Don’t magazine editors watch TV? Having viewed the videos they produce for their magazines, I conclude they do not. My chief complaints: The videos are too long. They consist only of talking heads. They are not compelling. They are boring. And sloppy. I’ve seen misspellings of proper names (companies and individuals) in the titles. How’s that for establishing authority?

Why are print editors, who are so good at telling stories on glossy paper, so bad at telling a story in a different m...
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Trade shows and social media are made for each other.

Shows consist of you, your product and your customers. Social media allow you to share this information.

It's important to document the event. Besides your booth, the one key piece of equipment to take is a digital camera with video and voice recording capabilities. I've covered hundreds of trade shows from the media side. My digital camera has become as indispensable as pen and paper.

With this camera, you are creating the raw material...

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I have edited business magazines covering real estate, food & beverage, travel and tourism, retailing and construction. I’ve interviewed hundreds of business owners and executives. Here are some universal business lessons I’ve learned:

1. Outsource what is not your specialty. Homebuilders outsourced just about...

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It took me a few years to learn this, but I know it's true:

The difference between editors and sales people is that the former say "no" while the latter say "yes."
Editors say:
No. We are not going to run your press release as is.
No. We are not going to allow you to approve the story.
No. We are not going to quote you just because you're an advertiser.
No. We are not going to write about that topic because it's irrelevant to our audience.

Sales people say:
Yes. We'll put your ad far forwar...
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Retailers have stores, store-in-stores, catalogs and websites to push their wares out to the buying public. It’s called having multiple channels.
Publishers, too, have (or should have) mulitiple methods of distribution. Here is one of the best, most-succinct explanations why:

“With the Internet, with YouTube, with TiVo, with cable TV, people are selective viewers now. There may be a group of people in Washingt...

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