In the July / August issue of InPublishing magazine, we celebrated print. The special feature contained eighteen articles, each looking at a different aspect of print publishing.
Each contributor concluded their article with three top tips. Below, I have selected one from each, along with a link to their article:
- Treat your print as your premium brand asset: Print is no longer the default. It’s the premium format. It has presence, weight, and staying power. (Mike Hoy, CEO, Papermule)
- Mix it up! Max out your publication’s potential with contrasting paper stocks, different finishes, fold-outs and die-cuts to encourage interactivity and immediate engagement. (Kirk Galloway, CEO and MD, Buxton Press)
- Invest time in getting the most out of your paper’s sustainability attributes. This can be done at very little cost, if any, but it can deliver an incredible boost for your product as well as your organisation. (Julian Townsend, publishing paper sales director, Denmaur)
- Be bold with cover prices. Looking back over the years, we spent an awful lot of time debating whether we should increase prices by 5p or 10p when we probably could have gone further. (Ian Carter, chief operating officer, Iliffe Media)
- Print smarter, not more. Work to make sure that print orders match the real demand in the market. For some consumer titles, unsold copies can account for 50% or more of the print run. Smarter targeting means less waste. (Steven Renders, general manager, Roularta Printing)
- Standardise workflows across titles. A unified editorial process reduces admin overhead from a set up and support perspective; it streamlines onboarding and enables cross-title staffing flexibility. (James Hirsz, project manager, Atex)
- Be clear on the message you are sending: Know your audience and what they’re looking for. Print gives you the opportunity to be ultra niche so use it. Your paper stock, finishes, content can be crafted for your tribe. If it feels like it was made just for the reader, you’ve broken through! (Chris Ferrari-Wills, national sales manager, The Manson Group)
- Publish bumper issues. Across the board with our regular frequency titles, we schedule in an average of two – but as many as six – bumper issues a year. Readers lap them up, happily paying more for an extra 16 pages. (Jon Bickley, co-founder and CEO, Anthem)
- Offer all readers your complete PDF archive to build long-term value: Your back catalogue is a valuable and often underutilised asset, especially if your editorial content is evergreen. (Jason Mengers, managing director, Touch Tree Technology)
- Pay special attention to your front cover: We all understand the importance of how your magazine front covers must captivate your readers and drive engagement. The cover needs to create curiosity about the content, and establish the magazine’s brand. So using the right cover images or illustration is key. However, do not neglect cover lines, placement, font choice and design principles. (Michael Chinnery, founder, CPUK Print Publishing)
- Nail your USP: Know what makes your product unique and why retailers should care. Ensure you can articulate this and explain how it adds value to their range. (Siobhan McNab, commercial development manager, Marketforce)
- Don’t skimp on quality: We invest in great content, but it should also arrive in a great package: invest in good paper, quality inks, strong distribution channels… put a good product in the hands of your readers and they will value what is in it even more. (Reneé Doegar, publisher, London Review of Books)
- Make sure your distribution strategy is treated equally as importantly as your editorial strategy. So many new publishers come to the market each year with a wonderfully edited and designed new publication, but they haven’t spent any time or effort in understanding where their audience will be found and how they will be captured and most importantly, how much that will cost. (Chris Horn, managing director, Gold Key Media)
- Put your price up, do not be afraid, don’t wait for your competition, just do it. Customers love your content, they will pay for it especially if you give them an excuse via added value. (Natalie Smith, client relationship manager, Warners)
- Ensure you have a clear strategy for both print and digital. If you want to make the printed product the star of the show, you need to also understand how you are going to position the digital product. (Gemma Heavens, group account director, HH&S)
- Don’t differentiate between print and digital when devising subscription rates. Keep them the same. You will be amazed how this will benefit your yields. Just because one delivery system is much cheaper than the other should not make any difference. (Mark Allen, chairman, Mark Allen Group)
- Be engaging: Engagement with your subscribers is important from day one, so use the paper wrap to flag up special features and extra subscriber-only content in the issue, or to publicise upcoming events. (Stuart Searle, managing director, First Mailing)
- Integrate all media channels: Link offline print channels with digital channels to gain a greater reach, track effectiveness and improve ROI. Publishers can significantly boost engagement and trackability by linking their print mailings with their digital presence. (Neil Carter, sales & commercial director, Posthub)
Pictured above: Top (L-R): Mike Hoy, Kirk Galloway, Julian Townsend, Ian Carter, Steven Renders, James Hirsz. Middle (L-R): Chris Ferrari-Wills, Jon Bickley, Jason Mengers, Michael Chinnery, Siobhan McNab, Reneé Doegar. Bottom (L-R): Chris Horn, Natalie Smith, Gemma Heavens, Mark Allen, Stuart Searle, Neil Carter.
(Quick heads up: our next webinar – Seven Proven Subscription Strategies for Publishers – is on Tuesday, 23 September. For more information and to register, please click here.)
You can catch James Evelegh’s regular column in the InPubWeekly newsletter, which you can register to receive here.
