Some takeaways from our Jan/Feb issue

The January / February issue of InPublishing magazine was mailed out a few weeks ago. Here are some of the takeaways I took from the issue.

1. Investigative journalism is a long game. Nick Wallis, a key player in the fight for justice for the sub-postmasters was first alerted to the story in November 2010. The public inquiry opened on 14 February 2022.
2. Online comments can rise above the gutter, but it needs a proactive approach from publishers.
3. Developing deep relationships with key reader groups helps future-proof your brand and also unlocks unforeseen opportunities.
4. D&I: good intentions and warm words are not enough. Every company needs a comprehensive diversity strategy.
5. The public tend not to trust local news that’s produced outside their area. Publishers need a local presence.
6. The rise of the complex consumer: the consumer of entertainment and media products is becoming more demanding and more difficult to define in traditional demographic groups.
7. For newsstand sales, publishers need to focus on the ‘frequency of purchase’ metric because magazine brands won’t survive if people only buy them twice a year.
8. Getting the tone right is particularly important for newsletters, because people aren’t coming to you, you are going to them.
9. A good way to find out how “must-have” your information is, is to ask the question: would our customers miss us if our service was down for an hour?
10. ALL CAPS CAN BECOME VERY WEARISOME, WHICH IS WHY editors must safeguard their publication’s house style and not let PRs dictate.
11. Apart from guns, the most common thing you find on the cover of a shooting magazine is… a dog.
12. Proximity to your audience is vital. For The Stage, becoming more intimately aware of the issues their readers faced, allowed them to get closer to the conversation and launch must-attend events.
13. Third-party cookies are not the smartest piece of tech. First-party data assets should allow for a much better reader experience.
14. Publishers need to work harder to improve ‘employee lifetime value’, by recruiting the right people, making them more productive by onboarding and training them better, and holding onto them for longer by looking after them properly.

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