Online Clippings

Editorial Help

Need to launch an online journal or micro-site? Need to rethink a 10-year-old web effort? Need to revamp a tired old print section? Need to figure out a search engine strategy? Think you are stuck in someone’s web-master racket?

Talk to me about options in print and web. While it seems to be the worst time since Gutenberg to be printing things, it is the best time ever to launch anything. The market is confused, publishers are scared and few are on their game. Everything is cheap, and people are willing to try anything?

Think about a strategy

Web is the immediate part, and it is important. The chances are good, however, that you could be doing it better. And there is a role for print. A critical role. Print becomes the calling card for your total media strategy. Editor Garland Pollard has the answers for regional publications that are struggling with what to do in this new era. His answers are not grandiose, but instead leverage existing products with new formulas.

This is not about a stylistic redesign of your product. No matter how many times you redesign, you aren’t going to get it. You need to completely rethink your product. Some of my rethinking is listed below; see examples online at www.blackcowpress.com. I have:

  • Launched a news website for a major consulting firm, in order help them frame their issues and methods in a time when major daily papers no longer cover major business issues.
  • Reworked a stale old real estate section in small town afternoon newspaper, The Progress-Index, and turned it into a fun aspirational Saturday read.
  • Taken an old freebie tourist magazine, Richmond Guide, and turned it into a must-have local travel book.
  • Invented a restaurant guide as a promo offering for one of the nation’s oldest radio stations, WRVA.
  • Developed the concept and editorial plan for a new state magazine for Virginia, Virginia Living. This magazine harkened back to the days of Look and Life. It gave the whole state a new identity and a sense of itself.
  • Revamped the 60-year-old Official Florida Vacation Guide for the state of Florida. New twist? It’s not only a fun read, but it guides readers on how to use the web.

Not afraid of print

  • Print has margins. While the days of 30 percent are over, you can still do better than the web.
  • Print has unlimited ad space. In web, avails are limited. This seems counter intuitive, but the reality is that as soon as fixed costs are covered with print, margins are high. Lower your costs, and you’ve got magic.
  • Print allows for photography, and showing off and staking permanent legal claim to archives and intellectual property.
  • Print can brand you online. It builds traffic online. It’s the best SEO.
  • Print lasts forever. It lives on coffee tables, shelves and the like.
  • Print is a core strength for companies that are in it.

Talk to me

Got an ailing print product? Want to launch a new product? Or revamp an old one? I’ve got ideas to share, and an infectious enthusiasm that in a time of layoffs and bad news, will encourage your staff. And in the meantime, download my free white paper, 20 Ways To Save Your Daily Newspaper. I haven’t been able to put it to the test, but I would love to before its all too late.

admin @ October 17, 2008