If I subscribed to every email newsletter and information service that was offered me, there would not be enough time to read them all. So when a newsletter offer appears in my in box, which frequently happens, I give it only the briefest of consideration before pressing delete. Last week, however, I paused long enough […]
As Long as There are Readers, Writers Will Have Work to Do “Reading is here to stay,” wrote Robert M. Sacks in the November/December 2012 issue of Publishing Executive magazine. His astute observation caught my attention, captivating my thoughts, both then and even more so today. Discussions and speculation about the rapid evolution in the […]
Consider these traits that separate a rookie and professional writer. When you submit your writing, do you come across as a rookie or a professional? Consider these rookie traits to avoid and these professional characteristics to pursue. Rookie or Professional:You May Be a Rookie Writer If You… Rookie or Professional:You Are a Professional Writer If […]
I publish four periodicals: two magazines, an e-publication, and an e-newsletter. There is an established workflow to each, with every day requiring that some task be accomplished for at least one of them. Additionally, one of the magazines has an overlapping production schedule, meaning that sometimes I have to start the next issue before the […]
A weekly (or almost weekly) magazine that I receive, recently announced that it was going to have four “green” issues this year, with the goal of being “carbon neutral” in 10 years. I was curious how they would handle this “green” issue. o their credit, they emailed me when it was ready and I went […]
Weekly news publications, I am told, are the ones most squeezed in today’s markets. They are wedged between the proverbial “rock” (instant news via the Internet that trumps weekly updates) and “hard place” (advertisers reallocating their ad dollars towards more established monthlies that target the same audience or online). One of the magazines that I […]
Today I learned that another magazine I read is ceasing publication. This isn’t really a surprise to me. In fact, I’m surprised that they have hung on this long. They were an advertiser-supported magazine and their number of ads has been a bit sparse as of late. From my perspective, their content focus and target […]
The trend in magazine publishing is to migrate to non-printed forms of distribution (such as email, PDF files, and online reading) in order to reduce costs. While I see this transformation as spanning many years or even decades for most publications, I also noted that the recession is accelerating this trend. The reason is that […]
The DMA (Direct marketing Association) recently released their annual report on the catalog industry. The report indicated that in 2007, 36% of sales [for the catalog industry] were conducted online. What is shocking is that this statistic is a decrease from 2006, when it stood at 40%. In fact 2007’s percentage was lower than both […]