Signature March/April 2015 - 10

readerswrite
IS SPONORED CONTENT
WORKING FOR ASSOCIATIONS?
Are AM&P associations having luck
with selling sponsored content in print
and/or online? How much control do
you give the sponsor over the content?
We just started offering this and so far
have sold three installments in three
months. The price point is a little bit
higher than a standard ad page because
of the additional work on our end. We
offer the option of two pages or four pages
with graphics, photos, etc.
Right now, we only have a PDF
replica of the magazine, not a true
digital edition. So at this point, we're
doing the online portion of it as a valueadd rather than charging more for it or
packaging it. We currently lead with
our print edition but will be doing a
redesign in a year, so our packaging and
pricing likely will change.
Jean Christofferson
Managing Editor
WorldatWork
Can't wait to see your redesign...Make sure to
send in the before-and-after for Signature's
Members Only department.
nnn

We give sponsors an opportunity to
provide a source - but we don't guarantee use of the source. (As a matter of practice, though, I can't think of a time when
we've cut the sponsor source from an
article.) We also set specific turnaround
times for review. They vary depending
on how much time we have to turn the
project around, but we typically try for
no more than 48 hours.
We give sponsors the opportunity
to review the article twice - once to
suggest changes and once to give them a
sense of comfort about how suggestions
were addressed. Again, practically speaking, if there's a lot of negotiation around
changes, and we have the time, I wouldn't
object to additional reviews.
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MARCH/APRIL 2016

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We do not specify how changes will be
handled if there's not agreement - except
to say that we have the final editorial discretion. That said, sponsors sometimes
have attorneys who insist on having final
review. This is especially important for
financial institutions, which have compliance issues. I understand that, and,
of course, I hope to get them back as a
sponsor, so I wouldn't want to do anything
that puts a sponsor in a bad position.
Stacey Moncrieff
Vice President, Business-to-Business
Communications
National Association of Realtors®
Sounds like you've struck a nice balance
between keeping control while still allowing
the sponsor some content liberties.

We have found this quite
successful. We create a fourpage feature (we write and design it) and
allow the advertiser up to one page of advertising inside the feature. We charge them
for three full-page ads at their frequency
rate, whatever that might be. We cover the
cost of writing and art. So we clear about
2.75 pages in revenue at whatever frequency
rate the advertiser has earned.
Rick Pullen
Editor in Chief, Leader's Edge
The Council of Insurance Agents &
Brokers
Thanks for sharing your formula for calculating the value of sponsored content.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Thank you for including the tribute to Mitch Mohanna in the Nov/Dec 2015
issue. It's amazing to see how many people he influenced and elevated over the
years. One was me! He was the first to promote Association Media & Publishing
to me and convinced me to attend my first conference. He truly cared about the
industry, the organization, and above all, people. I still have a note he wrote me
hanging in my office that I look at every day. He will be missed.
Seiche Sanders
Executive Editor and Associate Publisher, Quality Progress
ASQ
Check out the announcement on p. 46 of the Mitch Mohanna Lifetime Achievement
Award, which will be presented at the EXCEL Awards Gala in June.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signature March/April 2015