This post in the Harvard Business Review called “I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore” is great. It talks about all the ways businesspeople make absolutely no sense. His bottom-line advice: Write or talk about actual people, actions or …
This post on the Daily Muse, a blog for professional women, lists six commonly used business expressions that are silly, outdated, overused or just plain wrong. Of course my favorite is “impactful” since I despise the use of impact as …
If you woke me up out of a sound sleep and asked me for a firm rule of writing, chances are I would mumble “Time, Date, Place.” It’s just engrained in people who trained in AP style. It’s done this …
And the number-one thing I learned, the thing that has really stuck with me and helps me make decisions and do my job every day: AN ALUMNI MAGAZINE IS ENTERTAINMENT. It’s not here to stroke the egos of University staff …
2) Tell “service stories” in your magazine. What’s a service story? Basically, it’s tips and hints that serve the reader — news they can use that helps them lead a better life. Food, stress, health, crafts, money, book or film …
3. Use crowd-sourcing to find and tell your stories. Crowd-sourcing is asking people in a crowd (on the University’s Facebook page, alumni website or the readers of your magazine, for example) for help uncovering story ideas or people to interview. …
5. I have broken this rule even as I write it. The rule: Be timely. (Pretty rich coming from someone blogging about a conference held months ago, right?!) What this means for universities, especially alumni magazines: Too many alumni magazines …
6. Your school is an “idea factory.” Other industries produce products or sell services; universities create knowledge. That is such a cool thing! We are the place where ideas are born. Play that up in publications. Talk about your school’s …
7. Food and celebrities make great covers. National magazines always report that the most well-read, best-selling issues have either food or a celebrity on the cover. People looooove eating — if you can include recipes or food stories, spotlight that …
8. Print still matters, even in a world of instant online news. Print has a very specific role to play, and can only successfully fill that role if it has strong writing, photos and design. Print is about emotion and …