Publishers + Content Strategy Jeffrey
MacIntyre 19 March 2009 IA Summit Memphis, TN

Preamble Who has worked as
an interactive content specialist with a publishing organization? *

Preamble * A native, pre-interactive
publisher! (We’re all publishers now.)

Proposed: Publishing is our home
and native land. Our work reflects and mimics editorial thinking.

CS as Editorial Process Content
strategy is “a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project.” Richard Sheffield

CS from IA “If information
architecture is the spatial design of information, I see content strategy as the temporal side of the same coin.” Louis Rosenfeld

Practitioner-Publisher “Content strategists combine the
skills of writers, editors and publishers to think in a holistic way about what users should see when they visit a site[.]” Terrell Johnson

Consider the Masthead Writers, copyeditors,
art director & staff, ad sales, production, managing editor, the EIC, the publisher. Publishing is complex.

Consider Content Strategy We’re complex.
We work in projects and operations. Our work crosses traditional roles in publishing and conventional ones in UX.

The CS/Publisher Affinity We both
know content. We’re using similar tools and a shared language. We have a role with everyone on the masthead.

So, the Masthead Test How
we (prefer to) work with publishers tells us a lot about who we are as practitioners-- and about the parameters of our field, now and tomorrow.

Art Director/Dept.

Art Director/Dept. Upholds visual system.
Art production and management. CS provides: ‣ style guide (annotated) ‣ digital asset management

Editorial
style guide

Writers & Editors

Writers & Editors Content production.
Curation. CS provides: ‣ copydeck ‣ editorial strategy

Managing Editor

Managing Editor Traffics content. Leads
production. Tactical planner. ‣ content inventory/matrix ‣ workflow design ‣ CMS architecture

Process and workflow ! design
!

Content
flow
schematic

!
Decision tree version

Copy Desk

Copy Desk Edits content for
consistency. Polices in-house standards. ‣ editorial standards: voice, linking, rights/ legal, community, metadata, controlled voc.

Production

Production The engine room. AKA
“Technology.” ‣ content model ‣ platform integration ‣ QA tools/reporting (CMS)

Template
mapping
Production
matrix

Ad Sales

Ad Sales Advertiser-based revenue. ‣
SEO/keyword analysis ‣ ad guidelines

Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief The senior editorial decisionmaker.
‣ editorial calendar ‣ editorial strategy ‣ migration planning ‣ site governance model

Editorial strategy

Editorial strategy
!

Publisher

Publisher Owns product & organization.
‣ product strategy ‣ syndication/partnerships ‣ cross promotion ‣ organizational change management

Content
flow
schematic
Management tools

Postmortem

The Calling The defining challenge
for publishers now, more than ever, is to make its content count.

It’s on.

Why Predicate? ‣ the maturity
of CS ‣ the industry moment ‣ advocacy & aftermarkets ‣ the idea market ‣ pro bono

Questions?
predicate-llc.com