Strategy meetings that make a difference - subverting the mundane cycles of magazine publishing

The repetitive nature of magazine publishing can be stultifying. So break the routine with a meeting to review why you all do what you do.

Do you ever: get the feeling that instead of publishing a magazine, you're really just running a glorified production line? Every week, month or whatever, another "product" falls off the end of the conveyor belt, by which time one, two or three more are banked up behind it, each one demanding your constant care and attention. And that production line just keeps on rolling--month in and month out--until you and your staff start to feel like mice on a treadmill.

In such an environment, it can be hard to sustain enthusiasm, freshness and the core belief that every issue of every magazine you and your staff produce is special and unique--which is why periodic strategy meetings are important.

Strategy meetings, which ideally should be held at least once a year for every magazine you produce, allow everybody to jump off the treadmill for a day or so to ask some important questions: Why are we doing this, and how can we do it better? Who are our readers and what do they really want? How do we stack up against our competitors? Where can we find new advertisers and/or subscribers? What can we do to improve content and design? And so on.

Even if these questions weren't important, strategy meetings would still form a crucial link in the management process. First, they motivate staff by getting everyone in a positive frame of mind and working toward a common goal. Second, they allow constructive interaction between those often-hostile realms, advertising and editorial. And finally, they strip away the rose-colored glasses and remind everyone that there's always room for improvement--no one has yet published the perfect magazine.

Here are some tips to ensure that your strategy meeting is a success.

Get out of the office. If you want to ensure plenty of distractions, disruptions, interruptions, missing employees and wandering minds, be sure to hold the meeting somewhere in your building. Otherwise, get the heck out of there.

Get everyone involved. One of the principal purposes of this meeting is to give everyone, from support staff on up, a view of the bigger picture. Your best idea might come from that part-time research assistant who has never said a word before--because nobody asked him.

Set a firm and logical agenda. The need for an agenda, circulated prior to the strategy meeting, is self-evident. Less obvious, though, is the task of formatting it in a logical and structured way. There's no point in deciding your own competitive advantages until you've assessed the opposition's. Similarly, you can't brainstorm on content until you're sure who your readers are and what they want. And it's impossible to formulate strategies until you've decided your objectives.

Come well prepared. Make sure you bring any reader or advertiser research, financials or other relevant data. You should also have copies of your own title, your competitors' titles, and any magazines that inspire you for whatever reason. Ditto with rates kits and other promotional material. And, unless there is some fancier technology around, bring lots of flip charts and felt-tipped pens.

Fine-tune your mission statement. Once you've assessed the nature of your readership, the competition and your current positioning, the next step is to create or fine-tune your mission statement--a simple, two- or three-sentence statement of who you are and what you aspire to be and do. One company I know is so proud of theirs that they put it at the front of their rates kits. Whether or not you go to that extreme, a copy should definitely be pinned up above everyone's desk after the meeting.

Once you've got your mission statement right, you can focus the rest of your meeting on strategies. To do this, it's a good idea to break the discussion into subheadings--editorial, ad sales, circulation, promotions, etc., each with its own approach to realizing the lofty but achievable goals set out in the mission statement.

Don't avoid the hard questions. In the intense and highly creative world of magazine publishing, it is easy to be so proud of your product that you ignore or underestimate problems and weaknesses. But unless you take a hard look at your magazine's place in the market, you risk turning your strategy session into a mutual backslapping session--high on motivation but low on improvement.

Without bringing the meeting down, it's important to analyze production problems, competitive weaknesses, design faults, editorial lapses, and so on, in an objective fashion. Don't be afraid to bring these issues forward. But just as important, make sure they are discussed constructively and without attributing blame.

Encourage brainstorming. Make brainstorming an important component of each session. I have seen outstanding ideas come out of seemingly ridiculous suggestions that were subsequently molded or adapted. Most would never have emerged without the free-for-all atmosphere that a good brainstorming session creates.

As well as encouraging participants to think outside the square, brainstorming is also a great way to break down barriers between the editorial and ad sales staff: With every idea a good one, suddenly it's one team with a unified objective. You'll be amazed at the way an editor can suddenly come up with new advertising categories, or an advertising manager with a great circulation promotion.

Build in a training component. You've got them all in one place at one time. What better opportunity to provide some impromptu training? Whether you bring in a live speaker, rent a training video or do it yourself, this is the perfect time to build teamwork and motivation. How about a session on time management, perhaps? Or a case study?

Whatever the choice, don't make it too "heavy" or theoretical. Remember that one of its purposes is to give participants a break and refresh them for the next phase of the strategy meeting.

Create a specific and achievable action plan. It's important that decisions arising from the meeting come from your staff, even if you have to lead them subtly in the right direction. Although your input is obviously critical, employees will be far happier implementing decisions they (think they) thought up themselves.

Don't bother taking minutes of your meeting. Instead, just record a specific action plan for every conclusion, together with the name of the person responsible for implementing it. Make sure your strategies are "realistically ambitious."

Set some nonfinancial objectives. It's all too easy to see "success" solely in bottomline terms. Strategy meetings are a great opportunity to set additional, nonfinancial targets that inspire everybody to action. For example, one company decided that its business-to-business editors would set a target of having at least two stories they'd written be followed up by the daily papers each year. Success in this area effectively turned those magazines into news leaders, with all the promotional and advertising benefits that that entails.

Other targets might include bringing in a set number of new advertisers or how to net new subscribers or reduce typos. Whatever you come up with, remember--your goals should be closely attuned to your publication's own needs and shortcomings.

Don't forget the follow-up. Everyone should shoot out of this meeting inspired, reinvigorated, and with a ton of fresh ideas. The important thing now is to channel this enthusiasm toward a productive result. One good idea might be to create a personal action plan for each person and then review that with him or her once a month. Or, you might prefer to spend a few minutes at each monthly meeting reviewing progress on whatever decisions were taken.

And if you decide on major changes, don't delay the implementation process--sit on an idea too long, and it will eventually be smothered by all the day-to-day hassles that afflict even the best-run organizations.

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