Editorial Conferences -- Part III
Posted on Sunday, September 29, 2019 at 10:45 PM
The final wrap-up.
By William Dunkerley
In
this last installment in our series about editorial conferences, we
present our digest of comments received from a cross section of editors:
Dave
Fusaro, editor-in-chief, Food Processing magazine: Dave's
print publication is monthly, but he says "something goes up daily" in
the online edition. Instead of an editorial conference, Dave conducts a
monthly cover meeting that includes the only other editor on staff and
the art director. Long-range planning goes into an extensive editorial
calendar. It dictates every page they write, reports Dave.
Gary
Crowdus, editor-in-chief, Cineaste magazine: Cineaste
is a quarterly, both print and online. Gary's editorial conferences
include all senior editors, some assistant editors, and proofreaders.
Ninety percent of the meetings are devoted to planning the next issue;
ten percent goes to discussing plans for subsequent issues.
Dave
Zoia, editorial director, WardsAuto: Dave reports, "Mostly we don't
do print anymore." What's left is one quarterly and one print annual.
Online publishing is daily, though. Dave says editorial conferences are
typically held twice weekly to discuss coverage and staffing. They're
attended by the associate, senior, and managing editors, plus analysts
and editorial directors. They cover mostly daily and weekly planning.
Joe
Phillips, senior director of multimedia communications, National
Automobile Dealers Association: Joe says that although their monthly
magazine "was shuttered in 2008," they continue with an annual magazine.
"It has remained profitable and is distributed at our major trade show
and mailed to all members," he says. It also appears as a PDF posted
online. "Articles also appear as separate blog posts," he adds. There
are no editorial conferences. Joe says, "I create the editorial lineup
and run it by a few staff and my supervisor."
Deborah
Lockridge, editor-in-chief, Heavy Duty Trucking and
truckinginfo.com: "Our print publication is monthly, but we are
posting new content on our website every weekday -- news stories,
articles, interviews, videos, photo galleries, blogs. We have weekly
editorial conference calls with our entire staff. Some weeks we keep
them short and they're simply a rundown of where everyone is with their
print and web assignments and a look at the digital analytics from the
previous week, which also helps inform both short- and long-term
planning for content. Other weeks they are longer and may look a few
months ahead of time. We're trying to do monthly calls with top editors
of some of our sister books to try to coordinate some content; that's
pretty new. Also we've started using Asana to try to keep track of all
the various assignments and projects."
David Bolling,
editor and publisher, Valley of the Moon magazine: "Seven
weeks before each issue and at least once per week we have editorial
planning conferences," says David. His print publication is bimonthly.
Online presence is both bimonthly and weekly. For the editorial
conferences David brings in the operations director, design director,
sales manager, photo editors, and sometimes writers. Meeting time is
allocated "about 40 percent to editorial content; 10 percent to sales,
25 percent to graphic design, cover, features photography; and 25
percent to long-term planning." He comments, "We always try to work one
solid issue ahead. And we always fail. That remains our most important
objective. Being an issue ahead (except for late-breaking stories) would
make everyone's life easier and raise the overall quality of the
magazine. Making content and design the product of true collaborative
discussion invests the entire team with ownership of the finished
product. No one person drives this bus. Everyone has a hand on the
wheel."
Jayne Haugen Olson, editor-in-chief, Mpls St
Paul magazine: Jayne's magazine appears monthly in print. Daily
online content is separate from print. "To protect newsstands and
respect subscribers, we wait two to four weeks before posting online
from the print edition," she says. However, Jayne adds, "We make some
exceptions." Her editorial conferences follow a "30/60/90 approach.
Quarterly on long range. Annual on big picture." She explains, "We are a
city magazine located in the north. We need to think seasonally so we
can get strong photos to run in the following season. We were planning
summer 2019 and shooting at the same time to run in summer 2020, for
instance. Prior to that dedicated effort, our photos were not as good
and our package was not as strong. Immersive experiences resonate with
Instagram-happy, Millennial audiences. Photos are critical."
Jef
White, executive editor, The Shop magazine: Jef's magazine
publishes in print monthly. Editorial conferences include the editor,
online editor, publisher, sales reps, and support personnel. He reports
that 95 percent of meeting time deals with the next issue, 5 percent
with longer-range planning. Jef says, "Publisher and sales team
appreciate tips on opportunities to contact their clients regarding
upcoming articles. Editors can help by anticipating tie-ins and giving
lead time regarding clients that are somehow involved in the articles.
Our sales team also likes to solicit high-res images from clients for
use in articles about markets they are connected to."
Jarrett
Lobell, editor-in-chief, Archaeology magazine: Jarrett
publishes in print six times per year, every day online with news. His
editorial conferences include all editorial staffers: associate, senior,
and deputy editors. They devote 70 percent of the meeting time to the
current issue and 30 percent to long-range planning.
Trey
Barrineau, managing editor, NAIOP's Development magazine: "We
push out our magazine quarterly, but NAIOP publishes material on other
platforms every week," reports Trey. Editorial conferences include the
managing editor and editor-in-chief, who also serves as the
association's vice president for knowledge and research. A project
manager sometimes attends too. Meetings are devoted mostly (85 percent)
to the next issue and 15 percent to longer-range planning. Trey advises,
"Once you get a plan for your next issue, stick with it. Substantial
changes to the story lineup should only be driven by breaking news or
production-related problems, such as a freelancer not delivering a
promised article."
This concludes our treatment of the
editorial conference. Perhaps you've picked up some useful tips or
background for comparison along the way. Happy planning!
William
Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.
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