Ways to make your magazine the best of its kind, while optimizing its online presence.
If magazines weren’t so much fun, we wouldn’t be doing them.
Advanced Magazining
Magazine best practices
In my content consulting work—including remakes of more than a dozen magazines—I’ve found myself offering a fairly consistent set of tips that get up the client’s content game. Here are a few.
The 10 biggest mistakes we make with our magazines
Your readers have been giving it high marks for years. But lately you’ve been sailing against some stiff winds. It’s time for a course correction. Correct these mistakes.
The secret to making your magazine work online
Hint: It involves packaging. With a specific catalogue of these “products.”
Solve your staffing problem
Your shop needs a wider range of skills. Here’s how to get them.
Your cover story is probably too short
How short is too short? Under 3,000 words. Here’s why.
Your next issue could (and maybe should) be a book
Why do institutions have magazines? A better question: Why do they still? Here’s a brilliant alternative.
The stewardship secret you’re probably not using
It entails ghostwriting, which can not only make you a hero; it can lead to lucrative moonlighting. See how.
The importance of holding meetings in canoes
Or in other cool places. Here are some tips for holding the best retreats.
Magazines I’ve Redesigned with Design Partners
Brown
Colgate
Wharton
Penn Nursing
Rotary
Northwestern
Miami Medicine
Magazines I’ve Managed
Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (editor in chief)
Southwest: The Magazine (editorial director)
US Airways Attaché (founding editor)
Holiday Inn Express Navigator (founding editor)
Backpacker (editorial director)
Runner’s World (editorial director)
Bicycling (editorial director)
Mountain Bike (editorial director)
Rotary (acting editorial director)
Journal of Forestry (publications director)
Eva Yusa, Senior Manager of Content Strategy, Amazon:
“If you are lucky, like me, you have Jay on speed dial to help when you need it most.”
Katherine Primus, Executive Director, Communications & Donor Relations, Wharton School of Business:
