College magazines: What’s the point?

Food for thought for college magazine editors comes by way of Rob Westervelt’s UBrander blog. He urges us to think of our magazines in terms of return on investment and suggests a businesslike approach to definine our magazines’ overarching objectives:

If you don’t have a brand objective for your magazine, here’s how to craft one:

Example:
Our objective is to brand [YOUR SCHOOL] as [INSERT SCHOOL’S DESIRED BRAND POSITIONING IN ITS CATEGORY] so that [YOUR SCHOOL] becomes the first place [YOUR AUDIENCE] sends its students and dollars.

Once you’ve established your objective, write out your methodology for accomplishing the objective (i.e. how you’re going to do it). Remember, magazines are about readers, so write articles that connect your brand with the things your readers care about.

Good advice that should also translate to alumni magazines — and to hybrid college/alumni magazines, like the one our university publishes. Many college magazine editors have never had to think in terms of ROI. But it’s a practice worth adopting. So is Rob’s brand objective exercise.

Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction. View all posts by andrewcareaga