Principles

Almost any publication can be more powerful without costing a lot more. The keys are imagination, judgment, and attitude. Here’s how I apply these to your publications:

• Audience. Who are you trying to reach, and what do they want? Besides insight into the ordinary reader, I provide surveys, focus groups, and editors for specialized audiences.
• Topic. Publications often fail because they define their topic too broadly. The world doesn’t need another health magazine, for example, but it might crave one on childhood obesity. I help find the most eager niches.
• Mission. What is your publication’s aim? You don’t have a winner until you know it precisely. I help define a clear and compelling purpose.
• Attitude. All great publications have unique attitudes. Is yours brash and provocative? kindly and wise? terse and professional? Or don’t you know? I help create powerful editorial personalities.
• Distribution. What’s the most effective way to reach your audience? I analyze costs, benefits, and drawbacks in all major media. I can also provide custom publishing.
• Title. Your publication's name isn’t everything, but it counts tremendously. I can help you find and trademark a name that will magnify your success.
• Appearance. In great publications, visual design is not merely decoration, but part of the mission. I find and direct designers who understand this.
• Content
  • Articles. Are your feature stories readable? talkable? actionable? I generate ideas, direct writers, edit manuscripts, and write titles and blurbs that maximize word-of-mouth.
  • News. As a prize-winning reporter who created the Web’s largest personalized health-news syndicate, I can define, direct, and staff a big news operation. I can also find cost-effective ways to launch a small one.
  • Departments. I’ve invented, named, and contributed to departments for 20 years, from The Verbal Edge to Laughter, the Best Medicine. I turn grab-bags into art forms.
  • Special Features. Whatever your audience and mission, I can devise attention-getting interactive tools like The Reader’s Digest Home Eye Test and Your Famous Twin.
• Staffing. From my years on the Web and the world’s largest reprint magazine, I know hundreds of editors and writers—some famous, some obscure but exceptionally talented. I can hire and inspire the right people for your purpose, whether freelance or staff. I also train and retrain existing staffs.

To find out more…

…see my service card and ask for a free consultation.