In this post by Chicago ASBPE Treasurer Betty Hintch, she tells us why taking time off to smell the roses from time to time is a key ingredient to success for B2B journalists.

Over the last six months, newspapers, magazines and other media outlets have been churning out a staggering number of articles about the negative impact of workplace stress. I edit publications for the human resource and workplace safety fields, so I am immersed daily in reports about the state of American workplaces. Frankly, the picture doesn’t look good. Thirty percent of managers said they are more stressed today than they were one year ago, according to an OfficeTeam survey. In addition, 28 percent of respondents expect their anxiety levels to increase.

As business-to-business editors, we have our share of stress. The reasons include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Demanding workloads that grow every time a new media platform comes along.

• Managing the pressure to produce high-quality content that catches the eyes of readers who are battling information overload.

• Struggling to seize new opportunities with staffs and budgets that were decimated during the recession.

So what’s a B2B editor to do? Stop working so hard, says one business expert. In her new book, Conquer CyberOverload: Get More Done, Boost Your Creativity and Reduce Stress, Joanne Cantor, Ph.D., emphasizes the importance of taking breaks to recharge and cultivate creativity.

However, not all breaks are created equal. She emphasizes the power of “brain-enhancing” breaks. Examples include physical exercise and experiencing nature. In other words, stop and smell the roses.

If you subscribe to Cantor’s logic, working 14-hour days or always eating lunch at your desk could be hurting your publication, rather than helping it. In fact, your boss may thank you for being a good steward of your work/rest balance. Here’s why: Information-free breaks allow your brain to make room for the important issues at hand. The brain has space to devise solutions or to gather energy to spit out your next award-winning idea.

Cantor shares other simple but intriguing suggestions, especially in this age of 24-hour connections and multiple messages vying for our attention:

• Don’t be a workaholic. That’s easier said than done for many of us. We trick ourselves into thinking we need to put in more hours to meet deadlines and produce high-quality content. Cantor says a nose to the grindstone won’t see the big picture. Instead, alternate intense work with periods of relaxation. You’ll find that an uncluttered, relaxed mind is working double duty on your most pressing issues.

• Sleep strategically. There’s a lot of truth in those two words. Cantor suggests scheduling your workload so that a night’s rest occurs before you turn in your finished product. While you sleep, your brain processes experiences that occurred during the day. You’ll wake up with new ideas and the enthusiasm to implement them.

I’ll take Cantor’s idea one step further and say that scheduling your demanding work when you are most productive allows you to create better content in less time. If you have to work late, perform easier tasks, such as answering simple email messages or administrative tasks, after hours when your mind is tired. That takes planning, but it is well worth it.

Most of us have heard Cantor’s advice sometime during our careers, but as hard-working editors and writers, it is hard to follow through. From personal experience, I have used most of Cantor’s suggestions and they work. The challenge is to resist tendencies to let bad habits creep in.

I’ll close by suggesting a Huffington Post article that includes case studies about how successful people have discovered they can accomplish more by taking rejuvenating breaks. In fact, these people are taking care of themselves while they save the world. That says a lot about the benefits of planning strategic work and rest periods to get more done.

Betty Hintch is Editor at Briefings Media Group LLC. She edits online ezines and newsletters in the HR, workplace safety, marketing and sales, and customer service industries.

Labels: Productivity, Work Life

By Maureen Alley

I’ve been working as a freelancer from home for the last few months. Prior, I worked in the traditional cubical office space that many of you work in. I was used to the scheduled 8-to-5 work hours – with a few long days in there. But switching to working from home – on my schedule – has made for an interesting learning experience.

The number one thing I’ve learned: Take advantage of feeling productive when you have it. When I feel the urge to organize, I go with it. I organize like crazy. I don’t think, “I feel like organizing. But I’ll make coffee instead.” Nope. If I feel that urge to organize, you’ll find me organizing in the office or at my desk.

By taking advantage of these urges of productivity, I am much more productive than if I forced myself to be productive. Because I’m in the mode to do it.

I’ve also learned that I am much more productive in the mornings than I am in the afternoons. So I write articles, schedule interviews and do follow-ups in the mornings. Because I know it will be much harder to focus on these in the afternoons. Plus, because I am doing these in the morning rather than afternoons, I will get more accomplished than if I forced myself to do it when I didn’t have the productivity bug.

I’ve also noticed that I am much more productive on Mondays, and less so on Fridays. But my husband is the opposite. He’s much more productive on Fridays. He plans his schedule for big projects to happen on Fridays because he knows he’ll get more done. I, however, plan my projects for Mondays because I know that’s when I’ll get more accomplished.

All of this can translate to the office atmosphere. Pay attention to your moods. Pay attention to when you are most productive and take advantage of it. Like with writing, you can’t force it.

So, take a look at when you feel most productive – times of days, days of the week – and utilize them. You should feel you get more done by taking advantage of those times.

Maureen Alley is editor for Woodland Management magazine, and freelance writer/editor for other business-to-business publications. She was previously managing editor for Website Magazine and Residential Design & Build magazine. Alley has been an ASBPE member since 2006, and Azbee for the last two years. She can be reached at malley13@gmail.com or visit www.maureenalley.com.

Labels: Maureen Alley, Productivity, Work Life

By Howard Rauch

How to deal more effectively with mounting print/digital workloads will be my focus during an ASBPE June 17 webinar.

In advance, I invited all concerned editors to complete a questionnaire outlining their current responsibilities. Respondents were asked to focus primarily on their online workloads. They were challenged to identify their most time-consuming tasks.

During follow-up phone calls starting May 15, I’ll consult with each participant about possible ways to simplify workloads. An extra benefit: all respondents receive an analysis of e-newsletter content based on the eight-factor scoring system I outlined in a recent Editor’s Notes article (556K PDF; available to ASBPE members only).

Early returns reflect some significant patterns. Here are a few:

1. Production responsibilities are major time consumers. In several past editorial performance projects focusing on print, I often found production processes were hampered by burdensome practices. There is every indication that the same holds true for online. Of course, that depends on how you define “production.” I include assorted posting functions — coding, sizing photos, proofreading — anything else that’s distinct from original writing/editing tasks.

2. There is agreement that job overload has impaired editing quality. This is especially true in those cases where e-newsletter workload has doubled or tripled in the past three years.

3. Publishers not yet committed to dedicated digital staffs will never exploit online marketing potential to the fullest. Descriptions of current workloads make that clear. For instance, developing a strong package of high-value webinars and white papers requires several days a month of focus. Furthermore, it seems farfetched to expect besieged staffs can deliver a continuous flow of exclusive, high-enterprise content.

We’ll discuss all of the above and much more on June 17. Meanwhile, there’s still time for you to benefit from advance participation. Just complete a performance questionnaire and return it to me before May 15. For more information or to obtain a copy of the questionnaire, contact me via email (howard@editsol.com) or call (201) 569-7714.

Labels: Digital, Howard Rauch, Productivity, Webinars, Work Life

By Tonie Auer

• How can your publication succeed online?
• What points should a social media policy address?
• What challenges will face us as we convert our magazine from print to digital only?

Answers to these questions — and quite a few others — are in these 20 high-value posts from the ASBPE National Blog.

We combed through posts from the blog's three-plus years of existence to compile some of the best. In choosing these posts, we had specific criteria in mind. We wanted to highlight posts that provide actionable, “how-to” material in an easy-to-use format (blogs with bullet lists and checklists were favored). We also wanted the posts, as a group, to cover a variety of topics.

With those considerations in mind, here are 20 of the best ASBPE National Blog posts, roughly in reverse chronological order.

• Two posts by past ASBPE president Steven Roll address social media guidelines. One is “It's Never Too Early to Adopt a Social Media Policy”; the other is
  
  
• “Got a Social Media Policy?”
  
  
• “President’s Letter: It’s All About Brand at the Symposium,” by current ASBPE president Warren Hersch, reports on ASBPE’s November 2009 Digital Symposium.
  
  
• “5 Things To Consider When Converting To Digital Only” is a Q&A with Sara Zailskas of Housing Giants on her publication's experience of the process. The piece was contributed by Chicago chapter board member Erin Erickson.
  
  
• “McCracken: Experimentation Vital to Web-Launch Success” is another report from the Digital Symposium, this time on a session presented by Technologizer founder (and former PC World editor in chief) Harry McCracken.
  
  
• “6 Ideas To Boost Revenue, Readership, or Recognition” contains advice from ASBPE Washington, D.C., chapter president Katy Tomasulo.
  
  
• “SEO Best Practices” was contributed by former Website Magazine staffer Maureen Alley.
  
  
• “Twitter Tips for B2B Editors,” another post from ASBPE officer Katy Tomasulo, features advice specifically for those of us who work at business, trade, professional, and association publications.
  
  
• “Top 10 Strategies To Drive Traffic To Your Blog” was contributed by Michelle Rafter, a long-time freelancer on technology and other topics. Rafter writes the very popular blog Word Count, aimed at freelance writers and editors.
  
  
• “Seven Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own Blog” was contributed by Steve Roll, who did just that with the Latin America travel blog Travelojos.
  
  
• “No Matter How Painful, Editorial Productivity Should Be Analyzed” came from Howard Rauch, an editorial consultant and chair of ASBPE’s ethics committee.
  
  
• “No Solid Answer To ‘What’s Next For B2B?’” reported on a roundtable hosted by ASBPE’s Cleveland chapter.
  
  
• “Want To Learn HTML? Get Your Feet Wet” offers basic coding tips from ASBPE web editor Martha Spizziri.
  
  
• “We Are Already Marketers” is Christina Pellett’s argument for why editors shouldn’t balk at requests to help market their publications. Pellett is now editor of Agent Sales Journal.
  
  
• In “Building Your Wings on the Way Down,” Technologizer's Harry McCracken gives advice on starting a new publishing venture.
  

• Joe Pulizzi, founder of the custom publishing marketplace Junta42 Match, contributed three posts with advice for freelance writers. “Getting into the Custom Game” tells freelancers how to break into custom publishing (aka content marketing);
  
  
• “The Freelance Writing Retirement Plan: Create an Asset” gives advice for maximizing income; and
  
  
• “You Are What the Web Says You Are: Writers and Social Media” explains how many writers’ online presences are lacking.
  
  
• The advice in “Making Time for Print and Online” comes from Dan Blank, director of content strategy and development for Reed Business Information. (Dan also blogs at danblank.com.)
  
  
• “Sure, ’09 Will Be Tough. You Can Tell the Grownups, Though: They Think Rationally” comes from consultant Thomas H. Temin, It still holds up in 2010.
  

The ASBPE National Blog’s value never stops. We have ongoing discussions scheduled on plenty of hot topics. And take advantage of the opportunity to express your own view via a follow-up post. Email me at tonieauer@gmail.com.

Labels: Blogging/Blogging Strategy, Career/Employment, Custom Media, Digital, Economy, Freelancing, HTML, Management, Media Business, Productivity, Social Media, Technology, Tonie Auer

By Tonie Auer
DFW Chapter President

I've been on a roll, talking about professional development and making yourself indispensable. Now I'm going to lead you to another valuable resource to make yourself look like a genius to your boss and colleagues: The Journalist's Toolbox.

This is a hodgepodge of great links for how to find information on topics ranging from multimedia editing tools to editing and fact-checking references. If you need to find a clearinghouse of information on weather, military or even foreign policy, there's a link for that information, too.

It all goes back to being the go-to person in your office. The publisher's administrative assistant needs to find the ZIP code of some head office in Walla Walla, Wash., but she isn't the greatest at figuring out how to find it. So, make yourself invaluable and be able to offer her that assistance. She'll remember it. Trust me.

Labels: Digital, Productivity, Social Media, Tonie Auer, Work Life

By Ginger Conlon

At 1to1 Media we’re all about helping our readers improve their customer engagement, so we had better practice what we preach. And we do. In fact, we have a formal (though not written), award-winning engagement strategy that includes gathering and using feedback, hosting roundtables, facilitating introductions, interacting on our site and on social media sites, and tracking and scoring reader engagement based on their interaction levels. Any media organization could benefit from adopting or updating its approach to reader engagement.

And, here's the cutoff: interested in reading more about the elements of their strategy and the benefits the publication and its readers experienced? Look for the next ASBPE newsletter for a complete listing. Don't get the newsletter? Join ASBPE. It is one of our member benefits. Plus, you get all the rest of this great piece of information.

As editorial director of 1to1 Media, Ginger Conlon is responsible for the direction and day-to-day editorial operations of the award-winning 1to1 Magazine, its website, e-newsletter, blog, and podcast series, as well as the executive journal Customer Strategist. Additionally, she serves as president of the New York chapter of the ASBPE. Contact her at ginger.conlon@1to1.com.

Labels: Digital, Ginger Conlon, Productivity, Social Media

By Steven Roll
ASBPE Past President

The Wall Street Journal has one, the New York Times has one, Bloomberg has one. What about your publication? Does your publication have a social media policy?

Like many B2B publications, chances are your publication has been dipping its toes in the social-media ocean, but hasn’t jumped in yet. Maybe you’ve set up a Twitter account or a fanpage on Facebook, but nothing more.

Even if your publication is still in the exploratory stage, it’s probably a good idea to adopt a social media policy.

After making a few informal inquiries last week to some tech-savvy editors, I was somewhat surprised at how many publications still haven’t adopted a policy for how writers and editors should conduct themselves when communicating in a professional capacity on social media. Many of the people I spoke with said they were in the process of developing one. (Of course, the reason I was asking is because I'm drafting a policy for my company.)

Maybe editors are reluctant to adopt a formal policy because they feel social media initiatives are something that should be built from the “ground up.” After all, it’s mostly the younger people who have fully embraced it. Perhaps adopting a formal policy might somehow inhibit the free flow of conversation on Twitter etc. Both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg were criticized for adopting overly rigid policies.

It seems like the danger of off-message or inappropriate communications outweigh the awkwardness of adopting a policy concerning a medium many of us don’t fully understand yet. But it seems like it would be a lot easier to change an misguided policy, than to try to somehow compensate for an offensive Tweet or misguided blog post.

The social media policy I’m working on has two levels. The first level is a set of broad principles that outline some basic rules of conduct. Here are a few:

• be honest and transparent;
• coordinate your messages with your publication;
• add value;
• blog about what you know;
• if you make a mistake, admit it, and correct it; and
• be diplomatic and professional — especially with the people who are behaving rudely or with whom you disagree.

The second level reads more like a style guide. It will include more specific information such as:

• a sample blog post;
• what a typical Tweet should look like; and
• best practices for sharing a blog post on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

To be sure, the policy my company ends up adopting is likely to look entirely different than my conception of it. But even if that turns out to be the case, I think it's a worthwhile exercise to start establishing some guidelines. Otherwise, how else will you be able to identify inappropriate conduct. Like old age, having a policy to point to sure beats the alternative.

Through a colleague, I found the following gem at the Online Database of Social Media Policies: Chris Boudreaux, author of the upcoming book Social Media Governance, has assembled 82 such policies on the book’s website. From companies to charities to military organizations, it’s a treasure trove for those struggling with social media guidelines.
Source: Social Media Governance (via Mashable)

Labels: Blogging/Blogging Strategy, Career/Employment, Digital, Electronic Style Guide, LinkedIn ASBPE, Management, Productivity, Social Media, Steven Roll, Technology, Twitter, Work Life

By Howard Rauch
Editorial Consultant
Editorial Solutions Inc.

My previous blog describing a productivity measurement system drew plenty of viewers, so apparently the topic is of interest. So let’s continue.

To recap briefly, you need to determine how long it takes to complete each of six job functions:

(1) original writing;
(2) editing the work of others;
(3) travel;
(4) production;
(5) detail/administration;
(6) supervision.

In each case, keep separate tabulations for time spent on print vs. web.

Once you start this documentation process, you may find many time management hurdles are posed by administrative stuff. Don’t be surprised if any of the following 10 performance infringers are bogging you down.

(1) Avoiding confrontation. You realize a staff member will never get up to speed, but you duck a performance showdown. Typical rationalization? If you let somebody go who at least can do part of the job well, you must train somebody else all over again — something you don’t have time to do.

(2) Destructive criticism. Staff members don’t take direction well, or so you think.

What actually happens many times, especially in the case of article critiques, is you engage in too much “management by adjectives.” You will besiege an author who wants to do better with “advice” such as “this lead is unacceptable; go back and try again” … “tighten up your writing” … “you spent too much time on this article; you have to work faster.”

In my early years in B2B, I remember one guy who always complained that my writing wasn’t “crisp.” I was at a loss for a defense. The same supervisor had the habit of leaving a copy of my first draft on my desk with one word of constructive criticism — WRONG!!! — scrawled across passages he didn’t like.

(3) Mail-opening ritual. You probably don’t get as much mail as I did before e-mail existed, but the post office undoubtedly still delivers a bundle of stuff on Monday morning. In many companies I’ve had as clients, the “responsibility” for opening mail gets dumped on a junior editor. That person may take hours to finish a job that a more senior person could handle in minutes. Check it out!

(4) Unrealistic quality standard. How dare I argue against quality? Because with the load that confronts most editors today, everything can’t be a work of art. You have to find an easy way out.

Here’s a typical situation. When I was an editorial VP, our company acquired a magazine with an editor who insisted that every feature be a round-up based on pithy quotes from at least ten sources. In many cases, single-source interviews with authoritative execs would have done the job just as well. But not for this editor! Result? The magazine always was late. Nobody met deadlines. Every staff member complained about too much night and weekend work.

Well, we’ll probably always have some of that. But don’t contribute to the problem by insisting on making every assignment a labor-intensive nightmare.

(5) Hiring from the hip. Has your screening/interviewing of applicants become a rush job? Do you knowingly hire candidates hoping they’ll work out because they had all the right answers and great samples? Instead, do you regularly use a comprehensive editing test to confirm a candidate’s capabilities? Do you use an interviewing checklist you can complete as the interview progresses?

(6) Anti-‘floater’/intern sentiment. Many beginners just out of J-school may already be star performers. So don’t routinely stick them with all the clerical junk. They may give you a terrific productivity lift in a pinch.

(7) Outside interference. I mentioned this hurdle in my previous blog. Outside calls from information seekers clearly are time-killers. In some cases, you have to take such calls. But you can control the process.

One top B2B magazine in the marketing field had a policy that editors would be happy to provide information . . . but only between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When I was editorial director of a retailing magazine, we always were inundated with phone calls about market trends. Finally, we did a study and found that dozens of callers were seeking the same information. Once we realized this, we created an FAQ booklet covering most of the bases. Armed with this tool, it only took a few minutes to advise inquirers that our booklet covered everything they needed to know. Thus, we saved hours of phone work without being abrupt to outsiders.

(8) Production quagmire. Does every editorial staff member on your publication spend four or more days a month engaged in proofreading, layout, working with the art department, or whatever? If so, you need some shortcuts, especially if your editors do a lot of design. Inevitably, you will need to invoke maximum time limits for completing production tasks.

(9) Web work. This includes time spent writing blogs, e-features and e-news. When the Internet was still in its infancy, I found that most editors at one client spent at least an hour a day surfing websites for news leads for their publications. An hour a day?! Do the math. That’s five hours a week … at least 20 hours a month … or close to three days in surf mode. I’ll bet it’s much more than that now. Of course, there’s also the time spent pruning received e-mail. That’s a prime time productivity inhibitor that may never go away!

(10) Searching. I am still as guilty as the next person when it comes to shuffling papers in search of a document “I know is on my desk somewhere.” I’ve gotten better since regularly scheduling clean-up days once a week. But when you have a minute, do a quick mental calculation of time per day your staff collectively spends searching.

So that’s my list of performance inhibitors. If you have any pet peeves I haven’t mentioned, please chime in!!!

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: Howard Rauch, Productivity, Tests

By Howard Rauch

Probably nothing good can be said about B2B’s editorial productivity dilemma. Tales of staff cutbacks in the face of heavier workloads are recounted almost every day. Under the circumstances, engagement in performance analysis can’t be delayed.

In the past, the prospect of productivity review dismayed many editors. The long-standing objection has been that quantitative values cannot be assigned to qualitative work. That attitude is past its prime. Today there are benefits to be accrued when you are able to document how long it takes to tackle the daunting task of generating content for magazines and websites.

Having said that, I want to describe a basic approach to performance analysis:

• Each staff member should keep performance data for one or two months.
  
  
• During that time period, document how long it takes you to engage in each of six job categories:
  

  (1) original writing;
  
  (2) editing the work of others;
  
  (3) travel;
  
  (4) production;
  
  (5) detail/administrative stuff like meetings, reading e-mail, general correspondence, training, interviewing job candidates, article recruitment, filing, etc.;
  
  (6) supervision (depending upon your position) of staff or freelance.
  

• Keep separate tabulations for time spent on print vs. web.
  
  
• Your target is an estimate of the number of days each task requires.
  
  
• Within the framework of a given month, start with the assumption that total time spent should be equivalent to 20-22 days. Undoubtedly, your calculations will drift beyond that level.
  
  
• To facilitate your analysis, create a time-management form that brackets time into 15-minute periods.
  
  
• In addition to the above documentation, keep a telephone log showing time spent on incoming calls. Categorize the nature of these calls.
  
  
• If your day load total does rise to a scary level, look for possible shortcuts. For example, a recent analysis involving a senior editor found that an unreasonable effort was being devoted to editing single manuscripts. Another time, an associate editor was spending a frightening number of hours per week surfing the web for story material. The production process often is an area where work duplication abounds. The web clearly seems to be a place where limited staffs are being asked to fulfill overly-ambitious quantitative requirements. For instance, it’s unclear whether jumping from weekly to daily e-news updating has been accompanied by necessary workload adjustments.

This is probably enough about performance analysis for you to mull in one sitting. Once an editorial staff has a realistic handle on quantitative achievement, you have a more useful way to update top management on the exceptional value you now deliver every day!

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: Howard Rauch, Productivity

By Steve Roll
ASBPE President

One of my favorite blogs is Lifehacker.com. Every day it offers an abundance of productivity tips. While some of the tips are aimed at the technically proficient, there are still plenty left over for rest of us. In fact, there are so many tips that sometimes I need to remind myself that I usually make up for the time I spend perusing the multiple posts by finding truly game-changing Web applications or productivity ideas.

So it was as a loyal fan that I purchased the second edition of the book authored by Lifehacker's founder Gina Trapani. Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better contains many of the same tips that were included in the first edition of Trapani's book, which was published in late 2006. The second edition's cover claims to have "more than 50 new & revised tips!"

Here are a few of my favorite tips from Upgrade Your Life:

Set up a morning dash. Dedicate the first hours of your day to accomplishing an important task. The key is to do this before checking your e-mail or going to any meetings. I am not a morning person, so it was hard for me to implement this tip. But once I got into the habit, it has increased my work output.

Remember the Milk. This free Web site allows users to keep to-do lists for work, home, or any other activity they would like to track. Deadlines may be assigned to each task and notifications of each day's agenda can be sent via text message or e-mail. This is a great service because it helps close the open loop of thinking about something that needs to be done and then forgetting about it. Whenever I think of something I need to do (for work or at home) I send an e-mail to RTM and it's on my to-do list.

Automatically back up your hard drive. Like life itself, it's not a matter of whether or not your computer hard drive will crash, but when. Mozy.com, an online backup service, will automatically backup your files for about $5 per month. More expensive plans are available to businesses.

Use multiple sites as your web browser's home page. Both Internet Explorer and Firefox allow users to open multiple tabs. This trick allows you to save time by starting out with multiple tabs already opened as soon as you launch your browsers. To do this open the tabs with the pages you would like to save. Then, go to the homepage option, which is in "Tools" for both Explorer and Firefox, and click the "Use Current" button.

Google by Keyboard. Over time, even little things like using keyboard shortcuts can improve productivity. One of the main advantages that the Web browser Firefox offers are its open-sourced applications. One that I have been using is Google by Keyboard. After going to the search menu by pressing "control -K", I can then scroll through the hits using my keyboard.

Although only about 20 percent of the market is using Firefox, I believe the abundance of open-source software applications available for it make it the best browser. (Almost 80 percent of the rest are using Explorer). I've noticed that Google's Chrome is also supported by open-sourced applications. But it seems like it will probably take some time for them to catch up.

Labels: Productivity, Steven Roll, Technology

By Howard Rauch
President, Editorial Solutions, Inc.

When you need advice about practically any editorial matter, ASBPE's industry discussion forum benefit for members is a great source! At no cost, you can poll the membership and receive several useful tips from your peers.

As a former ASBPE board member who has spent the past 18 years in the consulting arena, I'm somewhat surprised that the forum is not used more often. Perhaps this benefit is not promoted sufficiently. Or maybe members are too busy to network with other knowledgeable sources. Another possibility: the forum needs a more formal structure.

I've been mulling this for a while because I check forum inquiries daily. If there's a question I can answer, it's done right on the spot. And if a peer offers an equally good or better answer to that question or others, I benefit by learning something new.

Anyway, here are some assorted thoughts about new paths the industry forum might take:

(1) Create a panel of members with expertise in a specific area. Then circulate a weekly or monthly schedule indicating which of those members are "on duty" during a specific day. For example, if you want to discuss an editorial performance problem, log on Tuesday and state your case. If website management snarls need clarification, check in on Wednesday. Looking for ideas on editorial training? Your day is Friday.

(2) How about the availability of a panel where all members are ASBPE Lifetime Achievement Award recipients? Each panelist is assigned a day to monitor the forum and reply to questions specifically addressed to him or her.

(3) Finally, let's consider the possibility that members don't wish to air their concerns in an open environment. The promise of privacy would encourage them to use the forum more often. In that case, ASBPE could consider an arrangement where somebody with a question calls a panel member directly. You have a certain time period – like 45 minutes – to state your case and then brainstorm with the panelist. No fee is involved. Now there's an offer even senior management at publishing companies might bite at. But first they'd have to join up!!! I've actually used a service like this offered by another association where the input I received was indeed valuable.

So there you have it – some different approaches to information-sharing that would more than cover the current cost of membership. Meanwhile, the industry forum as it exists now is still a valuable benefit. Don't waste it!!

Labels: Howard Rauch, Productivity

By Howard Rauch
President of Editorial Solutions Inc.

When publishing ethics issues are debated, it’s usually popular to trash the practice of editors and salespeople making joint calls on advertisers. True, mishandling of the call can be -- to put it mildly – a distressing experience for editors. On the other hand, we have an important marketing role to play for our publication, and a well-planned joint session is a good way to do it.

If the salesperson pulls the strings and the editor is lucky enough to get in a few words, that is indeed a bummer . . . a pure sales call. However, if the editor has the floor most of the time, then we have a productive editorial call in play.

Even better is when the editor visits top brass at advertiser headquarters on his or her own for interviews and/or to exchange views on industry trends. Of course, you’ll accomplish very little if you haven’t kept up with the industry. It would be a tragic error to attempt to bluff your way through the meeting.

Another super customer contact opportunity occurs when the editor is a featured speaker at an advertiser’s national sales meeting. Obtaining such engagements and executing them well is a great way to demonstrate industry leadership. But you need original research available on which you can base a trendy program.

On a similar note, the most productive example of a joint call is where the editor delivers an A-V presentation to customer top brass (or ad agency personnel) in tandem with the magazine’s publisher or sales representative.

Considering the typical heavy workload confronting most editors, it’s not clear how you can fulfill your “show business” role. But for what it is worth, you must be on stage as often as possible. Among other things, of course, this means that you need stage presence.

While I’ve devoted most of this post to the positive side of joint calls, let’s not ignore the negatives. For instance, you have to fight like the dickens not to be roped into a call where the end goal is trading off editorial for advertising (ugh!!!).

One final thought: many times the salesperson’s main client contact is the sales manager, ad manager or ad agency. There’s nothing wrong with your knowing these people. But your major ongoing contacts should go beyond that level. Trade shows are a great place to get acquainted with a company’s major players.

Editorial Solutions Inc. is 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: Howard Rauch, Management, Media Business, Productivity, State of the Industry

By Howard Rauch
President of Editorial Solutions Inc.

If you believe everything you read on industry websites, the biggest impending trend is the abandonment of print in favor of a stronger website position (whatever that means). Recent blogs and articles warn that print is dead or dying. Among other things, this means that every editor must become extremely proficient at posting web articles. Allegedly, there is a big difference between writing for print vs. the web. Well … that depends on your point of view.

In my case, it seems that no matter in what media format our articles eventually appear, there is — or should be — an equivalent standard for highly informative, universally adaptable content. And no matter what else is true, we as editors should maintain an industry leadership position in terms of what we publish.

So what is “leadership?” In fact, it’s something we’ve let slip for a number of reasons. An obvious one might be lack of resources. Another might be the current round of belt-tightening that’s spurred a spate of salary freezes. Or perhaps we’re so preoccupied with the newest challenges to become technically proficient, we’ve let timely, high-quality editorial material slip through the cracks.

Am I exaggerating? Are we as good as we used to be? Here is a simple four-question challenge excerpted from a 16-factor self-scoring profile I’ve used in my consulting work. Each factor earns a maximum score of 25 points. The profile is a good starting point for any future discussion about rebuilding editorial enterprise. Please rate yourself right now!!!

(1) More and more, I am accepting second-best performance from staff members and myself. You deserve 25 points only if you never accept second best. Give yourself fewer points depending on how often you allow yourself or others to fudge on quality. SCORE: _____

(2) Alibis such as “not enough time” or “had to fill space” have become more acceptable to me when I decide to run second-rate material. Give yourself 25 points only if such rationalizations never cross your mind. If they do, downgrade your score accordingly. SCORE: _____

(3) I have developed an “I have paid my dues” attitude that exempts me from working on nitty-gritty — or “getting down” with my staff in emergency situations or when the workload is unusually heavy. Score 25 points only if your crew can count on you for an extra pair of hands when things on the firing line go bananas. SCORE: _____

(4) I find myself devoting a greater percentage of office time to personal business and justifying it. Give yourself 25 points only if personal business amounts to a maximum of a few minutes a day. Subtract points liberally if you shut your office door often so you can deal uninterruptedly with personal matters. Chop off even more points depending on how frequently you are out of the office, ostensibly on business, but in reality taking care of other affairs. SCORE: _____

If you scored 90 out of 100 points on this miniexercise, your leadership position should be solid. The next consideration is whether leadership opportunities are confined to the chief editor or distributed evenly among staff members.

Perhaps we can delve into that matter at another time via a follow-up self-scoring challenge.

Editorial Solutions Inc. is 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: Career/Employment, Howard Rauch, Productivity, Technology, Work Life

By Tonie Auer
DFW Chapter President and National Blog Chairwoman

There are times when I feel technically challenged and I often fear that this lack of comprehension of technology will hurt me if I ever want to return to a newsroom full-time. I've gotten spoiled to working as a freelance writer and editor - making my own hours, writing in my pajamas and working on the laptop from Panera when I need a break from sitting next to a basket of laundry that needs to be put away and a dishwasher that needs to be unloaded in the next room.

Then, I read Folio:'s commentary on MS Word falling out favor in the publishing world. It definitely makes me worry about how competitive I'll be when I go back into the world of magazines and newspapers.

What other programs out there should I be looking for and learning about? What sorts of technology and programs do most publishing houses, magazines and even newspapers use these days?

Labels: Freelancing, Productivity, State of the Industry, Technology, Tonie Auer

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

By Tonie Auer
DFW Chapter President and National Blog Chairwoman

I am on a few different journalism email distribution lists. I get things coming to my inbox that direct me to the latest firings, hirings and scandals related to news outlets. Some of it is garbage and, occasionally, some of it is golden. Last week, I found one of those nuggets that I think could be really useful to newsies of all sorts.

It came to me via the Editors Weblog about how IFRA started IFRA Search. Oooooh, this is the coolest thing to me. IFRA Search, however, is engineered for media professionals who demand specific, current and reliable results about the news publishing industry.

Go try it. I did a search for improving circulation and up pop several summaries at newspaper summits about growing circulation and changing newsrooms. The same Web search on a generic search engine came up with nothing but medical sites. So, you can see how it is helpful to weed out those results immediately.

I think it's an ingenious tool for all of us in the publishing world.

By the way, happy St. Patrick's Day. I am even wearing green in my new mug shot here. :)

Labels: International Media, Journalism, Management, Productivity, Technology, Tonie Auer

Labels: Productivity, Steven Roll, Technology

Labels: Productivity, Tonie Auer, Writing

By Steven Roll
ASBPE President

When I read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock in high school, I scoffed at his premise that the pace of technological change would accelerate so rapidly that people would someday be unable to keep up. After all, it didn't take me much time to master the first-generation word processing program on our family's green-screened computer. But given the technological advances since then, Toffler's prediction seems alarmingly accurate.

As business journalists we experience the impact of profound changes to communications technology every day. At ASBPE's national conference last summer attendees described how having access to all of these new forms of communication is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because learning how to use new technologies such as a podcasts is exciting and often enables us to present information in an interesting format. It is a curse because of the additional time we need to learn about them and effectively use them.

One thing that hasn't changed is that there are still only 24 hours in a day. Business journalists are often asked to juggle learning to use new forms of communication with traditional roles such as writing detailed feature articles on complex topics.

The primary goal of this blog is to equip b2b journalists to handle these demands.

To kick off ASBPE's National Blog, I'd like to define some words that each illustrate the nexus between technology and journalism. Knowing the meaning of these phrases might make the difference between being duped and finding your next scoop or market niche.

sock puppet: According to Poynter Institute's Web Speak Blog, sock puppetry is the act of creating a false identity to manipulate an online discussion. The "sock puppet" appears to be a neutral third party on a message board or blog. A sock puppeteer creates a fake identity while having a personal interest in the discussion -- usually as the author of a blog post in question or as a representative of a company under discussion. In July, the New York Times reported that John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods Market used a fictional identity on the Yahoo message boards for nearly eight years to assail competition and promote his supermarket chain’s stock.

crowd sourcing: Poynter's Web Speak blog says it is taking a task traditionally accomplished by a professional journalist and includes outsourcing to a large group through an open call. The Oct/Nov. issue of the American Journalism Review describes how the Gannett newspaper chain reorganized its newsrooms to encourage greater reader involvement in the news reporting process. AJR reported that Gannett's goal is to "recruit readers at the beginning stage of stories, publishing inquiries on the papers' Web sites and in their print editions, and ultimately using citizen contributions to help produce high-quality content."

mashup: using software or Web applications to present data in a compelling format. The original mashup man is the 20-something Adrian Holovaty. A great example of his work is chicagocrime.org, which uses Google maps to report crime statistics.

social bookmarks: Wikipedia describes social bookmarking as a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages.

Social bookmarking sites include Digg, del.ici.ous, and Fark. Besides serving as an electronic filing cabinet in which you can store pages you'd like to see again, these sites rank popular items on the Internet. So the next time you hear someone say that the story they wrote was "farked up," you'll know they don't have a speech impediment, and their story was widely read on the Internet.

social networking: Web applications designed to facilitate interactions between people. Two of the most popular sites are Facebook and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is geared to an older, more professional crowd. The CEO of my employer, BNA, added his profile to LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago. Facebook caters to a younger, more casual crowd. But many publications and associations are taking it seriously because it offers "group pages" that provide an effective platform for communicating with their audiences. A good way to test the waters on Facebook is to join ASBPE's group page. Despite the recent controversy surrounding Facebook, the site reportedly has 50 million active users and is likely to retain its status as one of the most popular destinations on the Web.

Labels: Digital, Journalism, Productivity, Social Media, Steven Roll, Technology, Writing