Q.
Our ad rep keeps pushing me to change our deadlines. He claims if our lead-time were shorter, he’d be able to get more ads. This makes no sense to me. Currently, we establish the size of the book and paginate the issue 6 weeks before sending it to the printer. I don’t think requiring all ad orders 6 weeks ahead is asking too much. From that point, we have to do the layout of the articles, and often create new material, depending upon how many ad pages were sold. I also have to allow a couple of days for our executive director to review the issue. I don’t see why a several weeks should make any difference to the advertisers. Should I resist the pressure or capitulate?

A.
How responsive you should be to advertiser schedule demands really should depend upon how important the advertising is to your association and its members. In many scholarly journals, for instance, advertising is a minor source of revenue. Thus, if shortening lead times would add up to compromising your editorial product, it is clear that your choice should be to resist the pressure to change deadlines.

At the other end of the spectrum are the association publications that rely heavily upon advertising revenue, and indeed, compete fiercely with commercial counterparts for that revenue. In some fields, members even view the ads as a major part of the publication’s content that interests them. In publications like these, the advertisers are important constituents who must be served, too.

Across the publishing field, technology keeps making shorter lead times more attainable. By using electronic pagination and data management systems, and through incorporating electronic receipt of ad matter into a digital workflow, publications that compete with you for advertising may be offering advertisers shorter lead times. In fact, they may be hyping such as a benefit for advertising in their publications. This all may be adding up to expectancies on the part of advertisers for later deadlines.

It is really not a matter of whether you or I believe the advertisers “should” cope with longer lead times. Think of the advertiser as a customer. And catering to customer preferences usually leads to more sales, irrespective of the etiology of the preference.

Do a systematic analysis of the importance of advertising. Ask yourself questions such as:

Do readers value advertising as part of the publication’s content? Is advertising revenue a significant part of the publication’s budget? Would increased ad revenue provide funds for increased quality and quantity of editorial content? Will abdicating competitiveness for advertisers allow competing publications to gain market strength? In the long run, could that negatively impact membership recruitment and retention?

Then, also take a cold, hard look at your deadlines and workflow procedures. Are they really efficient? Is your current system soundly grounded in today’s realities? Or, do some practices exist simply because they represent “the way we’ve always done it”? Can you gain time by employing anticipatory planning in doing the break of the book, allowing for some fine-tuning of the plan later? And, finally, of course, explore how technology can assist you in doing the best possible job for all your constituencies, your readers, your advertisers, and even your staff, as well!

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