Session Takeaways

CLICK TO ADD TITLE

• Click to add text

Case Studies in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Pinterest

• Use Twitter to give a behind's the scene perspective on your larger stories. Share details that didn't make print.

• Approach Twitter on its own terms -its strength is conversational and that takes an investment of time and effort.

The Best, Most Successful Magazine Innovations in the World

Five major changes are exploding in magazine media that will affect publishing for years to come: mobile as the dominant platform, big data, programmatic advertising, video, and native advertising.

This past year was stunning for the speed with which these five phenomena have moved from the idea or early adoption or too-resource-intensive stage to becoming accessible tools and critical elements of publishing success.

1. Mobile will very soon become the dominant platform for information distribution and consumption. It is so revolutionary that some are calling it a “do-over” chance for legacy media who got the whole internet thing so terribly wrong.

2. Video has become the most effective, most powerful, and fastest-growing way of delivering content and advertising to the largest audience, all in ways that are increasingly accessible to all publishers, not just those with big budgets.

3. Big data is now able to put serious science and analysis behind every decision we make in magazine publishing, from content and advertising to new products and customer relations. Not that every decision should be data-driven, but we’re fools to ignore it.

4. Native advertising is revolutionising the world of content, advertiser-magazine relationships, advertiser-reader relationships, and revenue models.

5. And, finally, programmatic advertising appears to be on the verge of becoming the way most advertisements will ultimately be sold and scheduled, eliminating tedious, labour-intensive, expensive paperwork, targeting individual consumers with proven interest in a product or service, and delivering measurable results.

Of course, there is a lot more going on in the magazine world, including e- and m-commerce, Google Glass, paywalls, innovation labs, e-newsletters, publishing frequency, startups to watch, events as revenue producers, and more. But the five aforementioned trends are your guideposts to a successful future and cannot be ignored.

Building E-Newsletters: Give Your Readers What They Really Want!

• Identify the issues you need to resolve

• Identify your objectives and follow SMART criteria (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-phased)

• Identify your strategic tactics to meet those objectives

• Segment the subscriber list by creating a topic-driven email preference centre

• Be remarkable

• Ensure subscriber list reach and quality

• Measure!

The Editors’ & Writers’ Roundtable: Negotiating Contracts

Before you negotiate anything, think about what’s reasonable in terms of rates, timeline, working conditions and so forth. You’ll then be able to establish a position from which you can negotiate.

Create a template list of questions you want to discuss with each client for each project. (Mine is a table in Microsoft Word.)

• First question: what is the project? You need to know whether the project is in your wheelhouse. If not, think twice about “going there.”

• Second question: what’s the deadline? If there’s no time in your calendar, either refuse the project or charge a rush fee.

• Third question: what’s the budget? As soon as possible, learn whether the project pays the kind of rate that makes it worth your while.

Ask lots of questions. You’ll get a better idea of whether you want to work with a given client on a given project.

Read any contracts or non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) you’re asked to sign. Make notes on stuff, and ask questions about anything you don’t understand. Don’t worry about asking “stupid” questions. Worry instead about making stupid contractual mistakes.

Above all, listen to your gut. If something in a contract doesn’t pass the smell test, sleep on it. Talk with other freelancers about it. Do what it takes to understand the things that bother you, and then deal with them as you see fit.

Nice Package! How to Create an Award-Winning Editorial Mix

1. Have fun making the package. It will show, and the reader will enjoy it all the more.

2. Strive for pacing. Throughout the package, evenly distribute your photos, illustrations and various types of articles. Avoid bunching up similar components.

3. Punctuate the package with anchor photographs, illustrations and/or longer narratives; this accentuates the pacing, and helps guide the reader through the piece.

4. Consider numbering the components. This further helps with pacing and guiding the reader.

5. Create a logo. This also helps remind the reader s/he is still in the same package.

Journalism Now: New Platforms, New Audiences, New Platforms

1. The Ontario Self Employment Benefits (OSEB) program provides business start up assistance to people who are eligible for EI. Learn more at http://www.tbdc.com/oseb.php.

2. Corporate clients understand the value of a copywriter and often pay well.

3. If you’d like to find corporate clients, avoid most networking events.

4. Guest blog for publications that your ideal clients read.

5. Get active on LinkedIn.

Transforming Magazine Media to Succeed in a Digital Age

Marketing in the Attention Deficit EconomyIdentification of three significant consumer trends and how magazine media is uniquely positioned to help marketers capitalize on them.

1. Trend: Trusted Content Brands are the Consumer’s Beacons:

– In the fire hose of content on the web, the brand equity of magazine media insures discoverability, engagement and brand safe environments for marketers.

2. Trend: Expert Advice is the Tipping Point on the Path to Purchase.

– Magazine media has a proven sphere of influence in the product review advice hierarchy that marketers can profit from.

3. Trend: Technology Overload is Driving Desperation to Disconnect.

– Tech-fatigue reaches a cultural tipping point – consumers’ desire to unplug from 24/7 connectivity leads to a re-prioritization to tangible real word experiences including reading. Science-based implications for marketers from multi-disciplinary experts shed light on how media investments can be hyper-optimized when combined with the neural benefits of print.

Social Media (as) Journalism

Facebook Tips

• Keep it short. Long posts look bad on mobile

• Most of your audience won’t see your post (thanks News Feed algorithm). Accept it.

• Engaged posts are more likely to be shown

• Positive posts tend to share better

• Make sure your text and photo are optimized for Facebook

Twitter Tips

• Optimum length for a tweet… around 100 characters (not 140)

• One hashtag is fine, two is a maybe, three… don’t even go there

• Photos, photos, photos

• It’s OK to repeat posts (don’t duplicate), tweets are only good for 30 minutes or so

• Don’t forget to mention other users

Covering Tech in All the Right Places

Tech writing focus by market

Technology has become relevant to every market. However, each publishing market demands a different focus

• Technology B2B = Technology focus

• General B2B = Technical by vertical

• Business pub = Business outcomes

• Consumer electronics = reviews, applications

• General consumer = lifestyle, applications

No one’s buying tech journalism?

Have you considered …

• Blogging

• Social Media

• Corporate

• Custom

• Technical writing