Editors discuss how they balance the unique needs of existing and new readers.

By William Dunkerley

Unless all your content is behind a firewall, you likely have more than one audience online. There are your regular subscribers and readers. In addition, people searching or following a link may wind up viewing your content. Some you'll never see again. Others may be good prospects for becoming committed readers.

How do you adapt your content for each circumstance? Articles aimed at your steady audience can assume a level of familiarity with your subject area, but newcomers may need some background orientation. The needs and interests of the two groups may differ.

We asked a sample of Editors Only readers how they react to this dilemma. The responses show a variety of approaches designed to suit the needs of each particular publication.

What did they say? How are editors deciding how best to focus content? One editor put it simply: "Our criterion is literary excellence. Period."

--For Erin Hallstrom, director of digital strategy at Food Processing, the situation is more complex. She explains, "Close to 55 percent of our website traffic finds us organically. As such, we continue to offer a variety of content types, formats, and topics. Our existing readers utilize our news postings most often. Because of that we keep our news content fresh and updated constantly."

Hallstrom adds, "Most of our content, other than news, is derived from our print magazine and is driven by the magazine's editor-in-chief. News and blogs, however, are strictly digital and are focused to engage both new and existing audiences." She ascribes equal importance to existing traffic and new traffic.

--At CSC Publishing, editor Jan Brenny says all content is intended for both purposes, too. But she admits that it's the interests of existing readers that really drives the content.

--University of Kentucky journal on astroanalytical chemistry and astrobiology editor-in-chief Rob Lodder sees it similarly. His focus is 90 percent on existing readers, 10 percent on new ones.

--Paul Fanlund, editor and publisher of The Capital Times, explains his situation: "Our online content is intended to both serve existing readers and attract new ones. We do a lot of coverage around our communities of color and the arts, and look for enterprise angles to our traditional stories, trying to regularly provide context. We do nothing with what I call ‘stickup, rollover, weather front news.’ In that way, we resemble a magazine in some respects. We aspire to provide an intensely local and distinctive focus on Madison, expecting that our readers will get their national news elsewhere. We have a young staff of digital-native reporters who naturally are drawn to writing topically and stylistically for new audiences, which we encourage."

--Jenn Fiedler is editor of another publication with a geographic focus. Indeed, it's called Township Focus, published by the Michigan Townships Association. Fiedler tells us, "Our content is geared solely toward our current members, with tips, topics, and trends on how they can successfully lead their local government. We do find that other audiences, including lawmakers, other municipal officials/employees, vendors who serve townships, etc., also benefit and learn from our content as well, though township officials are -- and will always be -- our primary audience."

--Jill Tyrer, executive editor of Arthritis Today, on the other hand, has a specific subject focus. She reports, "Our content serves people with arthritis and related conditions, so our main objective is to deliver content that informs and helps existing patients. However, we certainly want to reach those who are not aware of us and those who are newly diagnosed, so we also provide content geared to people who are new to arthritis." As to which audience segment receives the greatest focus, Tyrer says it's 75 percent to serve existing readers, 25 percent to attract new readers.

--At IFT Scientific Journals, E. Allen Foegeding is editor-in-chief of three publications. He comments, "All our journals are intended for existing and new readers. We also publish editorials that are intended for both. The content is driven by the Aims and Scope for each journal; with the desire to publish research and reviews of the highest quality. Our assumption is that excellent science and reviewing of the literature will attract more readers."

--Universal attraction is the interest of Matthew Stoss, associate editor of GW Magazine. Stoss elaborates, "In general, we just look for good general interest stories that could appeal to anyone and everyone. We don't differentiate between existing and potential readers. Basically, we like to think that if you found our magazine in a dentist's waiting room, you could read it, even if you have no connection to the university."

--For Haymarket Media Group, product lead Matt Whipp states, "In short, we don't create different content just to attract new users." He explains, "Our job is to be a business tool and help our audiences make informed business decisions. We know who our highest-value users are, and it's these people we are working for. Equally there are users and users. We are very clear about who our key audience groups are, and we are not interested in new users for the sake of numbers, although we do take great pains to ensure our content is indexed well to keep the top of the funnel open."

The foregoing editors divide their focus to differing extents. Others, particularly at association publications, focus more narrowly.

--Donald Tepper, editor of PT in Motion, says his focus is 100 percent to serve existing readers. "Our magazine is published by a membership association, and the primary mission of the association is to serve and represent its members. Therefore our magazine is written to serve members of the American Physical Therapy Association. We do have some non-member readers, but any attempt to persuade them to join (or to subscribe) is minimal. Currently, our policy regarding online copy is to post some (it varies from issue to issue) online, but to retain much/most for member and subscriber consumption. APTA does have an active membership development program, but online content from PT in Motion is designed more to confirm the benefits of membership (or subscribership) to those who are already members or subscribers."

--Similarly, Margaret Hunt, editor of association newsletters, says, "Basically all of our content, 100 percent, is directed to members of ASM International."

--Likewise for Rebecca Stauffer, managing editor of PDA Letter: "I work for an association publication. I would say the majority of our content (99 percent) is aimed at existing readers. Our magazine is a member benefit sent to all members."

--Tricia Bisoux, co-editor of BizEd, however, recognizes a secondary audience beyond association members. "Because our publication goes out to an association's membership, its primary purpose is to serve existing readers who are a part of the business education industry, including administrators and faculty. However, we have a secondary purpose of creating content that has relevance or will be informative to those outside our industry -- for example, many deans pass our publication's content to the business leaders who are a part of their business school advisory boards. That's not our primary audience, but it is still an important audience for us."

--And finally, at QST magazine, Zack Lau explains the evolution that influenced the focus of its online content: "Our site has a lot of archival and legacy content. All the articles can be downloaded from our website. There is a lot of content on our site that used to be in the print magazine that's now been moved to the Web. There just isn't enough print advertising revenue to support all that content. But, due to association political considerations, it wasn't possible to just make it go away. As a result, online content intended to attract new readers is less than 5 percent."

William Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.

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