Get Buy-in Socialize Introduce Project Tracking Chart 3d Illustration

Be Courageous, Get Feedback, Secure Allies, Publicize. Want to Make a Change? Seek Buy-in; You’ll Need It!

by Media

This article was written by Tatia Gordon-Troy, Esq. (pictured) as a special contributor.

The membership of some associations isn’t always quick to embrace change, and in my experience, attorneys especially tend to move pretty slowly when it comes to embracing the inevitable. For example, my association accepted submissions for our member magazine in both Word and WordPerfect for several years; we simply chalked it up to the nature of the publishing business and our slow-to-change members—immigration attorneys. Eventually, WordPerfect was phased out in most of our members’ firms, but it seemed like an eternity.

A similar, albeit slow, change occurred when our members began to move away from the use of Blackberries in favor of iPhones. There were some growing pains and complaints even among staff when the association directors were forced to turn in their Blackberries.

But change can prove to be a good thing. Using iPhones for us was less expensive than maintaining an email server dedicated to our Blackberries. Besides the cost savings, we realized we could do so much more with our new phones, which brought forth a floodgate of ideas. Video capability, audio recording and especially picture taking allowed us to engage more with our members on-site, capture moments in time, and add new content to our news vehicles.

But the one thing that made the difference was the IT director’s quest to gain buy-in from the directors before forcing the change on us. He explained to us the benefits of switching from Blackberry to iPhone—for us and for the association. By the end of his presentation, he had accomplished his objective.

During my nine years as director of publications, there were several instances whereby I needed to gain buy-in for a necessary change. One in particular involved sunsetting an annual publication that had run its course after eight, very lucrative years. I had noticed a steady decline in revenue from year to year as well as changes in technology that were directly impacting the usefulness of the publication. My plan was to replace it with one better-suited to the times.

Introducing change to a product or process to which people have become accustomed is a difficult and, in some cases, courageous act. In this case, the task was even more herculean as it involved a very loyal and reliable cadre of authors and editors—106 to be exact. All the more reason why getting the right people’s buy-in can help you succeed; and the more people impacted by the change the more buy-in is needed. The following steps are actions I took to implement this much-needed change:

Ensure the change aligns with your mission. Make sure you’re on the right track by questioning how your members and staff will benefit from this change:

  • Will this change benefit the association?
  • Will this change bring forth greater efficiencies or streamline certain activities to allow staff to better focus their time?
  • Will its return on investment eventually be greater than its cost?
  • Will the new idea appeal to a broader audience so that there are more marketing opportunities, thereby translating to more revenue?
  • Will it benefit the members or end users?
  • Will the change offer greater accessibility and more convenience?
  • Will the members realize a cost savings?
  • Will there be access to more information than before?

Gather feedback from members. Next, build a foundation by laying the groundwork for your idea. If the change will affect your membership, then feedback from members is crucial. Try all the ways you can think of to gather member feedback to help you decide if the idea is worth advocating for. Start with a survey:

  • Get some quick answers by posting a question on your website for an easy yes or no.
  • Take a more detailed approach to garner your audience’s needs or thoughts by sending an all-member email with an incentive to respond. (Offer a discount on a product or conference fee, maybe even a free item.)
  • Use face-to-face communication (when in-person events return): Take advantage of lunch breaks between conference sessions to pose questions to the attendees; attend a board meeting and throw out questions to your association leaders; try one-on-one informal surveys in the exhibit hall during annual meetings.

Generally, surveys are answered by 10% or less of the membership, hence the reason why an incentive can and should be used to entice more folks to engage. But keep the survey to five minutes or less and structure the questions to get the answers you need, not just the answers you want. In other words, don’t tailor the questions to make your case; always go for honest responses.

Recruit supporters and allies. Third, get buy-in from key people within the membership who can help you spread news about the benefits and assuage people’s fears. You also need to seek buy-in from others among the executive staff and not just the executive director. Remember, your department doesn’t operate in a vacuum—you’ll need to sell your idea to the membership director, the marketing director, the communications director, even the finance director.

Big changes almost always impact more than just one department—as well as the budget—so creating an atmosphere of inclusion makes sense from the outset. Changes might mean more work for them and their staff, so be clear on how this benefits the association and eventually, them. When people understand the meaning behind the change, they’re more inclined to work harder to achieve the goal, especially if they feel part of the overall equation. Maybe even develop a team of staff from your departments who can help you plot the course and offer support when needed.

With any change, expect growing pains no matter how much support you think you have from leadership or the rank and file. Change can sometimes garner a “giveth and taketh away” scenario, depending on what the change is. Some will see the benefits, others may not, and they will be quite vocal about it.

Be prepared to take the heat from those who disagree with your actions but remain professional in your responses. In fact, have several canned responses prepared in advance of the change, and encourage the members who agree with you to be vocal in order to maintain balance in the discussion. Plus, members respect the opinions of other members whom they know, so having a respected member in your corner can aid in advancing your agenda.

Be inclusive and over-communicate. Next, consider inviting the naysayers to participate in the process. Use them as a beta test group or invite them to serve on a taskforce. Being part of the process could calm the angry lion within your most intolerable member. As part of the sunset process, I quickly went to work on developing a new publication and invited many of the naysayers and others to write chapters and participate as editors. Inclusion can help bring even the most ardent naysayer on board.

Finally, regularly publicize the impending change in as many vehicles as you have at your disposal. Begin this several months before unleashing the change upon your members. This not only acts as advance notice to the membership, but it can help you with “covering your assets” when the inevitable calls or emails start arriving from members accusing the association of a lack of transparency. It can happen; in fact, it has happened many times.

Within a four-year period, my association introduced significant modifications to certain member benefits and services, which taught us many hard lessons about how best to effect change within our membership. We made some mistakes along the way, and some of us still bear the scars of battle. But we emerged stronger than ever. Change can be painful; but with proper planning and buy-in, your association can successfully move your membership into the future.

Just as associations must carefully manage and communicate changes to their members, dealerships should approach the introduction of new vehicle inventory with the same level of strategic planning. When preparing to showcase a new batch of vehicles, such as those featuring updated technology or models, it’s crucial to inform potential buyers well in advance. If you’re planning to highlight a selection of used audi for sale, ensuring that your marketing efforts are thorough and transparent can help attract buyers and reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings or dissatisfaction.

Moreover, clear and proactive communication about the availability and condition of used vehicles can significantly impact customer satisfaction. By providing detailed information and addressing any potential concerns before they arise, dealerships can foster trust and build a strong reputation. Just as associations learn from their experiences with member changes, dealerships can benefit from understanding customer needs and responding with well-planned strategies that enhance the buying experience and drive success.

When introducing a fresh lineup of cars, dealerships can add to the appeal by highlighting accessories like seat covers that enhance both style and comfort. Selecting the right seat covers is essential for potential buyers who want to protect their investment while personalizing their vehicle. Companies like Seat Covers Unlimited offer a variety of durable options that are tailored to meet the needs of diverse buyers, from luxury fabric options to rugged, easy-to-clean designs. By showcasing these choices alongside new inventory, dealerships can provide a complete package that helps customers visualize their new or used vehicle as uniquely theirs.

Tatia Gordon-Troy, Esq., owner of Ramses House Publishing LLC and a 15-year veteran of association publishing, helps small– to medium-sized associations build sustainable sources of non-dues revenue while instructing them on how to recycle, reuse and repurpose their content. She can be contacted at tatiatroy@ramseshp.com.

Informa Markets

3 Ways B2B Giant Informa is Reinventing Lead Gen

by COVID 19Media

With more than 500 trade shows and exhibitions that in a typical year generate more than 60 percent of its total revenue, few companies have borne the brunt of COVID-19’s impact on events more than Informa.

But the way forward is turning crisis into opportunity and Informa is aggressively creating new businesses out of its existing events model and the enormous cache of audience data those events create.

At our recent Business Information and Media Summit, Informa Markets chief digital officer Jason Brown, who leads a newly created group called Informa Markets DNA, showed how the company is finding new revenue by leveraging event audience data into a new take on lead gen that not only creates revenue in the interim but promises to elevate the value of Informa’s live events when they return (replays of that session are available in the BIMS archive and AM&P Network members can reach out to me at mkinsman@siia.net for a link).

“We were hit hard with corona, but on the back of that, we’re working hard to look at alternative ways we can generate revenue from a similar mix of audience,” says Brown. “We’re not seeking to replicate what a show would do but instead offer year-round engagement with buyers and sellers which will mold itself to physical trade shows when they come back over the next 12 months.”

Three-Part Combo: Online Marketplaces, Authenticated Data and Audience Extension

Informa’s new approach leverages three components—Online Marketplaces, Authenticated Data and Audience Extension—that work together to generate data, convert that data into highly detailed and actionable intelligence and ultimately leverage that intelligence and Informa’s scale in connecting buyers and sellers across its own properties and beyond.

Online Marketplaces are enhanced versions of the show directories that Informa produces for its live events. Customers can use the online marketplaces to search products and suppliers, discover new products via a recommendation engine, make connections, create a virtual “walking” or favorites list and register for other Informa physical and virtual events.

“We let attendees figure out what they want to do,” says Brown. “It’s not about driving traffic to physical shows but creating engagement for 52 weeks a year. We’re allowing buyers and sellers to connect now without the ultimate destination of a physical trade show.”

The online marketplaces also provide Informa with “zero party data” where users offer direct insight into their interests through their use of the marketplaces, which helps Informa create the next component—Authenticated Data.

Identity and Buying Intent

If the top of the buyer funnel is about generating awareness, the bottom of the funnel is about decision and action. Informa is offering its customers authenticated data that shows not only who a lead is but also their buying intent.

“We take our first party data, the third-party data that we can buy or borrow and the zero-party data given to us by visitors and our audience when they are specifically after something and combine that information together to create something called authenticated data,” says Brown.

Getting the data right is the most important part. Informa aggregates its full spectrum of audience data into a data lake, including event registrations, online behavior and third-party data from services such as Bombora. Informa then uses that information to build a picture of a user and create an intent score.

“If we do all of that correctly, our gray cloud of a data lake becomes a green cloud of known buyer status,” says Brown. “That’s where we can say who our buyer is and where they are in the funnel.”

“Right Person, Right Time, Right Message”

Audience extension—reaching customers not only on your own branded properties but beyond—is something Informa and other publishers have been doing for years (and it’s why social platforms have become such an existential threat to publishers). But the addition of highly targeted, highly accurate data makes Informa’s audience extension efforts even more powerful.

“We ask our clients what kind of customer they are looking for, then we work with several third-party companies to find that lookalike audience and present a marketing message,” says Brown.

This is something Informa has seen success with particularly in the ag vertical, where it runs events such as the Farm Progress Show. “We can take a farmer, find hundreds of thousands of other farmers just like them, find whatever device they are on and target them with a message,” says Brown. “Right person, right time, right message.”

“Giving You the Needle, Not the Haystack”

And while audience extension is about scale and Informa still sells many traditional lead gen projects (including CRM feeds, webinar series, email promotion, programmatic remarketing, geo fencing and market intelligence reports), providing access to qualified buyers is the ultimate goal.

“We don’t want to give you access to 9,000 people; we want to give you access to 12,” says Brown. “Customers say, ‘don’t give us the haystack, give us the needle inside it.’ If you do a webinar today, you might get between 200-500 attendees and that’s great, but you’re not sure how qualified they are. Here, we are talking about creating a qualified buyer and then working with clients to create a webinar for 20 people, but a very distilled audience of 20 people who have shared with us their intent.”

Changing the Ways Leads Are Sold

Traditionally, publishers sell a sponsor on a content-driven program such as a webinar, then hand over the audience list to that sponsor. That’s a risky and outdated approach for both publishers and sponsors, according to Brown.

“The current model in many places of giving away the crown jewels of our data is not a good business model,” says Brown. “The danger in handing over those leads is that they can be abused quickly. Files also start aging from day one—and not like fine wine but like moldy cheese. As soon as you hand it over to someone, their journey in that buyer funnel may have changed the next day.”

Informa is moving away from selling leads as part of a one-off sponsorship and instead offering an annual subscription, which includes,

  • continuous access to fresh data
  • ability to count, segment and modify criteria for best data selection
  • intent scoring
  • ability to create a sales pipeline that feeds directly into the customer’s CRM

Informa also enables subscribers to Bring You Own Data, in which customers can give the publisher their data and Informa will cleanse it, authenticate it and attach an intent score for the customer’s own audience.

“Instead of bundling and packaging programs, this is an annual program that you can subscribe to and we can present different layers and opportunities to you,” says Brown.

Not for Everyone

It’s an approach that requires a skillset and an infrastructure that not everyone—including both publishers and advertisers—can take advantage of. Informa has developed a criteria for assessing markets and clients that could benefit, which include,

  • an active digital market
  • a sophisticated digital sales team on the client side
  • market pricing
  • a client with existing audience data

“The markets need to be fairly advanced. We look at whether they are buying on social, on Google, how much are they spending with us and can we convert what they are spending elsewhere,” says Brown. “We’re not selling Webinars, we’re selling access to data. We need to work with really smart digital salespeople who we can train to cross-sell access to data.”

education press release featured image

EdTech Community Educates Congress on 2021 Policy Priorities

by PolicyPress Release

For Immediate Release
SIIA Contact: Suzy Wagner, 703-899-3427

EdTech Community Educates Congress on 2021 Policy Priorities

Annual Advocacy Summit to Highlight Educators’ Pandemic Stories and Outline Policies
Needed to Improve Educational Outcomes, Expand Equity, and Protect Student Data

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 23, 2020) – This week over one hundred education technology leaders from 35 different states will meet with policymakers in the same way that many educators have met with students for at least part of 2020 and into 2021 – virtually. With stories of their experiences in hand, these edtech experts will connect with key elected officials and their staffs to discuss actionable policies that will provide much-needed support for equitable and secure student success. As Congress considers legislation to lead America out of this pandemic and into a sustainable future, it has never been more important for the edtech community’s voice to be heard.

Participants in the 2021 EdTech Advocacy Virtual Fly-in will raise critical issues with policymakers this Wednesday, February 24, and continue the conversation later this year, on April 14. This Wednesday, participants will meet with Senators and Representatives supporting policies to ensure a safe transition to a post-pandemic world, connect all students and close the “Homework Gap,” fund edtech and related professional development, and protect student data privacy.
“Connecting educators to policymakers is essential to ensure that remote learning is done in an equitable way for all students. This 2nd-ever virtual advocacy ‘fly-in’ shows how we can take the voices of those on the frontier to reimagine learning and ensure that policymakers in Washington, D.C. make better decisions, particularly on how to close the Homework Gap, ensure the privacy of student data, and provide much-needed edtech funding,” said Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN.

“In the past year, through supporting schools to use effective digital learning practices, ISTE learned that providing adequate opportunities for educators to build transformative technology integration skills continue to be of utmost importance. We’re grateful to the group of over 100 national advocates who joined us in communicating that need with federal policymakers. We hope that their stories from the field will help encourage legislators to quickly make necessary investments that schools require to ensure that high-quality teaching and learning can continue during and beyond COVID-19,” said Ji Soo Song, Senior Policy Advisor at ISTE.

“The collaboration of state leaders as they have navigated the complexities of supporting school districts through the pandemic has been tremendous. In weekly conversations throughout the pandemic, SETDA members have helped to identify obstacles and share solutions from state to state,” said Julia Fallon, SETDA Executive Director. “We look forward to this opportunity to bring federal policymakers into these discussions of how technology continues to be used to meet the diverse needs of our learners, through school re-opening and beyond.”

“The past year has been incredibly difficult for our nation’s learners and educators. The challenges they face have never been more clear,” said SIIA President Jeff Joseph. “SIIA and our members have been proud to work with the education leaders attending today’s events to help address the myriad challenges over the past year. We are proud to stand together to advocate for policies that will connect all students to needed resources, support educators, and protect student data privacy to make our transition from the pandemic into a post-pandemic world a bit easier.”
This year’s annual summit, which is lead by CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking), ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education), SETDA (State Educational Technology Directors Association), and SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association), will take place virtually for the second year in a row due to the impact of COVID-19.

The event will take place as Congress considers additional COVID-19 relief packages. Attendees will meet with FCC and U.S. Department of Education officials in April.

To speak with senior representatives from CoSN, ISTE, SETDA, or SIIA please contact Suzy Wagner.

About CoSN
CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) is the premier professional association for school system technology leaders. CoSN provides thought leadership resources, community best practices and advocacy tools to help leaders succeed in the digital transformation. CoSN represents over 13 million students in school districts nationwide and continues to grow as a powerful and influential voice in K-12 education. cosn.org

About ISTE
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a nonprofit organization that works with the global education community to accelerate the use of technology to solve tough problems and inspire innovation. Our worldwide network believes in the potential technology holds to transform teaching and learning. ISTE sets a bold vision for education transformation through the ISTE Standards, a framework for students, educators, administrators, coaches and computer science educators to rethink education and create innovative learning environments. ISTE hosts the annual ISTE Conference & Expo, one of the world’s most influential edtech events. The organization’s professional learning offerings include online courses, professional networks, year-round academies, peer-reviewed journals and other publications. ISTE is also the leading publisher of books focused on technology in education. For more information or to become an ISTE member, visit iste.org. Subscribe to ISTE’s YouTube channel and connect with ISTE on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About SETDA
Founded in 2001, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is the principal association representing U.S. state and territorial educational technology and digital learning leaders. Through a broad array of programs and advocacy, SETDA builds member capacity and engages partners to empower the education community in leveraging technology for learning, teaching, and school operations. www.setda.org

About SIIA
SIIA is the only professional organization connecting more than 700 data, financial information, education technology, specialized content and publishing, and health technology companies. Our ed tech membership develops and delivers software applications, digital instructional content, online and distance learning services, online assessment, and related technologies for millions of learners around the world.. For more information, visit www.siia.net

 

CODIE 2021

Amazon Web Services Secures Lead Sponsorship for 2021 CODiE Awards

by Press Release

AWS supports innovation with cloud service credit for four “best emerging education technology” categories

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 22, 2021) – SIIA, the principal trade association for the software, education technology, and digital content industries, today announced Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the lead sponsor of the 36th annual CODiE Awards program, the highest-level sponsorship for the CODiE Awards and the sole cloud provider sponsor.

“We are honored to welcome AWS as the lead sponsor of the premier awards program honoring the best of education and business technology. For more than 35 years, the CODiE Awards have placed a spotlight on the most innovative, high-impact products in the marketplace. This collaboration underscores the importance of the CODiE Awards in recognizing the future of innovation in these industries,” said Jeff Joseph, president of SIIA.

This sponsorship highlights AWS’s commitment to excellence in innovation, particularly in the area of education technology, where AWS supports the growth of EdTech startups through the AWS EdStart accelerator, and growth of industry leaders in the AWS Partner Network. The organization will provide AWS Promotional Credit to finalists and winners in each of the following categories:

  • Best Emerging Education Technology Solution for Administrators
  • Best Emerging Instructional Technology Solution
  • Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in EdTech
  • Best Use of Emerging Technology for Learning

“AWS is on a mission to accelerate the digital transformation of education through our connections in the education community, including technology providers,” said Kim Majerus, Leader, U.S. Education, State and Local Government at AWS. “As a company built on innovation and thinking big, we are thrilled to be working with SIIA on the CODiE Awards to recognize bold solutions that are helping make education always available, personal, and lifelong for everyone.”

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry’s only peer-recognized awards program. During the first-round review, educators and administrators are invited to evaluate the Education Technology CODiE Award categories, and business technology leaders including senior executives, analysts, media, consultants, and investors evaluate products in the business technology categories. Scores from the first round determine the finalists. SIIA members then vote on the finalist products and the scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners. Numerous past CODiE Award recipients use the AWS Cloud including Blackboard, Cengage Learning, D2L, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Hobsons, Instructure, Matific, Pearson, PowerSchool, Renaissance Learning, Scholastic and Watermark.

The 2021 CODiE Award winners will be announced on June 22nd and 23rd. This year, 18 new categories have been added, including five in response to COVID-19.

Download a copy of this press release here.

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About CODiE Awards The peer recognized CODiE Awards celebrates innovative products, cutting-edge solutions and new technology. For 36 years, the CODiEs have honored software, education, information, financial and media products for excellence and innovation.  Award nominations are now open. To nominate for a CODiE or get involved, please visit siia.net.

About SIIA SIIA is the only professional organization connecting more than 700 data, financial information, education technology, specialized content and publishing, and health technology companies. Our diverse members manage the global financial markets, develop software that solves today’s challenges through technology, provide critical information that helps inform global businesses large and small, and innovate for better health care and personal wellness outcomes – they drive innovation and growth. For more information, visit siia.net.

Screenshot (43)

ACR Shows That a Pandemic-Forced Turn to Digital Can Complement Print Without Replacing It

by COVID 19Media

Towards the end of a takeaway-packed AM&P Lunch & Learn 2021 kickoff on Wednesday—titled What Lies Ahead for Saving Print, Going Digital, or a Combination of Both—Nicole Racadag, managing editor at the American College of Radiology, spoke about the fluidity of the last 12 months.

“I’ll just say really quickly, I know a lot of people on the chat were asking how our readers felt about going digital and then going back to print,” she said, referring to their initial pandemic decision to cut back to printing just six issues before recently going back up to 12. “And that’s actually something we’re going to be asking in a reader survey that we’re doing later this year. We wanted to do a full cycle of this digital-first, and we’re coming up on that next month. So… hopefully we’ll get some good insight from that—…some good aggregate information about whether this is working or not.”

Marlene Hendrickson of the American Staffing Association and Mike Winkleman of Leverage Media deserve kudos for putting this session together because it really targeted what’s important right now: What best serves member needs? Yes, print is still highly valued by members, but can they benefit even more with a full digital experience? Can we give them more ways to engage with our content? Until we try new things and then ask, we don’t really know.

When exploring ways to enhance member experiences, one avenue worth considering is the integration of online printing services into the mix. While traditional print remains a cherished medium, embracing digital solutions can open up new horizons for both organizations and their members. This not only aligns with the evolving preferences of a tech-savvy audience but also introduces a dynamic approach to content delivery. By strategically incorporating printing services, organizations can bridge the gap between the traditional and digital realms, ensuring a well-rounded and accessible member experience that meets the diverse needs of their audience

What Racadag and ACR found out by being forced to go digital is that more can be better, when it comes to serving members.

“Our audience being radiologists, they are on screens all day reviewing cases and images, so they do like having their tangible print copy,” she said. But ACR also found that once they communicated with members about the added value, digital caught on. “We had to make sure that they were aware that their print issues were being reduced, but at the same time, they weren’t really losing anything from their membership. Instead this whole digital publishing model was going to be a value-add for them. They were going to get more content more frequently.

“We worked with the marketing team to make sure our table of contents was being sent to all members so that way they knew they could access the content online, even though the main June issues, for example, were not going to be printed. Our early web statistics show that users were going to acr.org/bulletin to browse content. And [by tagging COVID-19 content], we found that that tag was getting a lot of hits, as well as tags like diversity and inclusion and health equity.”

This led to a social media awakening for ACR. They “ramped up” their social media strategy, and an “amazing” art director made sure that it all would look like one cohesive package. They created graphics, quoting from various articles as a way of driving content to their website. “We really discovered the power of social media by doing this,” Racadag (pictured here) said.

From there, a podcast followed. “This was something totally new for our organization, and we decided we were going to try it out with our member magazine,” Racadag said. “We launched the first season of the ACR Bulletin podcast in the summer of 2020. The first installation was on population health management, which had a lot of implications for our members, especially with the pandemic. We have actually released since then another series, the November on lung screening to coincide with one screening awareness month.

“We are also going to look at branching out into doing some visual podcasts. Looking at stats the podcast has also driven a lot of traffic to our magazine’s website. It was downloaded more than 500 times in 2020 and it’s taken a lot of traffic to our landing page. Hopefully, podcast visitors are sticking around to look at our articles.”

On the decision to return to printing 12 issues a year, Racadag said: “We took stock of where we were and solicited a lot of member feedback. Our members really missed getting their print issue each month, even though they were very excited with our digital offerings.”

Three Options for Going Digital

Following Racadag was Vanessa Sifford, an award-winning freelance graphic designer. “From a designer’s perspective, designing digital magazines has really become kind of a new playground,” Sifford said. She gave the three main options for going digital:

A downloadable PDF. “This is basically an exact replica of the print edition; it’s easy to export and easily read on desktops. It saves money by eliminating the print and mailing costs.”

The flipbook magazine. “This option is a lot more flexible in the way you can customize and deliver it to your readers, and you still maintain that page-turning feel. It doesn’t need to be downloaded to be viewed because it works directly with your browser—you can embed the file on your website or share it on social media, so you can really increase your outreach. And you can embed videos and interactive links and also collect statistical data and analytics.

The HTML-based magazine. “These are digital magazines that use the same technology that websites depend on with HTML javascript. And this format is obviously multimedia-rich and interactive for the readers. They’re designed to work with any browser so it’s appropriate for desktops and mobile devices. They are very reader friendly because, unlike the fixed layouts of your pdfs or your flip books, HTML magazines will adapt their layouts and type size to the screen size, and your magazine can be hosted anywhere you choose.”

Sifford said that there will be a lot of considerations to what design elements you’re going to want to bring in from your print magazine into the HTML format. She spoke about the process she has been going through with one association publication. “For budgetary reasons they needed to transition get rid of their print magazine and into a digital format.” They began with the flip book format but then, along with overhauling their website, they went with the HTML format.

“Since this was a major change for them, it was really important to keep as many elements from the original magazine,” Sifford said. The main element that they kept exactly the same was the cover, which they still created as if it was print. “From issue to issue, this is kind of their go-to button for what brings a little familiarity of the print magazine to their readers and shows them that they’re entering the magazine.” They also worked with the Web design team to recreate department heads, so it looked close to print version of the magazine. It became very reader friendly.

“So basically we’re still in its infancy. We’re working on the fourth edition of this magazine format and, honestly from a design perspective, it’s gone relatively smooth. There has been a lot of great feedback from their readers… The bonus is having that feedback and the analytics and really seeing what people are gravitating towards—so you’re finding out what’s working and what’s not.”

A Printers-Eye View

Last but certainly not least came Emily Fullerton of Sheridan and the CJK Group. “As printers we have a bird’s eye view of what’s going on in association publishing,” she said. “What we saw at the beginning of the pandemic is quite a bit different than what we’re seeing now. [At the beginning,] many associations decided to do things to save money, like skipping issues, reduce page counts, do a combined issue or lower their paper costs. We did a lot of spreadsheets for customers that showed them different ways to save money, like reducing their trim size or downgrading paper.”

Now, she said, most customers are back up and running at close to the same page counts as before—with one caveat. They liked the saving money part. “A lot of them have decided to take some savings that they saw in some ways, where they either reduce their paper or found other ways to save money on production costs and kept those even though they’ve returned back up to their regular frequencies and their higher pitch counts,” Fullerton said.

The city, regional and special interest magazines have had an especially hard time, she said, because they rely much more heavily on ad dollars without membership revenue coming in. Plus paper costs went up 35% last year, mills closed down, and most shippers, because of the increase in volume and staffing issues from the pandemic, are no longer guaranteeing delivery. So publishers, are trying to save money anywhere they can.”

Then mailing, of course, has not been the same. A typical delay can now turn an issue that normally mails in seven days to 21 days or a month… We’re having so many customers complaining that their issues are taking a really long time to mail and the demands for freight are just higher than ever.”

But Sheridan has been aggressive, pursuing a diversity of products—books, catalogues—and printing journals for the scholarly, medical and technical communities. “We have a lot more services than we’ve ever had before for magazines.

They’ve had a lot of customers that switched to digital for at least six issues a year, she said. But then have also seen many of those switch back to their full version of printing. “And then the other thing that we had a huge increase on was print on demand,” Fullerton said. “We have a whole plant in Pennsylvania that does a ton of print on demand.”

Fullerton finished by saying that “many customers have decided to return to print. If they have dropped off or if they have reduced their page counts, they seem to be either on their way back up to where they were or they’re already backed up and increased.”

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