Out of the Crowd
BusinessMiami ditched executives on its cover. Provocative illustrations are in their place. And the risk is paying off.
By Rochelle Broder-Singer
Good — really good — covers get people to open magazines.
And the challenge of creating really good covers is difficult when you are the alumni magazine of a business school. Let me put it this way: How many different ways can you pose people in business suits on the cover and hope it’s interesting?
Until seven years ago, the cover of BusinessMiami, the alumni magazine of the University of Miami School of Business Administration, most often bore a photograph of one or more of the alumni or faculty members featured in that given issue. Sure, we tried to keep it intriguing, posing the individual in a context associated with his or her specialty — say a search and rescue worker in uniform with her canine partners, or health care MBA students and alumni in their lab coats. But too often we had to work with business people in business attire in business settings. Yawn.
A Design Showdown
One niche publisher discovers the power of a breakthrough event.
By Molly Campbell
In the beginning of 2014, I knew I was going to need to get creative. At Design New England (DNE), we had a chain of major transitions, one after another. First came the unexpected departure of my predecessor. Then, I was promoted to publisher. And, The New York Times Company sold The Boston Globe (our parent company, subsequently renamed Boston Globe Media LLC) to John and Linda Henry. In the end, DNE had a solid team in place for the first time in a long time. But — as things like this tend to go — the change brought with it new objectives. In our case, to grow advertising-generated revenue by 10 percent year over year. As publisher, I immediately realized we would need new revenue streams to meet this goal.
Meanwhile, our advertisers had been clamoring for opportunities to network with other trade members and consumers. Many of these businesses depend on this interaction to develop the relationships that lead to future collaboration. Builders, for example, want to maintain strong ties with architects, who have powerful influence over homeowners during a project bidding process. Getting them in the same room was a valuable benefit to all. This got me thinking: What if DNE hosted an event that provided this kind of opportunity? And, in a fresh new way — elevated from the panel-oriented speaking events we had hosted in the past. If we could create an event that provided undeniable value to our partners, it would open up a completely new revenue channel outside of our core product, the magazine.
Turn Your Publishing Expertise into Content Marketing Magic
Publishers are exceptionally well positioned to practice content marketing. After all, the now-popular strategy was born as custom publishing.
by Amy Bernstein
Content marketing” is fast becoming a buzzword and losing some of its clarity along the way. That’s unfortunate, because it’s worthy of your notice. It isn’t something that only big-budget brands are doing. And it’s not just for marketers, either.
As a publisher, you are exceptionally well positioned to practice content marketing — whether for the benefit of your own organization or for your advertisers, sponsors, and underwriters. Really, content marketing was born as custom publishing. It takes that practice to its next logical step, leveraging content in a variety of forms to reach an audience through various media and to influence their behavior.
Takeaways
Bent! (But in a good way!)
You CAN Keep Up With Social Media Marketing
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