concur with the above suggestions is incidental. The important thing – as in any competitive analysis review – is that you should create and regularly apply an evaluation system that can be quantified.

Howard Rauch is president of Editorial Solutions Inc., a consultancy focusing on B2B magazines. Rauch is the 2002 recipient of ASBPE’s Lifetime Achievement Award. You can contact him directly at howard@editsol.com.

Labels: Custom Media, Editing, Email Newsletters, Howard Rauch

By Paul Heney

As this election season drags on, I’m hoping for a politician who will rediscover the power of words.

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing resentment towards intellectual thought and speech in our society. A lot of it seems to have come through in attacks on the left by the right, but I don’t see this as strictly a one political party thing. Some of it is due to the dumbing down of America by the mass media and some of it is a result of our intellectual laziness.

In her new book The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby explores many of these issues, and it is a fascinating read. She begins by skewering the use of seemingly harmless words and phrases, and I’m not sure I’ll ever look on some of them in quite the same way.

One example is the term “folks.” I’ve used it for years, and it has a feel of wholesomeness, almost an old time, Americana vibe. But Jacoby explores how the use of casual colloquialisms like folks in our national political discourse is the antithesis of serious, respectful debate and conversation.

Her pleas sound like that of a grumpy old grammar teacher, until she provides examples of speeches by FDR calling for wartime sacrifices and George W. Bush reassuring the American people after the 2005 London terrorist bombings. Insert Bush’s frequent use of "folks" into FDR’s fireside chats, and you realize how overly simplistic our politicians have become. (In the interest of partisan fairness, do some Google searching … you’ll find "folks" being bantered about by Democrats, too, from Joe Biden to Nancy Pelosi to Michelle Obama.)

The other fascinating term being used a lot by the media is "troop" (and "troops"). Jacoby digs into this, as well. I’ll confess that for the longest time, I didn’t quite understand what these words meant exactly, and rather thought that troop was a collective noun (rendering "troops" rather grammatically challenged). I suppose I was perhaps confusing the word with platoon or regiment. But commentators on the nightly news simply use the term troop and troops in place of soldier and soldiers.

I’m not sure how this started, but one thing is clear: Soldiers are much more readily identified as individual human beings. Troop is so much more generic and anonymous sounding. Hearing that 28 troops were killed last night in a war zone sounds bad, but hearing that 28 soldiers were killed certainly has a more immediate effect on me. Perhaps this is yet one more way that we choose to shield ourselves from the horrors of what we see on the news every night.

In this new area of Facebook and LinkedIn, I sometimes wonder if our language will be further dumbed down into text-messagelike snippets. As much as I embrace these new social networking sites myself, I sometimes have to tell myself to pick up the phone or meet someone for dinner, so we can have more of an intellectual conversation. Something that’s about more than sound bites and gossip — something that’s real.

[Editor's Note: For more book reviews and recommendations, see the ASBPE Bookstore — or visit the ASBPE GoodReads group, where you can see members' ratings and reviews and add your own.]

Paul J. Heney is editorial director for Questex Media's Hotel Group, which includes Hotel & Motel Management, Hotel Design, and Luxury Hotelier. A member of the ASBPE Cleveland Chapter board, Heney served as national president of ASPBE from 1999-2003. He is also president of TABPI, an international B2B think tank that promotes B2B journalism and professionalism.

Labels: Books, Editing, Journalism, Paul Heney, Writing

By Katy Tomasulo
Washington, DC Chapter President

I'm a magazine junkie (and in this industry, I'm not alone, I'm sure). But I also live in a tiny apartment, so keeping shelves of my favorite consumer pubs is just not an option. Over the years I've developed a system for dealing with my addiction, a combination of detox and organization.

My personal magazines get divided into two groups: those that entertain and those that help me live a better life. Those that entertain get read in bed or at the gym and promptly recycled. Of those that help me lead a better life, I tear them apart. Decorating ideas from Real Simple go into one binder for future reference; new recipes from Cooking Light go into another; cool hiking trails from Backpacker go into yet another; and so forth.

In b2b, our readers are faced with just as many choices on their desks, with stacks of industry magazines from us and our competitors, along with general business pubs. Problem is, we don't have the luxury of two groups. No one is going to read us for the pure entertainment value. We must fall into the tear-out group.

One of the best compliments I ever heard was at one of my old publications, soon after a redesign, when a reader told our editor that his latest issue of the magazine was torn to shreds. He'd ripped out pages to file away for later or to share with his workers. I can't think of a better way of telling us that what we were doing was exactly what he needed.

I feel like, in the simplest terms, the tear-out factor is our ultimate mission. We have to give readers something they can learn from, turn around and implement, or base an important decision on. We already know this, but I think it's sometimes easy to lose track of it. Take a look at your current slate of stories and at the presentation of those topics. Is it not only understandable, but useful and relevant? Does it solve a current problem? Is it actionable? Simply: Will it help your audience do their jobs better?

Every time I sit down at home to rip apart and file away a stack of back issues, I can't help but think about my day job. Are my readers doing the same thing? Are my words and decisions inspiring them into action? Is what we're providing them so helpful that they save it for future reference or photocopy it for the rest of their crew? Ultimately, that's my No. 1 goal.

Labels: Editing, Katy Tomasulo, Writing

By Martha Spizziri
ASBPE Web Editor

It's right around the corner, but there's still time to register for Media Bistro's online course Reinventing Print Content for the Web. The class, which starts Monday, June 2, is aimed specifically at magazine writers and editors. You may be able to register even after the official start date; you'll have access to all lectures and transcripts of any class chats you might miss by signing up late. According to the Media Bistro web site, taking the course will teach you:

• what skills you need succeed as a writer or editor for a magazine Web site.
• where the role of editor ends and that of Web producer begins.
• pitfalls to avoid in reworking content for the Web.
  
• which new Web technologies are essential and how to develop them.
• when, how, and why to incorporate user-generated content and how to encourage it.
• how to identify, evaluate, and manage potential content partnerships.
  

A similar Media Bistro class is Writing and Editing for the Web, starting June 10. This course covers a diverse range of material, including how to:

• write great copy for the Web (and why Web writing is different from writing for print).
  
• use Web technology to tell a story.
• avoid common mistakes.
• find reliable information online.
• use bulletin boards and online communities to find story sources and subjects.
• the pros and cons of blogging, and whether you should do it.
• selling yourself and your work on the Web.
  

And if you're in the New York City area, don't miss the June 6 ASBPE New York chapter panel discussion Make Your Job Indispensable: Tales from Four “Survivors.” This event aims to help you develop the multitasking skills you need to keep working as a B2B editor, writer, or freelancer. You’ll learn how:

• B2B editors are managing print, web news, e-newsletters, live events, webinars, and other products.
• enterprising freelance editors and writers are enhancing their multimedia skills and nabbing opportunities to do online slide shows, podcasts, video, blogs, and more.
• editors can manage their time more efficiently and balance priorities using quantitative analysis techniques.
• publishers can develop in-house training programs to provide both staffers and freelancers with the expertise they need.

RSVP deadline is May 30.

Journalistic Skills

The Poynter Institute's NewsU offers Introduction to Ethical Decision-Making, a free on-demand web course that teaches processes and principles you can use to analyze difficult ethical questions you may face as a journalist. A library of case studies and other resources are also available.

Media Bistro's online Interviewing Skills course starts June 3. The class promises to teach journalists conducting story interviews how to:

• ask succinct questions.
• ask the right question at the right time.
• get compelling sound bites.
• relax and let the interview flow.
• handle difficult interviewees.
• land a hard-to-get interview.

Beyond the Inverted Pyramid: Creating Alternative Story Forms is a free on-demand class offered by NewsU that introduces students to nontraditional, more accessible storytelling styles. This line from the course description particularly caught my eye: "You’ll learn to break down information by theme and organize stories to make them snappy and more useful to time-crunched readers [my italics]." B2B editors have been dealing with readers who have no time to read at least since I started my career, long before the advent of the Internet.

Another free on-demand NewsU program, Math for Journalists, consists of six 30-minute modules. The course covers material ranging from math essentials (reducing fractions, for instance) to topics specifically for journalists (calculating costs of living, estimating crowd sizes). NewsU also provides supplementary learning tools, including quizzes, games, and interactive charts and tables.

Finally, NewsU offers two ways to learn about headline writing: Writing Better Print Headlines, a four-week online class next offered on Sept. 8, and Writing Headlines for the Web, a replay of a 2007 webinar that you can access at your leisure.

Copy Editing and Grammar

Media Bistro has a trio of online copy editing courses coming up. In chronological order, they are:

Advanced Copy Editing, starting Sunday, June 1, teaches the finer points of grammar, how to create an in-house style guide, dealing with office politics, and how to know when you've overstepped the bounds with a piece of copy, among other topics.

Intro to Copy Editing starts June 2 and covers common copy editing marks and proofreading symbols, reference materials, preparing for copy-editing tests, and more.

Intermediate Copy Editing starts June 17 and deals with topics such as the relative merits of the popular style guides, how to recast sentences, and the role and responsibilities of the copy editor.

For a general refresher on grammar issues, you might sign up for Grammar, Punctuation, and Meaning, a four-week web course that starts June 23. Or try out the free self-directed on-demand program Cleaning Your Copy from NewsU.

For Freelancers

The Whole Freelancer, starting June 12, is a multiweek online course for those considering a full-time freelance career. It will cover basic skills such as effectively pitching ideas, managing your career, and building relationships with editors.

Advanced Freelancing starts June 18. It's designed for writers who've already had articles published and will cover strategies for selling more articles, getting more money for the articles you write, expanding your stable of publishing venues, breaking into new subject areas, renegotiating when necessary, and other skills.

Labels: Career/Employment, Digital, Editing, Freelancing, Journalism, Martha Spizziri, Training, Webinars, Writing

By Katy Tomasulo
ASBPE Washington, DC Chapter President

I'm cheating a bit for my blog post today. At a loss for something insightful or witty to say, I’m tapping into my Bookmarks for some helpful sites to share. I'm curious what sites you depend on to get through your day. It varies, I'm sure, depending on what level you're at. As a deputy editor, I find myself somewhere in the middle…reading industry blogs every day is important, but so is having the dictionary a click away.

Here's a list of a few of the sites I frequent regularly. Many of these I didn't discover on my own, so credit is due to my colleagues and to the sites themselves for providing their own lists of links.

What are your daily hits? Share them with others in the comments section.

BLOGS
Aside from this one, of course, here are a few more media and B2B blogs that can keep you up on the industry and/or make you think about our business and daily life:

Folio: blog
Experts from the magazine industry weigh in on breaking news as well as design, editorial, and pressing issues.

Paul Conley
The B2B publishing industry's preeminent blogger.

The minsider Blog
Industry news and economics

Mag Grab Bag
Former min’s editor Jeremy Greenfield continues his blogging with this new site, which includes industry economics as well as his opinions on magazines, design, etc.

Trade Pressed
Relatively new, this blog from an anonymous insider discusses the highs and woes of trade life that most of us can relate to.

COPYEDITING HELPERS
Merriam-Webster Online
I haven't opened my 6-inch-thick dictionary in years thanks to this site. Not only is it faster than leafing through pages, it suggests words if you misspell the one you’re looking for. The unabridged version requires a subscription, but on those rare occasions you can simply dig out the print copy.

Visual Thesaurus
You can use Merriam-Webster.com for a thesaurus, but Visual Thesaurus is a word-lover's visual fantasy. The interactive tool breaks synonyms down into word maps, graphically displaying the results by meaning and relationships, and providing related words and antonyms far beyond what the dictionary does. (Free trial for a few words; annual subscription required after that.)

Acronym Finder
Stumped by SEOs and HREFs? This site deciphers abbreviations PDQ.

Online Conversion
When you absolutely must know how many meters are in a league.

GRAMMAR NUTS
Bill Walsh's Blogslot
Style and grammar from The Washington Post's copy chief

Common Errors in English
Find mistakes you never knew you were making.

Testy Copy Editors
The title speaks for itself.

American Copy Editors Society Blogroll
The society compiles items from a variety of copyediting blogs around the Web into one convenient spot.

Newsroom 101
Test your editing knowledge with nearly 2,000 quizzes on grammar and AP style.

American Copy Editors Society Quizzes
More tests.

OTHER HELPERS
Cliche and Phrase Finders
Struggling for a headline? These two sites give you a leg up on wordplay. Cliche Finder isn't quite as comprehensive, but it's free. The Phrase Finder is much more thorough, but requires a subscription.

Poynter
Journalism commentary, training, jobs, and more.

NewsU
Poynter’s online training arm, chock full of helpful courses.

Labels: Editing, Journalism, Katy Tomasulo, Media Business, Tests, Training

Erin Erickson
ASBPE Chicago Chapter

As a follow-up to this post about blog and website style guides, you should also be thinking about how you can update your style guide in a more timely manner.

You may want to consider transferring your print style guide to an electronic one. Here's how:

• Take blogging software. Platforms like Blogger and WordPress offer easy-to-use software at absolutely no cost.


• Both platforms offer a privacy setting so you grant access only to those staff writers and contributors who write for your publication.

• Begin uploading your style guide. For each section, create a new post, a new post headline, etc., and a label (Numbers, Tone, Audience, Contributor Requirements).

• Consider adding links to commonly used resources (both within the body of the entry and in a link list on the side of the page). For example, if you use an ftp site for uploading images, place a link on the blog that directs users to the ftp site. You can make your style guide as elaborate or as simple as your needs require.

• What also makes this kind of style guide more efficient is the ability to apply an RSS feed to it. Rather than resend a print version to your writers every time you would like to update, include a feed and the new information will populate your user's readers instantly.

Labels: Digital, Editing, Electronic Style Guide, Erin Erickson, Productivity

Erin Erickson
ASBPE Chicago Chapter

Does your website or blog have a style guide? Should it?

Jonathan Bailey's post on BlogHerald raises a great point about the importance of an online style guide.

I have seen style guides for print magazines become so elaborate that they have subsections of subsections. Yet when discussing resources and writing styles for online, these mammoth guides only devote a page to acceptable and non-acceptable sources or how to write web-related words.

If we're striving for brand recognition both in both print and online, shouldn't we devote the same thought to our web style as we do our print style?

It is worthy to note that this post is geared mainly toward bloggers and not necessarily j-school trained writers; however, it offers a few bulleted items to consider for your own website/blog style guide. Notice the similarities between this and what your print style guide suggests (see the post for the entire list):

• What is your post frequency?
• Do you standardize your post titles? (capitalization, punctuation)
• Attribution
• Artistic contributions

Once you have decided on your web style, how do you deliver it to your writers? We'll cover that in the next installment of "Does your website or blog have a style guide?"

Labels: Digital, Editing, Electronic Style Guide, Erin Erickson

Think you're creative? You have two days to prove it by entering the TABPI Design Challenge, sponsored by Trade Association Business Publications International. The challenge is to design a cover for a hypothetical issue of an imaginary magazine, Concrete Times. The reward is $250 for the overall winner. The challenge is open to all B2B art directors and designers.

The TABPI Design challenge deadline is this Friday, Feb. 29.

Also looming is the deadline for TABPI's Tabbie Awards. This international awards competition is open to trade, association and business magazines published at least four times per year, completely or partially in English. Magazines must accept paid advertising. This year TABPI has added a new web category, Online Feature. (Online entries don't need an associated print publication, but they must be b2b-oriented and accept advertising.)

Entries for the Tabbies must be submitted by Wednesday, March 5.

Labels: Design, Editing, International Media, Martha Spizziri, Media Industry Awards, Tabbie Awards, TABPI