As the sense of accomplishment from launching ELLE magazine in Vietnam has been replaced by my desire to create something lasting and longer – something bigger than my own energy and/or ability can produce, I’ve begun thinking more about what makes a great magazine.

I’m proud of ELLE Vietnam’s editorial quality and that advertisers have grown to respect the publication, but I’m afraid the real hard (but most interesting) work will soon begin: How to give ELLE Vietnam a lasting and rich editorial personality that can outlive the excitement of its birth?

The ELLE Vietnam team is very talented, hard working and certainly full of personality; it would be remiss not to strengthen their editorial core. Sadly, I feel that in Vietnam editorial cohesion and coherence are only emerging as valuable attributes for publishers. “New” and “heady” is what counts for advertisers in this developing media market, and publishers (and editors) respond to boot by launching the next BIG thing after another. Case in point: A new local men’s magazine produced a gimmicky 3D cover for its third issue and Harpers Bazaar will follow ELLE later this year. And just six months after launching ELLE in Vietnam, Ringier is already at work to launch a new intl’ title in turn.

So while I’ll no doubt end up spending 75 percent of my time working on new BIG projects this year, I hope to use the dwindling hours of the work-day to further instill an editorial culture and personality at ELLE Vietnam. Besides hoping to give the magazine the necessary identity to outlive any individual, it will allow me to feel more closely connected to the editorial side, which I often miss as an editor-turned-publisher.

There’s a lot of advice on what makes a great magazine. But after a quick search for Cyndi Stivers and her recent Luce Award at Time Warner, I came across this article, “How to be a great magazine editor” (for those who don’t know, I have a huge amount of respect for Stivers and her work). I thought the advice would be good to share with our ELLE Vietnam team. I was also glad to see it was originally published in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2007.

10 Tips on how to be a great magazine editor

I edited the tips below to be “email-friendly” from “How to be a great magazine editor” by Marshall Loeb at Columbia Journalism Review.

1. “Curiosity is perhaps the main quality.”
2. The great editor is a kind of empathy, a bond with the reader, an almost subliminal notion of what will be interesting and important to her or him — even though the reader might not know so at the time.
3. The editor needs self-confidence, strong enough that it will not be swayed by a seeming setback or polls or a focus group… You have an inner sense of what you want to do — and you do it. ”Self-confidence to say ‘If it’s of interest to me, it will be of interest to everybody.’”
4. The editor has to be absolutely fearless, whether dealing with pushy advertisers, pressuring publishers, money-hungry investment bankers — or his own staff.
5. The editor needs stamina – both the physical stamina needed to fill the grinding demands of the job, and the intellectual stamina required to suffer idiosyncratic talents constantly and willingly.
6. The editor does not have to be a terrific writer but he needs to know how to spot sensational performance — and stimulate it.
7. The editor may not be an outstanding writer, but “You have to be the best reporter on your staff. You have to get out and get around and persuade your staff to do stories of what people are really talking about on Saturday night.”
8. You also have to get out to see how your readers are changing.
9. Great editors know that they don’t have all the answers, and so they surround themselves with people more knowledgeable and more talented than they.
10. “The greatest thing editors do is say ‘no’ – ‘no, your story doesn’t measure up’ or ‘no, your photo has to be re-shot.’ That’s hard because some editors don’t want to be the bad guy.” ”Patience is a great virtue for an editor, but patience must not be confused with being a nice guy, and it must not be confused with uncertainty. Any sign that the leader is confused is disastrous.”

Yes, the jury is still out on my skills as a businessman. I have only been working as country manager for Ringier, a Swiss publishing house, in Vietnam since July 2009. But after six months, I can’t tell you how often I refer back to core journalism techniques (in an attempt) to be a better businessperson. Could it be that going to journalism school made me a better businessperson? My case:

• Pitching (1): If you can’t summarize your business plan or reason to cooperate/partner in one short sentence, then you might as well put your money into a pile on the floor and burn it. The plan, the people, the time line… The end of your “story” had better be crystal clear before you get started.
• Pitching (2): If you’re not passionate about your plan to make money, then why should I be passionate? You’re selling ideas; and instead of editors, you’re convincing investors, partners, staff, etc. Put on your sales hat and be sure to use words that will sell an “editor” like ‘amazing’, ‘limited time’ and ‘exclusive.’
• Don’t bury the nut. If you haven’t got on slide 2, after your fancy .pptx or Keynote intro slide, the reason WHY we are sitting in this room during our busy schedules, then you’ve already wasted everyone’s time. Chances are, if you have more than 10 slides, you’re in trouble. Same goes for a press release. Don’t make me think and show me why I should pay attention right away.
• Show don’t tell. Okay, you’re passionate. You’re convincing. I like you. But I’m running a business. My staff or I won’t eat if I make a bad decision here. Show me in a clear cut business plan how we’re going to make money. Let me see the numbers, the reasoning and/or the evidence that backs up what you’re so convincingly pitching me.
• There is nothing different from a “beat note” and “market research report.” Who are you talking to about this business plan? How diverse is your source list? How do you know that the people you are talking to know what they are talking about? When things change, how do you know about them first? Is your beat note up-to-date?
• Verify your sources. In business, there is a lot of pressure to minimize weakness and maximize advantage(s). Often what is “told” is very different from what is “real.” It’s your job – your bottom line – to check the difference. The easiest way to do this is to talk to people/businesses around this person/business. Same thing in journalism. He said X. Ask Y and Z if true.
• Fact check everything. Again. .5 and .05 are very different numbers. Does the labor contract with the new sales director say, “gross” or “net” under salary? BIG difference.
• What’s new? What’s news? To state the obvious: if someone is already doing it or it’s already been done, then it’s less likely you’ll be successful or noticed if you do it too. If it’s not news, then it’s not worth pitching. Readers want news, not the obvious or apparent. Same for business. Got a new idea to convert a blanket into a jacket, call it a Snuggie and make bank. Shave a decimal place off a kilowatt, call up the CEO or your congressman. If you’re not solving problems or giving kinetic value to an end user, then don’t bother. You’re wasting time. And time is money. Right freelancer?
• Do more with less. A reasonably intelligent and motivated individual can perform multiple tasks at the same time. Got a hot music single from a sexy musician? Don’t sell the album. Sell the single, the album, the merchandise, the branding, the concert ticket, the soundtrack rights, etc. Got a story? No, you have a Twitter newsflash, a Web crawl headline, an above-the-fold photo, a breaking blog article, a newspaper article, a video clip, 24-hour pundit babble, a syndicate wire story, a magazine feature, PR for your news org and a lot more. The person that broke the story… Give them credit. Give them training. They should be able to do everything. Maximize their value. Maximize the story. Take a service or product and split it up and sell it more. Keep costs down by empowering/training fewer people to do more.

Maybe the great irony of the media is dying, is that in the year when business went bad, old-school journalism techniques could save it. I don’t know. Jury is still out.

On July 1, 2009 I began the position of country manager of Ringier’s Vietnam office. The easiest way to describe this work is to imagine I manage a media startup business, although Ringier (a Swiss publishing company) has been in Vietnam for nearly 17 years.

I’m here to help build up Ringier’s portfolio of online and print properties. What staff I already have is loyal, entrenched and talented in unique ways. I’m responsible for hiring the rest. Like any new company, we’re faced with tight budgets, strong competition and huge mandates i.e. “be no. 1 market leader in magazines.” Given how much growth is predicted in media and entertainment for Vietnam, I have little excuses to succeed.

Like most out there doing too much with too little, I’ve been busy. Here’s what we’ve started my first month:

1. Creating monthly marketing reports i.e. what’s the market share, important ad sectors and how we’re faring.
2. Web site development for current and future print projects.
3. Marketing campaigns.
4. Short and long term sales packages. Latest one: “End of Summer Special!”
5. Meeting with Vietnamese publishing license partners. Foreign companies are not legally permitted to publish in Vietnam.
6. Recruitment. Recruitment. Recruitment.

Speaking of recruitment, we’re about to launch a redesigned family cooking magazine, Beb Gia Dinh. And we’ll need a sales director to help us monetize the publication. Finding people with media sales and advertising experience is tough in Vietnam. But you can find people who are smart, hard working and have sales/leadership experience. Recently, I interviewed several candidates. After meeting with them I sent a follow up email asking each candidate to put together a sales proposal for an imaginary client. I thought it was a good exercise.

The client and the magazine description is below. Depending on the feedback, I’ll post a few of their responses (anonymously) afterwards.

Dear X,

Good to see you again today. Ringier is interested in you for the cooking magazine position, however, because you have little media advertising experience, we need to think carefully about how to proceed.

For instance, I’d like to know more about how you would construct a sales proposal. You don’t need to be detailed, but what would be the basic information for making a sales proposal to this imaginary client below?

Potential Client

• Company name: Rice Cooker.
• Client contact name: John Smith
• Product target: housewives and newly married young women
• Advertising budget for 3 months: 50,000,000 VND.
• Goal: Want to sell more of their new rice cookers with steam heating in HCMC.

• More information: John Smith thinks that a good return on investment would be about 2%. He is interested to know what the CPM of the cooking magazine advertisement package. He is also interested in online opportunities. Their competition advertises a different rice cooker in Tien Tep Vao Dep. Mr. Smith’s friends tell him that Vao Dep is the most popular cooking magazine in Vietnam. Why should he advertise in Bep Gia Dinh?

Bep Gia Dinh information

• Created in 2003.
• Circulation of 45,000
• Frequency: every two weeks
• Readership is 180,000 people.
• Circulation is 70% in HCMC. 25% HN. 5% middle Vietnam.
• Cost of full page ad: 20,000,000 VND.
• Discount ads up to 50% (Bep Gia Dinh is relaunching, so gives a good discount the first 4 months after launch).
• Editorial content: Vietnamese and Western recipes, family cooking, children recipes, celebrity chefs, kitchen products, popular restaurants in HCMC and HN. Each section includes a space for “soft-advertising” or PR.
• Advertising positions: Standard with creative options for discussion. No cover advertising.
• GOAL: Get the Rice Cooker company to buy as much advertising as possible for as long as possible.

• More information: Recently, BGD was bought by Ringier, a Swiss publishing company. Ringier has many cooking magazines in the world. Ringier gave BGD a redesign. The new design and content is fresh and modern. Ringier doubled the number of pages of BGD from 24 to 44. In October, BGD will launch a new Website. In September, Ringier will launch a marketing campaign in HCMC and HN to promote the new magazine.

Some questions to think about:

1. How would you prepare a sales proposal for the Rice Cooker company?
2. How can you satisfy the client and BGD’s goal? Have fun and be creative.
3. What ads would you sell? How often?
4. How do you explain Bep Gia Dinh’s “unique selling points”?
5. How do you prevent the client to advertise in competitor magazine?
6. Where would the ads go?
7. How can you encourage the client to advertise for more than 4 months?
8. What special benefits can you give the client?

There are no right or wrong answers. Just be creative and do some media advertising research. We want to see how you can apply your sales experience to media advertising.

How well would you do? I dunno myself.