Get Rich (Almost) from Article
Reprints
You can
get extra mileage out of work you've already done by repackaging
previously published articles. Here's one magazine's recipe for
success.
By Martha Spizziri
The editors at Cahners Publishing's Purchasing magazine
get a nice little bonus in their paychecks twice a year, a check
for about $1,000.
That's because they're getting mileage out of work they've essentially
already done. To supplement the income generated by Cahners' in-house
reprint-marketing division, which sells mainly to advertisers
and story subjects, Purchasing's staff is creating its
own packages of reprinted articles and selling them to readers.
These repackaged stories gross the 90,000-circulation magazine
about $80,000 a year; enough to make one wonder whether readers
are too often overlooked when it comes to selling reprints.
"Actually, what we sell are not reprints per se, but batches
of articles on one subject or theme that's important to our readers,"
explains Jim Morgan, chief editor of the magazine. "We bind
them together in booklets, write an introduction and some "bridge"
passages to tie it all together, and sell them for about $15 to
$40 apiece." Titles include "PC Basics for Buyers",
"A Guide to Purchasing Law", and the "Value Analysis
Handbook".
The editing and supplemental writing for the reprints is done
by Purchasing's editorial staff. The booklets are produced
at a low cost with the help of freelancers, printed with minimal
or no color, and marketed in the pages of the magazine. In cases
where outside authors wrote some of the material, they are given
a flat amount per sale.
Morgan notes that reader turnover is a big factor in the reprints'
success. Because about one-third of the Purchasing's
readership turns over every year, the material presented in the
reprints is new to a large percentage of the magazine's readers.
But, he adds, longer-term readers do buy the reprints as well.
Purchasing is also different from many publications
in that it has a fairly homogeneous circulation. Most readers
are either purchasing managers or are interested in learning more
about that function. A magazine that has a more horizontal market
with many different job titles may find it tougher going to identify
reprint possibilities that would be of general interest to its
readers. If the topic of a reprint package is narrow, the number
of potential buyers, and therefore profits, shrinks. If that is
the case, Morgan recommends designing a survey to find out what
information people might want to buy.
Another reason reprints do so well at Purchasing, says
Morgan, is that the staff has learned a few lessons about how
best to go about such a project. Some guidelines:
- Pick articles that have a good shelf life. To be a good candidate
for repackaging, an article should be saleable for at least
two or three years. Longevity gives a greater return on investment.
- Do your bridgework! The bridge passages that connect the material
are very important. So is editing stories to update them and
relate them to one another. This makes a series of articles
into a cohesive package.
- Keep inventory low. Purchasing prints no more than
2,500 copies of a booklet at a time. The rule of thumb: The
first 300 booklets sold should cover all costs except postage.
- Be selfish about giveaways! People always want to give out
freebies to clients. Don't let them get carried away. Too many
complementaries can quickly eat away at profits.
- Keep the payment process simple. Make readers prepay. No money,
no book. The idea is not to have to deal with collections.
- Make ordering idiot-proof. Any promotional mailings or house
ads used to market the reprints should include a clip-out order
form with explicit instructions. If they don't, people will
leave out necessary information (like their addresses). "Make
it clear that they have to send the money up front", stresses
Morgan.
- Recruit staff for the operation. Share the profits with them
so they'll have an investment in completing the project. That
includes art and production staff as well as editors.
- Promote, promote, promote! The packages can be advertised
not only in the magazine (the news pages are a good place),
but also in card decks.
As long as there's a well-planned system in place, repackaging
and selling articles isn't all that difficult and it can pay off
pretty respectably. In an era when profit margins are squeezed
to the limit, that makes it an idea worth looking into.
An Alternative to Do-It-Yourself
Reprints
By Alan Earls
When it comes to producing and marketing article reprints, many
magazines need help. This is especially true at smaller publishing
companies that don't have a specialized, in-house department to
handle them. When reprints are made the responsibility of an editor
or production staffer who already is balancing a full workload,
marketing efforts are often spotty and pricing inconsistent.
One place to turn for help is an outside reprint-management firm.
These companies will market, sell, produce, and print reprints,
ship them to the customer, and collect the money afterwards. They
then share part of the revenue with the publisher.
Outsourcing the management of reprints is a relatively new idea.
By most accounts, the first company to enter the field was Minn.-based
Reprint Services, founded in 1977. Although there are quite
a few firms that telemarket reprints, there are only a handful
of full-service companies like Reprint Services. The two other
major players in the industry are Reprint Management Services and The Reprint Department,
both located in Lancaster, Pa.
These companies serve clients of all sizes, from the smallest
publishing companies on up. A publisher that signs on with one
of them can almost completely wash its hands of responsibility
for reprints. Its contribution to the whole process is limited
to making film and production information available. "We
try to take the burden (of marketing and researching leads) off
the publisher, although we do encourage their involvement",
says RMS representative Charles Calta. The same is true at Reprint
Services. "We think of our relationship with the publisher
as a partnership, so any information it provides is beneficial
to both of us", notes Reprint Services Vice President John
Blom.
Another plus to dealing with an outside firm: Most provide added
value in the form of market-research data. RMS, for example, keeps
detailed records of sales calls and makes that information available
to the publisher. Not only does RMS take notes on why prospects
don't want to buy reprints, they also ask for opinions about the
magazine itself. Often, claims RMS President Michael Biggerstaff,
the publisher gets advertising sales leads from his company's
reports. RMS also performs follow-up surveys to see if reprint
buyers are satisfied with the final product, and those results
are shared with the publisher as well.
Although right now there are only three big reprint-management
companies, that may be changing soon. "I've seen other companies
try to get into marketing. The trend now is toward single sourcing
and one-stop shopping", notes Reprint Services Vice President
John Blom, "so (reprint-printing) companies are jumping in
(to the market)". If that trend continues, publishers should
soon have many different options to choose from.
For More Information
From the October/November 1994 issue of the ASBPE
National Newshound
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