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All-star ethics panel tackles ad/edit challenge; creative edit ideas; harassment; transparency

Washington, DC — Editor/advertiser relations remain B2B media’s major hurdle. This dim view was shared by Ethics Roundtable panelists during last week’s American Society of Business Publications Editors National Conference. The agreed-upon top concern was a rising movement requiring editors to increase creative contribution to sponsored content program development. “Pressure will come from print advertisers…
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Howard Rauch May 23, 2018 0

‘Universality of interest’ is missing ingredient at many B2B e-news sites

When identifying objectives for B2B e-news packages, “universality of interest” should be at the top of your list. The goal involved is obvious: deliver as many articles as possible that will impact most or all of your site’s readership. In fact, many editors are well aware of what developments fulfill the universality requirement. Being able to gather…
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Howard Rauch May 4, 2018 0

Editorial neutrality needs protection during sponsored content projects

While ASBPE’s ethics code includes several guidelines defining editorial staff participation in marketing activity, the section requires amendment covering sponsored content activity. A chapter devoted to ethics in my book—Get Serious About Editorial Management—observes that “in larger companies, this requirement is best fulfilled by a representative of the publisher’s sponsored content department. In smaller firms, publishers…
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Howard Rauch April 24, 2018 0

Curata provides key curation guidelines many B2B editors have yet to meet

Curation at many B2B Web sites falls short of best practices recommended by content marketing authority Curata. If online managers did a better job of following suit, they might fill the quality gap existing due to insufficient original material delivery. This possibility would be immediately suggested to anyone taking time out to study Curata’s guide for content curators, How to…
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Howard Rauch April 2, 2018 0

Competitive productivity: key way to measure editorial performance

There are at least four ways to measure editorial performance. Leading the list is competitive productivity. This was the message I conveyed to attendees at a workshop reviewing management guidelines covered in my new B2B book, Get Serious About Editorial Management. “Constantly review editorial management strengths and weaknesses against competition,” I advised. “And if competition does…
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Howard Rauch March 28, 2018 0

Webinar tackles daunting topic: What publishers want from editors

“What publishers really want from editors”—the focus of ASBPE’s February 28 webinar—clearly is a challenging topic. Equally worth a follow-up session some day is the logical response session: “What do editors want from publishers?” Meanwhile, featured speaker Kilian Schalk, founder of consulting firm PurpleGray, clearly was prepared to present the publishers’ viewpoint. He offered an overwhelming list…
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Howard Rauch February 28, 2018 0

Early B2B e-news findings reflect editorial basics bungling

Lack of enterprise, endless sentences and misdirected introductory paragraphs should appear rarely if not ever in B2B online posts. But such is not the case reflected in early findings from Editorial Solutions Inc.’s 7th annual e-news delivery study. Alerts conveyed via my previous six studies clearly have not registered. Either that . . . or I am…
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Howard Rauch February 22, 2018 0

Sherman: Research Articles Need Careful Review

Most ethics authorities usually agree that articles containing numbers require careful review prior to publication. Too many editors and writers forego the necessary vetting, warns editorial and design consultant Robin Sherman. “Journalists publish many stories based on bad data,” he says, “which in turn is often based on poor methodology.” Sherman is immediate past ethics…
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Howard Rauch February 13, 2018 0

Ten ways to score B2B news take-away value

When judging publishing industry editorial competitions, my most challenging category often is the Best Headline event. In the past, I restricted my evaluation to headlines accompanying feature articles. This year, I expanded the scope to account for treatments involving cover, contents page, and editorial columns. The result is the following ten-point scoring system. If you…
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Howard Rauch February 7, 2018 0

Logical New Year’s resolution: Bad editorial habits must go!!

I wish I had written the recent editorial column posted by colleague William Dunkerley. Bill publishes two excellent industry newsletters. In one of them—STRAT—he offers a thoughtful assessment of why advertising outlook is gloomy. A key reason, he states, is long-standing practices that today lack merit must be discarded. When it comes to B2B editorial…
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Howard Rauch January 12, 2018 0

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