Ubiquitous Marketing

Writing a list is like kissing a pair of dice before rolling them in the craps table. I shall not bear a snake eyes roll, so please find this link worthwhile.

Ten tips for starting a print magazine these days (I work for a print magazine, which is doing just swimmingly (thank you very much), so do not interpret this as advice for my employer (although some we do, regardless of me, adhere to many of the principles). This blog advice, she exists in a vacuum). These are merely my vacuum-created thoughts.

1) Increase the vanity feel – more pictures than the magazine can seemingly take. On the Internet, often, the currency is information – and it is cold, hard cash. In print, the wealth is in the environment. You see record labels doing this incentivizing for their CD offerings.

2) Don’t be afraid to emulate the Web. The public is spending so much time reading blogs and Internet pubs that they don’t necessarily need that lede, news hook, set up, back story, progression, end quote that we hacks have had beaten into us. Sure, any long-form story needs its logical conclusion (some well-respected blogs, sorry, are stylistically dreadful because their long posts meander from point to point without any cohesion).

3) Be forthright and specific on the cover; a recent Fortune cover story on MySpace turned out to be a great read about how the management, post-News Corp. acquisition, convinced sugar daddy (and employee motivator extraordinaire) Rupert Murdoch to buy them an online karaoke site. But the cover gave off the impression that Fortune, two years behind the curve, was introducing the public to this crazy new social networking site (interestingly, one of the sub call-outs on the cover was doing just that, nearly one year too late) for YouTube. Had I not picked the magazine at the office for my walk home (yes, I read while I walk), I would not pay for a story I already knew. But I might if I knew the focus was what it was.

4) Don’t fall into the magazine-only content trap. Online exclusives work, but the reverse deprives the company and the writer of more hits online. Yes, I understand the need to get people subscribed, but that makes it seem like you’re forcing them, rather than enticing them.

5) Provide some free content online. Be it blog, news, or exclusives purposely ungated because bloggers will be interested in the topic. I’m extremely cognizant of the free-paid economic conundrum (and currently convinced that their is no easy answer), but content is the best subscription promotion ever.

6) Do something unique with the production of the magazine. This is a straight PR trick, but ink about your ink can only raise the public’s consciousness about you wares. Examples include: text-only covers, image-only covers, a blog-like entry from someone famous (in your target audience) that runs in full on the cover, etc. Numbers still works sure (8 ways to get your man to clean the bathroom, etc.), but since everyone is doing numbers, the door is open to try something different.

7) Transparency Take every opportunity to talk about the magazine and its creation. This is something that both BusinessWeek and, em, PRWeek do well: A weekly podcast that goes inside the magazine. Have reporters directly engage the public in print. ESPN: The Magazine also does this well with its Stuart Scott Two-Way.

8) Be very serious about your readership research. I might be inclined to issue a blanket statement that you should only put news on your Web site and devote all of your magazine pages to features, but I already work at a magazine and know it entirely depends on your audience. If you look at The Week, it’s essentially a weekly roundup of news from elsewhere.

9) Create must-read sections and devote all of your energies to ensuring they keep that way. I really enjoy Fast Company’s backpage section, where two luminaries take contrarian positions on a topic, the New Yorker’s Tables for Two section (sub-note: don’t think you need to pile on information; Tables for Two is my favorite restaurant review section because there is only one review), Time Out New York’s The Hot Seat, and Gourmet’s Road Food section.

10) Don’t try to cover everything. If someone else (even a competitor covered it), don’t feel you need to devote space to it unless you’re adding to the discussion. Space is valuable; don’t waste it on retreads.

It’s a community! Have another print suggestion? Add it in the comments.