Q. Has Covid hurt or helped your publication? A. It depends.

By William Dunkerley

Publishers, like other businesses in our economy, have been impacted in different ways by the pandemic.

Recently, a luxury car dealer told me that his business is up. People can't spend money as usual on other things, so they're buying cars, he explains. Some of his good fortune might also result from some people wanting to avoid the risks of public transportation.

But just miles down Route 10 from the car dealership, a favorite local gourmet restaurant remains shuttered. Its Facebook page proclaims no plans for reopening anytime soon.

Covid-19 is not an equal-opportunity business scourge.

Editors are united in the business of publishing. But the content we produce has roots in a wide variety of vastly different business sectors and geographic areas. That's why we're not all feeling Covid in the same way.

EO just did a quick survey of a select few editors. We wanted to find out the extent to which the pandemic has hurt or helped their publications. Here's what we found:

William Jones, editor-in-chief of Independent Agent, explains there are two sides of the coin, one positive, the other a serious challenge.

"Financially, advertising sales have been consistent with an increase in online advertising sales. Engagement with our online content is up. Due to the uncertainty in the economy and the insurance industry, our readers have been more engaged with the most relevant stories."

But his B2B publication also had a practical problem to overcome.

"As a print magazine, ensuring the issues get into our reader's hands was a concern. We usually mail to offices, but with many closed and workers moving to remote we were concerned (as were our advertisers) that our readers were not receiving the magazine.

"We addressed this by providing the opportunity for the magazine to be rerouted to home addresses. Additionally, with no end to the pandemic in sight, our editorial process has made it challenging to produce relevant content up to two months in advance of publication."

Rich Calbay at Dub Publishing is in the car business, too. Urban custom cars are his field. But there is no Covid upside there.

"Ad sales are down across the board. We had to let go of almost all the staff. Our principal challenges are ad sales, staff, and not having events, which we rely on to promote our magazines.

For Kathleen Stoehr, director of community and content strategy at Informa Connect, the answer is simple. We asked if Covid-19 helped or hurt her publishing work.

She replied, simply, "Hurt; advertising."

Some Other Takes

Tricia Bisoux, co-editor, BizEd magazine:

"Covid has led the association that publishes our magazine to convert it from print to an all-digital format. In addition, starting in January, our content will be published under a new title, whose name is more closely connected to the association's brand.

"Our primary challenges have involved how to notify readers of the format change and how to revise our publication schedule and editorial calendar. For example, where we once had a set number of pages in our print edition, we now have relatively unlimited space online.

"We also had a predetermined production schedule to follow; we now are working out the nature of our online production schedule and editorial calendar topics.

"In addition, it has been a challenge to determine how much copy to post to the website, when to post it, and how to notify readers that new copy is available."

Dave Fusaro, editor-in-chief, Food Processing magazine:

"Covid has had only a small negative effect on us. Our magazine and brand (Food Processing) goes to the food and beverage manufacturing industry, and that sector has been pretty immune to the effects of Covid. In fact, some of the makers of traditional products are having great years in terms of sales.

"I think the pandemic has stalled some of their expansive spending on capital projects and new R&D, so our advertiser base is hurting a little.

"That and the general economic slowdown has hurt us in only a small way. With a minimal events business, our company has not been hurt by the cancellation of in-person events. On the other hand, our webinar business has taken off -- apparently advertisers still want some sort of (pseudo) face time with clients, and they're probably spending money that had been allocated to in-person events."

Yvonne Hill, publications director, America's Boating Club:

"Covid-19 has hurt The Ensign magazine. We've been printing our association magazine for 108 years, but this fall, due to a drop in revenue, we moved our quarterly magazine entirely online.

"Our magazine is published by America's Boating Club, a nonprofit membership organization that before the pandemic had been teaching in-person boating safety classes.

"Because of the loss of revenue, our organization developed an online learning platform, and the communications staff expanded its email and social media marketing efforts to help promote these new offerings. The staff also launched a 'Giving Tuesday' campaign for the first time ever.

"All of this has made the communications staff a larger contributor to the bottom line.

"The challenges have been to tackle these new tasks with a small staff and a tight budget while also working remotely. To do more with less, we've also had to work smarter."

Bradley Worrell, editor, RV PRO magazine:

"Our B2B publication covers the recreational vehicle (RV) industry, which is actually experiencing a strong upswing in demand as people seek to get outdoors while maintaining social distancing. So the magazine is faring relatively well as it relates to advertising, reader engagement, etc.

"A downside to Covid-19 is that all of our in-person industry events have been canceled or replaced with virtual events, which just isn't the same. Also, it is more difficult now to do company profiles, as many businesses are still operating under state or local restrictions that limit their operations, which complicates efforts to arrange in-person photo shoots and interviews.

"In summary, I believe my trade publication is better off than others, but I am still looking forward to a time when Covid is no more and things return to normal."

Reporting Up the Chain of Command

Editor-in-Chief of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Jayne Haugen Olson, gave us an inside glimpse of her personal challenges in dealing with ownership at her company. She reports:

"I actually just spoke to this Covid issue with our executive team last week during our monthly meeting with ownership. Our company publishes both Mpls.St.Paul and Twin Cities Business.

"In addition to Covid, our community was rattled to our core when George Floyd was murdered by police on the streets of our city.

"Here are the bullets I used to guide my report:

We believe in the strength of our brands, our owned titles, but this year has crystallized our purpose:
--The editorial mission of both TCB and Mpls.St.Paul: to serve as stewards of our audiences both B2B and B2C
--The commitment to the community and how we show up when our audiences need our leadership
--The strength of our seasoned staff, their experience, and relationships
--The relationship with our client base, and the trust they have in us
--The reliability of our products and services: we never skipped a beat and showed up in new and inventive ways
--And our responsiveness to real-time challenges our clients and community face.”

In direct answer to EO's survey, Olson commented:

"This year has helped our business as a brand, though we have been hurt by lost revenue.

"As a team it helped us to see what we were capable of when working under the most extreme of circumstances. We made swift shifts to redirect our July issue and had a George Floyd cover and 16-page story.

"We are extremely proud of our quick to market efforts to support local restaurants, Black-owned businesses, and now local retail as we head into the key holiday season. When our cities were sheltering in place in April/May we launched MSPtv -- a daily show on our social channels that included: "Quarantine Sessions" with noted local musicians, cooking classes with noted chefs, Monday morning workouts with in-demand fitness/wellness experts, plus conversations with noteworthy Twin Citians. It was our way to keep our audiences connected to the cities they love.

"Principal challenges? Our teams are tired. Staff worked under 20 percent furlough for nearly 8 months. We also had some layoffs, so resources are stretched thin. Parents were juggling work-from-home as well as supporting children who are distance learning. Plus we were navigating our typical boots-to-the-pavement local reporting and photography in these most unusual of times.

"The passion remains, yet the fatigue is real."

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

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