Thursday 30th September 2010 by Steve Roth

Always the bridegroom, never the bride! Such is the invidious fate of editorial. Ask any publisher and they will cite quality editorial as the reason why they are in business, but for most publications, the stark reality is that the sales department pays the bills. Because editorial is always a cost and rarely the breadwinner, editorial innovation is stifled. Without a spare pot to fund editorial development – a luxury open to precious few publishers - innovation ends up as the unpaid creditor – the last in line for cash.

This blog is about how we reinvent editorial and change traditional attitudes towards making money – that it’s someone else’s job.
 

First, let’s establish some ground-rules:

• There is nothing dirty about making money.
• Vendors can also create valuable content – help them.
• Just because an editorial journey ends with a transaction does not devalue the conversation that led there.
• Your ability to create an editorial relationship that ends with a transaction cannot only increase the value of that content to your readers/ members, but also drive additional traffic to your overall content offering.
• The ability of readers/members to access tools or buy things that they need may be the only reason that they visit your site.
• The ability of an editorial department to contribute to the bottom line = freedom to innovate.
• Making money can be fun.

Most busy people operate on a needs must basis. Content that satisfies a need will always beat content that is nice to have. The amount that my audience will be willing to pay for a piece of content has a direct relationship to how much I can satisfy their needs – whether it’s a desire to be more efficient or productive, make money, create a better work/ life balance, fill an emotional hole, or feel good. The higher the benefit the content offers and the bigger the benefit over anything offered by my competitors, the more the content is worth.
Since it is impossible to second guess the problems faced by individual readers/members, offering them the means to help themselves or each other is of huge value.
 
 

So, how can editorial earn its keep and create great content?

1. First know your destination (Listen to your community and learn what it needs).

The ability to meet the needs of your audience will depend on the characteristics of the community that you’re trying to serve and the nature of their needs. If you want to know more about the different types of communities read http://www.siftgroups.com/blog/what-online-community.

But if I am right at the start of my online journey- perhaps I have always worked in print – odds on, I’m not sure where to start. One of the huge advantages of an community, no matter how small, is the ability it gives me to zoom in on key areas of concern that unite large swathes of my audience.

In the case of the Sift Media title AccountingWEB.co.uk , which I ran for some five years, there were perhaps a dozen perennial issues that cropped up again and again and again – how to acquire clients and drop those that were unprofitable, whether to bill by the hour or job,  how to market my practice. Other areas of mutual concern arrived annually, for example, self assessment. Other conversations were one off events – changes in legislation, for example.  But in all cases, at the heart of the conversation lies an appeal – help me. Help me to access information to manage my business, Help me locate tools that will make my job easier. Help me take advantage of a short term opportunity.

You don’t necessarily need an engaged online community to start your journey – ask your events people, ask the sales department, pick up the phone and ask your key contributors – what are the three things that they talk about most often with their colleagues. Is there anything going on right now that keeps them awake at night? If you do have a forum, post a question or quiz your community manager. If you don’t have a community manager, ask your moderators, If you don’t have either, put aside a lunch-hour to comb the forum. If you don’t have a forum, see what your audience is talking about on Twitter or Linked-in, or on rival communities.
All these factors will determine the type of content that you serve. Serve the right dish and you are more likely to satisfy the needs of your audience and create commercial opportunity.

2. Plan the steps

To make any journey, it is important to know how you are going to get there. Try and build a picture of your journey step by step. Once you have got the ball rolling, think about how you can add value. For example, we noticed on AccountingWEB.co.uk that a number of conversations had arisen around a change in the legislation on property to let. We put together a briefing note for accountants so they could advise their clients of the change and attached a proforma letter which they could send to clients alert them it was important they come in and find out about the changes. Each accountant who bought the product was given access to a webinar to discuss the issues raised by the legislation. The webinar raised a number of areas that were not clear, which gave us the opportunity to go back to the Revenue and seek clarification. This produced further editorial opportunities. Had we wanted we could have followed this up with a survey, a whitepaper, a training aid, or all three.

None of this is rocket science – just planning. If your online platform does not allow you to create surveys, it should.  If you are going to create a survey, know how you intend to package the results. Can those results also form the basis of a discussion? What is the best way to frame that discussion so that it creates further editorial and commercial opportunities? If not, get your marketing department to create something for you, or look for another way to engage your audience– perhaps on an external forum, or use one of the social networking sites to organise an impromptu meeting. Taking an example from Businesszone.co.uk, another Sift title, we noticed from ours and other forums that a number of entrepreneurs were stranded at UK airports by the Icelandic volcano cloud. The Businesszone editor organised an impromptu meeting through Twitter at each airport to talk about business issues. Another editorial opportunity gained and one that could be easily turned into a commercial opportunity, for example, a sponsored whitepaper.

3. Don’t miss the connections (link, link, link)

The more disjointed the journey, the less likely it is that your readers/members will stay with you. Try to make the journey seamless. Think about the transition from one piece of content to another. Is it clear? Does it develop the relationship? Is there a call to action that lets your audience know the next step in the journey?

4. Check out the commercial opportunities on the way

At every stage of the journey ask yourself this:

• Who is this for?
• How can I create value?
• What benefit does this offer to my audience?

The more your ‘readers/members’ think ‘must have’, the more the content is worth.  But beware, if the information they need is buried under a ton of dross or buried in a welter of inconsequential blah, it will be difficult to demonstrate that value.
 
Don’t forget your sell side. Advertisers are just itching to help. Leverage their experience. Include them in the conversation. Help them become valuable members of the community by helping them to demonstrate their expertise. Product development communities, best practice papers, buyers guides, workflow tools, expert panellists – your advertisers are an essential part of the conversation.  You are their guide not their guard!

5. Learn where you went wrong or right! (review the journey and adapt)

Journeys can always be improved. For example, did your employ the right calls to action? Did you make the best use of links? Would a different format have better satisfied the needs of your audience? Don’t be afraid to reward your successes and admit when things were not so great.

6. Finally, repeat it again, and again and again.

To recap, executing a commercial editorial strategy is like making a train journey.  Know your destination; plan your route; don’t miss the connections; check out the stations (commercial opportunities); learn where you went wrong or right and finally become a traveller and do it again and again. There is nothing like experience. Liberate yourself. Happy travelling.

Further reading

http://www.siftgroups.com/blog/part-one-listen-and-learn-understanding-value-conversations

http://www.siftgroups.com/blog/part-two-link-and-leverage-%E2%80%93-penny-your-thoughts