1. Scholarly Serials Marketing:
Contemporary Tools for Traditional Content
Realistic Concepts for Low-Budget
Marketing
Becky Haines
Director of Publications
American Roentgen Ray Society
44211 Slatestone Ct.
Leesburg, VA 20176
Bhaines@arrs.org
703-729-3353 x334

2. Common internal challenges
l Little $$ for marketing
l No time for marketing
l Leadership perception that marketing is too
“commercial”
l Marketing not within Publications Dept.
“sphere of influence”
l No Marketing Dept.
l Disconnect between leadership and editor’s
office

3. Common external challenges
l Branding
– What the heck is a “Roentgen Ray” anyway?
l Member vs. Subscriber
– Where is their loyalty?
l STM Publishing faces uncertain times
– How will open access, online publication, and
library cutbacks affect your publication?

4. Status Quo
l Small marketing budget
l Probably not a lot of detailed information
about our market and our members
l Several key groups we need to reach within a
niche market
l New markets we’d like to exploit but may not
be able to reach them easily or cheaply

5. Staff and leadership
l How many of your colleagues WHAT YOU CAN DO:
actually unwrap the plastic on
your publication? l Prepare a Top Ten List that
l How many of your leaders clearly states the best
and committee chairs features of your publication
institutions have and make sure everyone has
subscriptions? a copy.
l Does your leadership submit l Send your leaders an
papers, review, read the institutional subscription form
journal? and ask them to take it to their
l How many can quote your librarian.
impact factor, your circulation
numbers, the number of
manuscripts you receive?

6. Authors, Reviewers, and Editors
l Large group, maybe WHAT YOU CAN DO:
l When you publish an article,
thousands
check the subscriber status of
l Likely to include non- the author’s institution; send a
members note to their PR dept. and
their library alerting about the
l Active participants in publication
your publication l Start a “Tell a Friend”
campaign
l You already know a lot
l Mine your database and
about them unearth non-members for
l May be your best allies solicitation
l Issue press-releases on
select articles in each issue

7. Existing Members/Subscribers
l May view journal and WHAT YOU CAN DO:
membership as l Conduct regular reader
separate; may not know surveys and publicize the
results
the difference
l Mine your online readership
l May appreciate only data
some publication l Report on and continually
features and not care remind about features
about others l Integrate publication into
annual meeting
l Retention is key

8. Institutional Subscribers
l Retention is the biggest WHAT YOU CAN DO:
issue l Start early and develop a
year-long communication plan
l Need to create a
l Enlist support from readers,
compelling argument authors, members
l Pressure to reduce cost l Conduct a drop survey
l Hard to reach end user l Get end-user information from
your subscription agents
l Be honest about your pricing
and your costs

9. Advertisers
l Tremendous competition WHAT YOU CAN DO:
l Develop a classified ad
for their $$ both within
prospect list and
and outside your communicate with them each
organization month, even if not advertising
l Consider developing package
l Advertising dollars deals that include
shrinking sponsorship
l Effect of online l Be able to show valid
circulation or web usage data
publishing on circulation
l Provide as much detail as
numbers possible in your media kit and
put it online
l Sell your own advertising

10. Related Professionals
l Are there other professions with WHAT YOU CAN DO:
an interest in your publication? l Consider licensing or creating a
l Can a turf war do you good? special publication to reach a
l Is here a subset of your content new audience
that can be marketed? l Special online collections reduce
risk/cost
l RSS lets you experiment at low
risk
l Mine your CiteTrack alerts for
key words and other hints
l May be the start of other
strategic relationships; e.g.,
physicians and allied health
professions

11. Sources for more information
l HighWire meetings l Look for examples
l Your advertisers and outside of association
industry reps. mgmt.
l Your competition l Be unpredictable and
suggest the outrageous
l Your professional
colleagues l Take 5 minutes out of
l Federal and local each day to be creative
government