45 Super Publication Ideas

45 SuperPublication Ideas

In Only 45 Minutes(Along With 15 Bonuses)

American Horse PublicationsAnnual MeetingPark City, UtahJune 21, 2002

Panel Members...

Panel Moderator...Frank Lessiter

Lessiter PublicationsEditor/Publisher

American Farriers JournalBrookfield, Wis.(262) 782-4480

E-mail: [email protected]

Dean HoffmanEditorHoof BeatsColumbus, Ohio(614) 224-2291E-mail: [email protected]

Jennifer MeyerConsulting EditorHorse & RiderFormer owner of California Horse ReviewShingle Springs, Calif.(530) 677-3000E-mail: [email protected]

Connie LechleitnerEditorOhio Quarter Horse NewsRichwood, Ohio (740) 944-2346, Extension 26E-mail: [email protected]

Tom WinsorPresidentWinsor PublicationsSpin To WinThe Trail Less TraveledRide With Bob AvilaLouisville, Colo.(303) 661-9298E-mail: [email protected]

1. Advertising. Send post card remindersto advertisers regarding upcoming adver-tising deadlines. Incorporate special edito-rial features into your message forpromoting a particular issue.

—Connie Lechleitner

2. Look To Other Publications ForInspiration. Just because you’reinvolved with a horse publication doesn’tmean that you can’t glean valuable ideasfrom other publications, including thosethat are totally unrelated to horses.

You may have to tweak them a bit toconform to your needs, but looking at othermagazines will often help you “think outsidethe box” and come up with fresh ideas.

Be careful of falling into a rut with youreditorial material. Seeking ideas from outsidethe horse world can help prevent that.

—Dean Hoffman

3. Advertising Sales. Reward your bestadvertisers (and lure new ones) with a "Yousaid it — and we say thanks!" with an in-house advertising campaign. Ask your best(contract) advertisers why they love yourpublication, then publish the answers,along with an advertiser's logo (or mug shot)in a house ad that thanks them (use onesuch ad per month). The implied message:The best, smartest and most successfulhorse people advertise in this publication.

—Jenny Meyer

4. Print Contracts. As a smaller circula-tion publisher, our biggest annual cost isprinting. Our unit cost is generally high dueto the low production runs.

There are three things you can do tolower this cost each year: A. Take time to bid out your magazines at

least once a year.B. Learn to prepare your publication to

be transferred digitally so you can godirect-to-plate, saving money on filmand pre-press costs.

C. Make alliances with publishers thathave magazines with similar circula-tion size and frequency. Then figureout a way to co-mingle your press timeto run together. This will cut the setupand paper waste, thus reducing youroverall costs.

—Tom Winsor

5. Editorial. Develop an on-going ticklerfile with story ideas. Since I am a statepublication, I can often take a nationalpublication's story topic and turn it into alocal one by interviewing local experts,horse owners or association members whohave experienced the specific topic.


6. Provide Your AdvertisingStaffers With An Incentive ToSell. For many years, the advertising salesperson at Hoof Beats was not on any bonusor commission. It didn’t matter if thatperson sold five pages or 500 pages of ads ina given month — the compensation was thesame. I thought that was insane, but such isoften the burden of working for an associa-tion magazine.

One year when sales declined about 15percent, the ad salesperson got a generoussalary increase. When we started a bonussystem, advertising sales started to increaseagain. Cause and effect? I think so.

—Dean Hoffman

7. Advertising Sales. Sell more eventadvertising by offering free boldfacecalendar listings to all events for which adisplay ad has been purchased in the currentor previous issue. It costs you almost nothingexcept for a little staff time to do the cross-referencing each month, and it makes adver-tisers — and readers! — very happy.

—Jenny Meyer

8. Postage. The increase in postage in thenext few weeks will impact all of us. Thebigger circulation magazines have an advan-tage over most of us with the ability toleverage their titles into a co-palletizing situ-ation. This allows multiple magazine titles tobe bulk shipped via commercial trucking topost office centers around the country.

By co-palletizing the titles, publisherscan share the trucking costs and mail 80 to90 percent of their magazines into postalzones 1 and 2. More and more printers willbe starting to co-palletize with the newpostal increases. When you are negotiatingyour print contracts, make sure that youlook into this opportunity.

—Tom Winsor

9. Networking. When more than oneperson from your staff attends a meetingsuch as this one, don’t sit together atlunches or dinners. Instead, have them sitwith other people so they can learn newideas and talk over possible solutions tocommon problems.

—Frank Lessiter

10. Interns. Develop an intern program. Bygetting free or next to free college student help,you have a chance to give back to your commu-nity. Plus, this experience gives a student agreat experience to add to their resume.


11. Ask Free-Lancer Writers ForTheir Story Ideas. I have alwaysfound that free-lancer writers will do abetter job if they work on story ideas thatexcite them. So I always ask a new free-lancer to submit story ideas to me instead ofsimply assigning them articles. That alsotells me whether the writer knows the edito-rial direction of Hoof Beats and if the ideasare suitable for us. It enables me to “kickthe tires” on a new writer.

—Dean Hoffman

12. Advertising Sales. Turn mistakes inads (or other client bungles) into increasedad dollars by establishing a “make it right”policy to assuage the wronged client, nomatter what it takes. This boosts theoffended client’s respect and admiration foryour publication, which can later be turnedinto increased advertising buys.

Make up lavishly for mistakes even whenthey weren’t your fault. (Don’t win thebattle and lose the war; make ad errors thebeginning of a strengthened relationshipwith that client.)

—Jenny Meyer

13. New Subscriptions. With 9/11 and theanthrax scare, direct mail has had a toughgo over the past 9 months. However, we allneed those new readers.

One way that I like to reduce my risk innew reader acquisition is to bulk print mymarketing materials but mail in smaller,more frequent quantities. This protects meagainst having all of my mail in the system ifsomething like 9/11 ever happens again.

—Tom Winsor

14. Publishing Management. Databasemanagement has been a great help to me incontacting advertisers. I use ACT, butthere are many good programs available.This program offers the ability to runlabels, list notes, document the history ofphone calls, contracts, past payments, adsthat have run, etc.


15. Use A Single Image On The Cover.While we are not driven by newsstand sales,a powerful image on the cover is desirable.Many times I see publications that try tosplit their cover and use several images, butthat weakens the impact. You are trying tobe too many things to too many readers.The cover should have impact and you cancover the details and other angles inside.

—Dean Hoffman

16. Advertising Sales. Boost your ad salesby devising a team-oriented sales incentivestrategy, so that your sales staffers arerewarded for helping each other. Split abonus for all of them when a certain goal ismet rather than having sales staffers be“rewarded” for “beating” the other teammembers or paying a bonus for the high-selling staffers only.

—Jenny Meyer

17. Editorial Development. How do weproduce quality editorial on a limitedbudget? One cost effective way to developeditorial is to develop as much editorial asyou can all at one time.

For example, we recently developed over30 stories in just 4 days. Just make surethat the material is “evergreen” and can beused in the months and seasons to come.We really save money and time in the longrun with this system.

—Tom Winsor

18. Editorial. Develop a questionnaire thatyou can send to people on whom you needto do biographical information. Keep abasic questionnaire and make changesdepending on your specific needs. Include aself-addressed envelope to encourage theperson to return the material more quickly.


19. Watch Your Freebie List. Everypublication sends out a number of compli-mentary copies and that is inevitable. Butsuch lists have a way of getting larger andlarger. It’s easy to add people, but howoften do you delete any names?

When I came to Hoof Beats, I cut thecomplimentary list by about 1,000 names.We got six complaints from people who wereupset that they weren’t getting the magazineand we reinstated them. The other 994people either didn’t notice, didn’t care orhad been declared legally dead years ago.

—Dean Hoffman

20. Advertising Sales. Endear yourself toyour customers by making your publicationgenuinely accessible, which means avoidingvoice mail phone answering if at allpossible, and having a telephone recep-tionist that does not use an “official phonevoice.” The goal for each call must be tosolve the caller’s problem — not to get thecaller transferred quickly or off the linealtogether. This will make you stand outlike crazy. (Don’t you love calling theAmerican Quarter Horse Association, forexample, and getting a real, live, helpfulsomeone on the line — every time?)

—Jenny Meyer

21. Photos. Digital imaging has come a longway in the past 3 years. If you have theability to hire a photographer with digitalequipment, go for it. You get a muchcleaner image and you can cut your costs inhalf compared to traditional photos.

—Tom Winsor

22. Personal Management. Using aFranklin Planner changed my life. I livemy day by it, put my most used telephonenumbers in it, use it to record all telephonecalls made each day and use it to includemy to-do list.


23. Use Fresh Photos. Would you run thesame story over and over again severaltimes a year? Probably not. Then why runthe same photo again and again? It is notpresenting a fresh perspective on the horse,person or scene.

After a while, people won’t even noticethe photo because they’ve seen it before.Your photo then represents wasted space.If you have limited photos, you have limitedoptions, but seek to get fresh photos ofhorses and people each time they’re used.

—Dean Hoffman

24. Circulation Promotion. Boost circu-lation with a sweepstakes giveaway. Recruitone of your best regular advertisers todonate a prize (such as a saddle, bridle,$500 gift certificate or whatever) in returnfor several months of free promotion aspart of the subscription sweepstakes infor-mation found in each issue.

—Jenny Meyer

25. Internet Promotions. If you’reanything like us – the magazine’s Web siteis the last thing on the agenda every day.However, I believe it is a must for allmagazines to have a site as a second sourceof information.

If for no other reason, it helps newreaders find your magazine and learn moreabout your product. And remember thatyour E-mail databases will become moreand more valuable over time.

—Tom Winsor

26. Publishing Management. Start a newproject every year. For us, it may be looking atbuying a publication, starting a new publica-tion or conference, developing a new Web site,starting an E-zine newsletter, producing a newbook or something else. Our 14-member staffcontinually looks for new ideas and asks whatwe’re going to do differently this year. They’vebecome enthused about doing new things.

—Frank Lessiter

27. Publishing Management. Since Ihandle both editorial and ad sales, I keepstand-up file folders on my desk for the nextseveral issues. When an ad reservation comesin, I simply write it up and place it in theappropriate month's folder. When I get readyto start producing an issue, all of the adver-tising reservations are waiting there for me.


28. Use Remailers For InternationalDelivery. If you have a substantialnumber of Canadian or other foreignsubscribers, it may be worthwhile toconsider using a remailing service instead ofthe U.S. Postal Service for delivery. Thecosts may be slightly higher, but the serviceis likely to be much better.

We have no alternative to the U.S. PostalService for domestic delivery, but we do formagazines mailed outside the country. We arecurrently using Blue Chip International andDeutsche Post for international deliveries, butthese services seem to spring up like aluminumsiding salesmen, so you will have lots of choices.

—Dean Hoffman

29. Circulation Promotion. Boost yourreader interactivity (and thereby yourrenewals) by placing a Reader ResponseCard on the “other side” of your bind-insubscription card. Use it to garner feedbackon each issue, solicit story ideas, obtainletter-to-the-editor squibs, etc. In otherwords, use it to show your readers howimportant they are to you — every month.

—Jenny Meyer

30. Building A Brand. This is an old term,but is still very true. We are not just in themagazine business; we are in the informa-tion brand-building business.

Build a brand around your magazineand offer your readers other informationand services of value. Use your publicationas the main communication vehicle for yourreaders to learn about and use all of yourvaluable services.

—Tom Winsor

31. Editorial. I use some theme issues,although there are pros and cons for doingthis. It helps me (and my part-time intern)keep focused on the editorial material thatis needed for the issue.


32. Use A Printer That Specializes InPublications. For decades, we used agood commercial printer to print HoofBeats. The firm’s work was adequate, butit was expensive and not really gearedtoward publications.

After hearing a presentation at anAmerican Horse Publications meeting yearsago, we switched printers and have savedmore than enough money to buy a villa inthe south of France. Plus, we’re gettingmuch better service. Printers, like doctors,are specialists, so seek out a printer thatspecializes in publications of your size.

—Dean Hoffman

33. Overall Marketing, Positioning.Raise your publication’s profile amongmovers and shakers by establishing aPublishers Advisory Council of key figuresin the equestrian communities that yourepresent. Contact them regularly viaphone or email. Solicit their opinions.Network through them.

—Jenny Meyer

34. Advertising Sales. Big publications cansell numbers, reach and costs per thousandreaders (CPMs). As a publisher of smaller-circulation magazines, what do I have tooffer? I have something very special.

I have the most vested readers in theirrespected niche reading my magazines.Every one of my readers is interested inwhat I have to offer them both in informa-tion and advertising.

This means that my magazines pack apunch when it comes to advertising budgets.

The bigger the magazine circulation, thebroader the readership. I would ratherproduce magazines that have a highly vested,very focused readership and be able to capturethe majority of the readers in a niche market.

—Tom Winsor

35. Publishing Management. Find valu-able time-saving forms, checklists, companypolicies and sample problem-solving lettersthat have worked for others to make publi-cation life much easier and to avoid costlyerrors. See the attached examples of whereto find all kinds of forms and checklists.

—Frank Lessiter

36. Internet And Editorial. I use theinternet horse forums to determine the hottopics of the day. Sometimes I follow up onrumors to verify their accuracy.


37. Speculative Ads Can Open Doors.Got an advertising client who refuses to speakto you? Why not create a speculative ad on hisstallions, services or farm? Do the research,write the copy and design the layout.

Then present the ad to the client. He orshe may like it or they may not. But theyshould appreciate the effort that it took andit should open the door to further discus-sions about advertising. That’s reasonenough to try this exercise.

—Dean Hoffman

38. Overall Marketing, Positioning.Increase your marketing savvy and effec-tiveness by purchasing and reading onegood marketing book (Guerrilla marketingwas the hot topic when I was publishing amagazine) and do just one thing a month topromote and market your publication.Don’t get overwhelmed and do nothing.Just pick one strategy per month and thendo it or see that it gets done.

—Jenny Meyer

39. Know Your Cost Per Page. Byknowing your cost per page, you havegained the knowledge to know when it iseconomical to increase and decrease eitheryour advertising or editorial pages. This isnot just your print and postage costs, butalso your per page editorial costs.

—Tom Winsor

40. Advertising. Post your advertising ratesand specifications online. It saves a lot ofcorrespondence when people can find theinformation online.


41. Listen To Your Readers. It’s easy tobecome isolated from your readers andpresume to know what they want to read.

But do you really know? How? Do youlisten to them? Do you do readership surveys?

Don’t assume that the people you speakwith on a regular basis are representativeof your readers. Use every opportunity youcan to listen to what they want to read. Youmight be surprised.

—Dean Hoffman

42. Staffing, Leadership. Stay effective asa leader by loving your troubles. Publishingis full of headaches and you can’t changethat. Instead, change your attitude byadopting the perspective that everythingthat comes your way has been sent to youon purpose to teach you an importantlesson — something that will make you amore effective leader. Encourage your staffto adopt the same attitude.

—Jenny Meyer

43. Understanding IncrementalCPMs. When you make a decision toincrease your print by 1,000, 2,000 or morecopies for a show or extra distributionissue, it is important to look at this as avariable cost. That is the cost of the addi-tional quantity to print and NOT theaverage cost per copy.

This will give you a true economic pictureof what your returns need to be in order tosee a profitable return on your venture.

—Tom Winsor

44. Publishing Management. Thinkoutside the box. In March, we asked our 14employees to tell us what was right andwrong with our operation. The responsewas fantastic, as they listed both problemsand opportunities.

We asked them to outline their ideas inmemos which ran from 1 to 8 pages. Thenwe met with each employee individually toobtain more in-depth information.

The result was a memo spelling out 95specific things that we were going to imme-diately start doing differently. The inter-esting thing is that our people knew wherethe problems were in the company betterthan we did, knew what employees weren’tperforming up to par and spelled out ourweaknesses and strengths.

After we went over all of the changes in astaff meeting, everyone was given a copy of thememo. They know what is expected of eachemployee on the staff. Morale, enthusiasm andtheir workload have all improved as a result.

—Frank Lessiter

45. Advertising. I invoice ads as soon as myprinted issue arrives. That way I alwayshave access to plenty of tear sheets foradvertisers and their agencies.


And Now...Bonus Time!!!!

46. Treat Your Best Free-LancersVery Well. Many editors don’t agree, butI don’t treat all free-lancers equally. Woulda book publisher compensate John Grishamthe same as a lesser-known author?

Free-lancers are not beholden to you, so youhave to treat them well, both financially andpersonally, to keep them on your team. Thereare some free-lancers that you can take orleave, but there are also some that you want toretain and you must reward them accordingly.

Try to make them understand the limita-tions of your budget, if payment is aproblem for you.

—Dean Hoffman

47. Staffing, Leadership. Boost employeemorale and effectiveness by fostering a teamspirit whenever and however you can. Holdweekly team meetings that include some for-fun activities, work stuff, periodic lunches outand “movie afternoons.” Even a simple littleemployee newsletter will work. All of thesekind of ideas will pay important dividends inloyalty, longevity and superior work.

—Jenny Meyer

48. Art Work, Color, Paper Quality.The look and feel of a magazine is very impor-tant these days. However, don’t be fooled bythe idea that you have to have lots of color,splashy photos and top quality paper.

Don’t put too much stock in readerletters, as they always want the best andmost that they can get. If the editorial mixis right, they will subscribe and renew yourmagazine year after year.

—Tom Winsor

49. Publishing Management. MacintoshSherlock Search is a tool that I use all thetime. You can type in a topic and do simul-taneous searches of numerous searchengines all at once.


50. Avoid Repetition InPhotography. If you use the samephotographer on a regular basis, make surethat all of his or her photos don’t look alike.It’s easy for any creative person to fall into arut and photographers are no exception.

At an event, note where most of thephotographer are gathered and go some-where else. Get that “different” photo.Show your readers a perspective that theyhave never seen before at an event.

—Dean Hoffman

51. Advertising Sales. Consider developinga marketing newsletter for your contractadvertisers (and call it something cute like “StirUp Business” or “A Leg Up In Marketing.”)

As you help advertisers become moremarketing-savvy (one obvious tip —regular advertising!), they learn to turn toyou as a trusted advisor. Ad buys willincrease as a result.

—Jenny Meyer

52. Ancillary Products. By redevelopingeditorial content into a booklet or buyingproducts that you can re-sell, you becomethe one-stop shop for information andgoods that serve your readers better.

Remember that your readers already lookto you for information. As a respected infor-mation resource with a highly vested group oflike-minded enthusiasts, what are someproducts that you can produce at a profit?

—Tom Winsor

53. Internet. Collect e-mail addresses of yoursubscribers to correspond on a timely basis inbetween your printed issues. Used sparingly,your subscribers will appreciate receivingtimely information and reminders from you.


54. Advertising Sales. Reward and lureadvertisers by adding a “productgrapevine” newsy column to supplementyour New Products feature. It’s an easyway to include something from everyone’snews release — stuff that wouldn’tnormally work in your regular NewProducts column. Keep it gossipy, inter-esting and publish the advertisers’ logos —no other art is needed.

—Jenny Meyer

55. Circulation Promotion. Boost circu-lation with a low-cost “freebie,” such asproducing a series on training, horse careor whatever and then reprinting the seriesas a booklet and offering it as a premium onnew subscriptions or renewals.

—Jenny Meyer

56. Staffing, Leadership. Make your salesteam and other employees amazingly moreeffective with some form of profit sharing,even if it’s extremely modest. It works likenothing else to get people to care as muchabout your business as you do.

—Jenny Meyer

57. Staffing, Leadership. Boosteveryone’s productivity by makingFranklin Planners (or some similarly effec-tive time-management system) a require-ment for all team members. Pay for thematerials and training yourself if you haveto; it will more than pay for itself.

—Jenny Meyer

58. Staffing, Leadership. Get free edito-rial, graphic design and marketing assis-tants by working with the internship coordi-nators at nearby colleges and universities.It takes some time and effort to establish asolid relationship, but it is well worth itwhen they send you good interns, many ofwhom will work for little or nothing. As abonus, you can recruit the best ones forpermanent-paid employment.

—Jenny Meyer

59. Staffing, Leadership. Make youremployees more effective by providing asmuch training as you can afford, or at leasthelping them pay for the type of trainingthat they’re interested in. Keep a library ofmotivational cassette tape sets in the officeand encourage and even reward employeesto listen to them.

—Jenny Meyer

60. Staffing, Leadership. Hold regularinformal review sessions over lunch ordinner with key staffers to keep everyoneup to date and to make them feel they are avalued part of your publishing team.

—Jenny Meyer

45 Super Publication Ideas

Documents

Transcript of 45 Super Publication Ideas