If you have yet to develop an enforceable in-house ethics code, delay no more. The motivating force looming over us now comes in the form of a new trend towards teamwork between sales and editorial staffs. This movement, pundits declare, reflects the imminent demise of Church & State separation—a prospect that probably cheers many marketing…
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Increasing signs of editorial-sales teamwork reported by B2B publishers may create new ethical complications for editors. This trend’s possible impact was highlighted last month in my posts on Twitter. As an editor, what can you do about it? Here’s one idea: create an enforceable in-house ethics code devoted to an array of potential conflicts with…
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Instructive evaluation of editorial productivity requires access to a variety of quantitative data. Consider, for instance, the data you need to determine whether staff and other writers are producing an acceptable number of features. What’s required is to go through the previous six print and/or online issues and count accurately—in pages, inches, or words—each author’s…
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Whenever possible, I pester B2B writers who persist in adhering to a source-first/news-later editing policy. The chance to revisit the topic arose during a recent conversation with Bianchi Public Relations president Jim Bianchi. Here’s how we addressed this exchange: Howard Rauch: There is a basic editing issue that shows up quite a bit in my…
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Do your PR contacts blog regularly offering editorial management how-to advice? Sounds like a good idea to me. I’m talking about the Meet the Media blog program created by Bianchi Public Relations. According to company president Jim Bianchi, the firm “tries to do two profiles per month on a journalist who covers our clientele—automotive or…
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High-value competitive editorial analysis reports should go beyond conventional page counts. In fact, they should aim for a dual goal. Of course there is the obvious objective of matching quantitative strengths and weaknesses. But equally important—and frequently overlooked—is input gained regarding qualitative superiority. Perhaps you’ve overestimated your edge in that respect. What follows here are…
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Earlier in this series, I described an eight-factor e-news editing test that should be applied during competitive analysis projects. Warning: that collection of caveats is merely the tip of the snafu iceberg. And in many cases, you are your own worst enemy. Take timeliness, for example. Needless to say (I hope), the news you post…
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Writers and editors of B2B news need to pay more careful attention to the use of direct quotes from end users (that is, their target readers). While many trade publications excel at gathering comments from readers, just as many do poorly. Still others gather ample reader quotes, but mostly from advertisers and vendors, not end…
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In part 1 of this article, I covered the first 13 of 25 qualitative factors in my competitive scoring system. Here are the remaining 12. Contents page. Do headings go beyond conventional labels such as “Features” and “Departments”? Are photos accompanied by newsy captions, not just the page number? Do department listings consist of the…
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Will corporate demands to “do more with less” overwhelm editors who already have their hands full with print and online responsibilities? Several tweets posted over the past two months indicated that answers are not immediately forthcoming. Other tweets in this time frame summarized several high-value guidelines covered in the first four installments of the new…
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