“Think Like a Publisher!” They Say, but How Do You Do That?

The first step towards succeeding at publishing content is admitting that you are a publisher. It’s not just newspapers, magazines and journals that need to maintain high standards; any brand worth their salt must do the same when they publish articles online.

Granted, publishing a physical ‘thing’ that you can hold in your hands like a book or magazine may still have a certain level of prestige over publishing online, but in terms of readership the web is without doubt leagues ahead.

Where the internet suffers is that anyone can publish an article, so there is less of an automatic trust in what is being read. In order to establish that trust and build a real bond with a reader via the news, features, guides and anything else you produce, you need to act like a publisher. Broadly speaking, what you need to do can be split into what you must put in and what you hope to get out there – or input and output…

Input

Beyond shouting “publish and be damned!” and “stop the presses” periodically, becoming a publisher is very much about putting in place a certain level of organisation.

At a standard newspaper, there will be reporters on the ground writing stories, sub-editors to check their work and editors to maintain an overarching strategy – yes, there are other positions and responsibilities, but these are among the most important duties. This is very much the holy trinity that you should have in place in your own publishing practice, although one person can take on multiple roles.

Naturally, you will need someone to actually write your articles, although it works better to have a group of ‘reporters’ to contribute and who are capable of meeting deadlines – without deadlines, you may find your writers treating their articles as a constantly low priority. Sub-editors on newspapers earn their bread through their attention to detail (spelling mistakes, fact checking and grammar mostly), ability to write winning headlines and the way they amend articles to fit the space available – in your own online publishing room it is only the first two that are vital.

Finally, you have your ‘editor’. The most important responsibilities here relate to planning and overview. The editor’s job is to know well in advance what they plan to publish over the course of the next few months (an editorial calendar is helpful for this) while still allowing wiggle-room for responding to issues that appear overnight. So for instance, you can know that you will respond to the Monetary Policy Committee’s interest rate decision around the first Thursday of every month, but a sudden market crash could require comment within a matter of hours. The role of overview arguably sits more comfortably in the ‘output’ section…

Output

Your editor needs to keep an eye on how your content sits as a whole body of work, rather than on a single-article basis. Does your content cover all the important issues in your industry? Or at least all the issues within your own niche of the market? Is there a consistency to the brand’s ‘voice’? Are you offering the kind of quality that will inspire people to keep visiting in the future? Is there a range of content available that appeals to your target demographic?

If you want to become a publisher, then your editor must be regularly checking that these high standards are being met, otherwise your readers will go elsewhere to get the information they need. A crucial point is that your editor must divorce themselves slightly from the company’s sales message – nobody likes to be met with a sales pitch when they are just seeking information or news.

A great way to look at your output is in the form of a magazine – if you buy a magazine you do not expect it all to be on one topic, so branch out from your core products. Equally, your output should aim to be engaging and if possible entertaining, even if the primary reason for it is to be informative.

Finally, don’t be afraid of taking risks with your content, the greatest publishers are those that take a gamble or two on a story that could ruffle some feathers. Publish and be damned, as it were…

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/think-like-publisher-say-0695480?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=think-like-publisher-say