Posted by Lisa Hochgraf
I think I was in minute 22 of my early morning lap swim today when it hit me. Helping to publish a blog (which I just started doing in 2007) isn't really so different from helping to publish a magazine (which I've been doing in some fashion for almost 15 years).
Sure, the supporting technology is different; the format is different; the timing is different, but some key things are the same:
- Quality content is king. If what you publish is boring, inaccurate, lacking detail or doesn't have any real relevance to your readers, you won't have any readers.
- Dialog between readers and publishers is desirable. As with lots of comments on a blog post, a magazine knows it's reaching people about things they care about when readers write letters to the editor with kudos or complaints. Our magazine also does regular surveys to try to learn more about readers.
- Graphics sure do brighten things up on the page. Just like I couldn't bear to publish a magazine with no illustrations and photographs, blogs are much more palatable when some graphics get included. (Christopher and I are working on this part of Nexus.)
- It takes time and energy to do it well. After all, if content is king, writing and publishing need to percolate a bit and some digging deep has to happen.
So I was feeling pretty good about this light bulb about all the similarities between blogging and magazine publishing until I (finally) read Tim McAlpine's wonderful OpenSource CU post, "Who's in Charge of This Stuff?" Comments on the post from Tony Mannor at cuhype.com and Christopher from yescucommunity.com have already made me think about a huge distinction between magazine publishing and blogging: cost.
It's a no-brainer that publishing a blog costs way fewer dollars than publishing a 64-page full color magazine every month. How much do a credit union's marketing materials cost it every month? The potential for better ROI for blogging, at least on a comparative basis, is definitely there.
On Friday during my swim, I'm set to reflect on whether there are any other major differences between these two kinds of publishing. Perhaps comments on this post will power my thinking.
