Co-presented by Robin Sherman, learn what the most important digital skills are for businesss-to-business editors and how to get training — even if your company doesn’t provide it. From June 3, 2010 webinar sponsored by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE).

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Bridging the
DigitalSkills
Training Gap
for business-to-business editors
I
June 2010
I
American Society of
Business Publication Editors

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www.ASBPE.org
Research
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Sponsors
American Society of Medill School/ Media Management Center
Business Publication Editors Northwestern University Northwestern University
214 N. Hale St. 301 Fisk Hall 304 Fisk Hall
Wheaton, IL 60187 1845 Sheridan Road 1845 Sheridan Road
phone: (630) 510-4588 Evanston, IL 60208 Evanston, IL 60208
fax: (630) 5110-4501 phone: (847) 467-1882 phone: (847) 491-4900
info@asbpe.org www.medill.northwestern.edu/ www.mediamanagementcenter.
www.asbpe.org org

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www.ASBPE.org
Speakers
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Abe Peck, director of business-to-business Mary Slepicka, group content director,
communication, professor emeritus in Advanstar Communications Powersports
service at the Medill School and senior Group; editorial director, Dealernews
director of the Media Management Center, Magazine
Northwestern University; and a consultant
in the B2B space.
Robin Sherman, associate director, Rita Jane Gabbett is executive editor of
American Society of Business Publication Meatingplace.com, an online community
Editors; principal, Editorial & Design for red meat and poultry processors in
Services; and former corporate director of North America.
editorial development, Argus Business.

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www.ASBPE.org
What we’ll talk about
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
I ASBPE/Medill Survey on Digital Skills and Strategies:
Key findings — Abe Peck
I Ways to sell training to management — Robin Sherman
I Ideas for in-house training — Robin Sherman
I Where to get outside training — Robin Sherman
I Tales from the trenches — Mary Slepicka and Rita Jane Gabbett
I Mini-case studies — Abe Peck and Robin Sherman

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
How adequate is the digital skills training
provided by your company?
Survey taken in November 2009
Valid %
Very inadequate 36.3
Somewhat
inadequate 31.9
Somewhat
adequate 27.0
Very adequate 4.8
Total 100.0

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
In the last 12 months, how much digital skills
training have you received from your company?
Survey taken in November 2009
Valid %
None 36.2
Less than one half-day 28.4
1 day total (8 hours) 16.4
2–3 days total (16–24 hours) 11.6
4–5 days total (25–40 hours) 5.6
> 2 weeks total (80 hours) 1.1
> 1 month total (81–160 hours) .7
Total 100.0

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
How necessary are these strategies
in the next 12 months?
Items rated on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being unnecessary and 5 being extremely necessary;
ranked by “rating average.”
Unnecessary Extremely Rating
necessary average
Improving digital content, organization, design 0.8% 38.1% 3.96
Training in digital technologies
and online skills 1.2% 38.3% 3.94
Researching readers/advertisers 1.2% 29.9% 3.80
Resisting any loosening of editorial ethics
to maintain or increase revenue 17.1% 37.1% 3.49
Leveraging content between brands/titles 7.2% 23.0% 3.45
Redefining the skills necessary
for current and new reporters, editors, artists 7.6% 22.5% 3.42
Being platform agnostic 8.0% 23.4% 3.32
Looking for new markets for content 8.3% 20.8% 3.29
Increasing editorial staff 15.4% 22.0% 3.22
Editorial responsibility for content marketing 14.8% 14.8% 2.96
Improving print content, organization, design 17.1% 8.7% 2.82
Training in business journalism skills 20.4% 11.6% 2.69
Moving from a largely print-first
to a largely digital-first orientation 27.6% 13.6% 2.60
Reorganizing or maintaining staffs
within broad, centralized content groups
rather than individual markets 45.0% 7.2% 2.12
Moving to digital-only 79.4% 2.8% 1.39
Downsizing editorial staff 90.3% 0.8% 1.15

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www.ASBPE.org
B2B editors’ rating of their
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
publisher’s knowledge or skill level
Items rated on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being poor and 4 being excellent;
ranked by “rating average.”
Poor Rating
average
Provides adequate amounts of training 48.1% 1.82
Really understands what it takes
for editors to run our digital media 31.4% 2.14
Provides adequate support and resources for editorial staff 27.3% 2.22
Stays current on trends about journalism 28.2% 2.30
Rewards innovation; rewards hard work by editors 29.8% 2.35
Takes steps to make the operation
work well across platforms 22.9% 2.38
Communicates strategies and decisions well;
fosters collaboration among departments 22.1% 2.41
Attracts and retains the best employees 14.4% 2.54
Really understands what it takes
for editors to run our print media 22.1% 2.55
Has a clear vision and understanding of the future
of your brand and its content 13.6% 2.66
Stays current on trends about your market
and how to market content to it 8.9% 2.82
Is open to new ways of doing things;
is not afraid to take some risks 10.2% 2.98

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
How important are these activities to doing
your job successfully in the next 12 months?
ranked by combination of “very important” and “extremely important”
Writing and editing Web content
(e.g. headlines, articles, lists, category labels, use of keywords for search,
navigation/links language, calls for action, instructions) 68.4%
Managing workflow/workload between Web and print 65.8%
Writing and editing e-newsletters
(e.g. subject lines, headlines, articles, lists, category labels, keywords,
navigation/links language, calls for action) 62.1%
Using a content management system 57.1%
Developing Internet and other digital content
(and marketing) strategies 55.5%
Using Web analytics for editorial purposes; knowing what stats
are useful to editors, how to use and interpret them
to inform editorial content decisions 48.6%
Engaging/interacting with readers online 44.7%
Blogging
(writing, posting, managing, marketing) 37.8%
Using, marketing, managing social media
(e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, forums) 37.2%
Developing, operating, moderating, marketing webinars 27.3%
Preparing quality images for the Internet 25.2%
Recording, shooting, editing audio/video 21.3%
Mining online databases 21.1%
Creating online slideshows or photo galleries 20.8%
Developing and implementing
virtual trade shows/conferences 17.6%
Coding HTML, CSS, XML 16.6%

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www.ASBPE.org
About training
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
I Ways to sell training to management
I Ideas for in-house organizational training
I Where to get outside training

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Ways to sell training to management
I Can be inexpensive; create cost-effective budget for training
I Show the end result of training
I How it can better position you against your competition
I Get Production on your side
I Show how it might affect ROI; show how lack of training affects ROI
I Get HR on your side
I Get testimonials
I Current ideas not working
I Morale booster
I Easier and quicker to train existing staff in new technologies
I Provides marketing and sales with more ammunition
I People respect training — promote it to readers and advertisers
I Training is good time to reinforce corporate mission, strategies, tactics,
standards, best practices
I Promotes more effective decisionmaking
I Promotes efficiencies
I Less disruption of work

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Ideas for in-house organizational training
I Set up training committee for internal workshops
I Pass-on training:
Allow one staff member to get paid training, then train rest of staff
I Mentoring
I Bring in trainers/consultant
I Bring in vendors of hardware/software you use
I Job shadowing
I Purchase classroom-based course, e.g. Adobe in a Classroom

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Where to get outside training
National and local colleges
National and local professional and trade associations
User groups for most software
YouTube
Slideshare (e.g. conference sesion presentations, handouts)
CreativePro
www.creativepro.com/
TotalTraining.com
Lynda.com well rounded number of classes for print and digital
AdobeTV
http://tv.adobe.com
HTML Goodies
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Where to get outside training
W3Schools
http://www.w3schools.com/
HTML Dog
http://htmldog.com/
Digital Tutors
www.digitaltutors.com
www.planetdigital.com/
Junta 24 content marketing
www.junta42.com/
min online
www.minonline.com
Poynter
www.poynter.org/training

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Where to get outside training
Institute for Interactive Journalism’s J-Lab and J-Learning
www.j-lab.org/
www.j-learning.org/
MarketingSherpa “practical case studies and know-how”
www.marketingsherpa.com/
Mequoda
www.mequoda.com/
Sitepoint
www.sitepoint.com/
O’Reilly
http://oreilly.com/
eMedia Vitals
http://emediavitals.com/
MediaBistro

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Where to get outside training
Books — how quaint
Magazines
SPJ’s Journalist’s Toolbox
http://journaliststoolbox.org/
Govt grant for retraining
Knight Digital Media Center’s Web 2.0 Training for Journalists:
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/workshops/32/
Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism,
businessjournalism.org
Knowledgewebb.net 30% discount
Calling colleagues who are already doing
Software “help” functions
Vendors
Google Internet marketing webinars
Google webmaster tools help
www.google.com/support/webmasters/?hl=en

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
Where to get outside training
Inbound marketing, search marketing,
Blogging for business, Social media marketing, Web site best practices
www.useit.com
www.hubspot.com
www.webmarketing123.com
www.searchenginestrategies.com
www.seomoz.org/
www.sreetips.com/
www.emediastrategist.com/blog/
http://bosacks.homestead.com/pmg1.html
Blogs/Web sites:
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox,
Mashable,
Problogger,
Copyblogger,
Social Media Examiner,
Tech for Luddites,
ASBPE National Blog,
www.semanticweb.com/
http://www.journalists.org/

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www.ASBPE.org
ebinar
An education service
of the American Society of
Business Publication Editors
With a little help from our friends
I Bob LeBailly, researcher, Media Management Center
I Mary Nesbitt, associate dean, Medill School of Journalism
I Roy Harris, president, ASBPE Foundation;
freelance writer; author, Pulitzer’s Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism;
former senior editor, CFO;
former reporter, Wall Street Journal.
I Rob Freedman, vice president, ASBPE Foundation;
senior editor, Realtor
I Warren Hersch, president, ASBPE;
senior editor, National Underwriter Life & Health
I Martha Spizziri, Web editor, ASBPE;
freelance writer/editor
I Doug Shore, Business-to-business media maven;
former co-founder, chairman and co-CEO of Shore-Varrone, Inc.