A lot of people I know work in publishing, and it’s inevitable that when we get together, we discuss our jobs and our magazines. A lot of my friends have some really good ideas—ideas about new supplements, ideas to utilize their Web sites, create videos, do trade show coverage at their magazine’s booth, etc. But it never seems that those ideas get implemented at their publications. The reason: It won’t garner any additional revenue, and as editors, we are not really trained to put a dollar amount on our audience growing and perhaps attracting new advertisers.
A lot of time, new initiatives come, only half fleshed out, from the advertising sales department, in response to something an advertiser would like to see to purchase an ad against.
This is counterintuitive to the way the process should work. After all, magazines without an audience wouldn’t exist. So how does an editor learn to monetize his/her idea?
Labels: ASBPE, B2B magazines, innovation, monetizing ideas