The Elements of Editorial Strategy

A field overview of editorial strategy, the practice of product development for content.


About This Presentation

What Is This?

What is editorial strategy? Why is it so integral to content strategy? And what is the relationship between content strategy and publishing?

As the invited speaker for the 27 August meeting of the Content Strategists of New York City (CSNYC), hosted at the offices of Bond Art + Science, I was lucky enough to present my thoughts. (Disclosure: I’m a co-founder of the group and its speaking series.)

This presentation was followed by a panel of extraordinarily bright thinkers who work in this space:

I could have talked with them all night! A round of thanks for their involvement.


Full Video and Panel Highlights

Streaming production courtesy of the UX Workshop.

Check the following timestamps to see the panelists speak:

The Elements of Editorial Strategy | The UX Workshop.


For Further Information

If you’ve been reading this carefully, you know by now that this presentation does not provide an entry-level discussion of content strategy. So here are some ideas to get you sorted.

For a clear description of the content strategy field of practice, I have a three-step syllabus for you:

Feeling compelled? Spend some time looking at other resources online. For a shortcut, use the Community module to your right here.

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Comments from Convotrack

One Response to “The Elements of Editorial Strategy”

  1. [...] Jeffrey MacIntyre notes the importance of time to content in The Elements of Editorial Strategy. [...]

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  • “ Thanks to Jeff's skillsets and speedy translation of our business needs into a workable editorial structure, we not only got it right but also landed on a content strategy that provides scalability and flexibility as our needs evolve in the future. ”

Notes on Content

A running report on must-read news, analysis and resources from the content industry. Updated constantly. »

TPUTH — Socially Generated Newspaper for Geeks, Designers and Venture Capitalists.

03.12.10 | Editorial & Programming, Products & Services

 

But once we’ve witnessed content strategy’s effectiveness at the project level, it’s time to take several steps back and examine our organizations. Because content strategy can’t be truly effective over the long term without an internal editorial infrastructure to support it. And that means widespread organizational change.

via Kristina Halvorson, Content strategy is, in fact, the next big thing « Brain Traffic Blog.

03.11.10 | Content Strategy, Organizational Effectiveness

Over the past few years, the magazine publisher has bought up a series of digital-ad agencies to create a full-service marketing shop. Called Meredith Integrated Marketing, the operation has created custom publishing, email, social media and mobile campaigns for major marketers, including Kraft Foods, Chrysler and Wells Fargo.

via Meredith Makes Inroads on Madison Avenue – WSJ.com.

03.10.10 | Advertising & Marketing, Agencies, Custom & Branded Content

 

To push for quick word choices by playing down their consequences, I’ve watched more than one web professional shrug and say “We’re not saving lives here.” Sometimes, I even nodded in agreement. Not anymore.

Colleen Jones, A List Apart: Articles: Words that Zing.

03.09.10 | Content Strategy, Theory & Practice

As a newsletter editor, you’ll sometimes feel like you’re stranded on a desert island, without a good story idea anywhere in sight. Actually, you’re swimming in a sea of material, if you know where to look. Here are 18 ready-made story ideas to choose from…

Ahern Communications, Ink.: Content / / 18 Newsletter Story Ideas: A Checklist.

03.08.10 | Editorial & Programming, Resources

Today I want to share the story of what one business media brand is doing to get closer to their audience, and how they are leveraging social media to drive editorial strategy.

Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web » Blog Archive » How to Use LinkedIn to Drive Editorial Strategy.

03.05.10 | Editorial & Programming, Products & Services, Theory & Practice

via Stephanie Clifford, Survey Finds Slack Standards at Magazine Web Sites – NYTimes.com.

Slack Standards in Web Editorial

03.05.10 | Editorial & Programming, Organizational Effectiveness, Resources, Theory & Practice

As you might’ve seen, our friends at Engadget have shut down their comments, which had become overrun by troll hordes. Trolls lurk everywhere, but our system—often mystifying to newcomers—is designed to keep them out. Here’s why it’s better.

via Ryan Sholin, Gizmodo’s Comment System: How It Works and Why It’s Better.

03.04.10 | Theory & Practice, User-Generated Content

Liz Gannes, Chart: The Web Video Money Pit – GigaOM.

The Web Video Money Pit

03.03.10 | Industry Shift, Products & Services, Resources, Video

 

Has there ever been so much public blowback from a magazine’s own writers about a site redesign?

via Gillian Reagan, Atlantic Bloggers Blowback On New Site Design, Editors Say The Site Is User-Friendly, Needs To Make Money.

03.02.10 | Editorial & Programming, Launch/Relaunch

 

[T]reating blogs as a series of headlines, designed to maximize pageviews, is a deep misunderstanding of blogs, their reader communities and their integrity. I hope they get restored to their previous coherence, and these amorphous “channels” gain some editorial identity. I hope writers like Fallows and Goldberg aren’t treated as random fodder – anchors! – for “channels”. I believe in the Atlantic as a place for writing. The redesign seems to me to ooze casual indifference to that and to the respect that individual writers deserve.

via Andrew Sullivan, quoted by Adrian Chen, Borg-like Atlantic Redesign Sparks Blogger Identity Crisis – The Atlantic – Gawker.

03.01.10 | Editorial & Programming, Interaction Design, Launch/Relaunch

 

“Creating content for the web is an art and a science. There has been a lot of talk now about the science,” said Break.com CEO Keith Richman. “Those guys studying the science of it will be forced eventually to focus on the art of it.”

via Michael Learmonth, Lowered Expectations: Web Redefines ‘Quality’.

02.26.10 | Editorial & Programming, Industry Shift

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