Haiku Productions

The Art of Corporate Publications

 Corporate publications such as technical product brochures, white papers, web sites, and customer magazines, play a critical role in helping prospective and existing customers understand your products and services.

    For 5 of the 14 years I was at PeopleSoft, I was Managing Editor for the PeopleTalk Magazine quarterly corporate publication. As Managing Editor, I was responsible for working with the CMO  to define each issue’s theme. From there I determined the appropriate mix of product and service articles, customer profiles, and technical articles that would support the theme. I worked directly with a wide range of people and departments -- including the CFO, CTO, and CIO -- to define content and customer participants.

    I managed a virtual team of writers, designers, and production experts to build each 60-68 page issue. I also directly managed ad sales from partners to subsidize at least one-half the cost of producing each issue (typically $300,000 for 150,000 copies). Every issue incorporated several offers and promotions to close the loop with prospect and customer readers.

    Content from each issue was also reused on the peoplesoft.com website, often with additional material and offers to draw the reader to the site. Many articles were translated into multiple languages to use in promotional material and websites for international offices. Original customer profiles were turned into collateral. Diagrams and illustrations that were custom made for each issue (such as the visual xplanations) were reused in collateral and presentations. Under my direction, PeopleTalk was also one of the first corporate publications to use the Zinio e-magazine distribution system.

    In summary, the production of PeopleTalk often drove the quarterly marketing thrust for many product lines as the product line VPs saw the 150,000 readers of the magazine as a prime audience to drive sales inquiries for the next quarter.

Now corporate publications are moving to the web, using tools such as ISSUU and PDFs, cutting out a large part of the cost of printing and distribution. However, just look at your home and office tables and you still see a large amount of printed magazines because they are highly visiible, tactile, and--they work. Think about that as you develop your next content management budget.