Episode #9:

Digital magazines offer a unique opportunity for editorial teams to reach a wider audience than ever before. But finding success with a digital magazine requires careful planning and thoughtful execution. So how can editorial teams find digital success? 

In this episode of The Craft podcast, our host Rachel Westbury welcomes Matt McGregor, Director of Content at Shorthand, and Thomasin Sleigh, Senior Editor at Shorthand. 

They discuss the differences between print and digital content, how to build a content strategy that takes both formats into account, and the importance of putting your audience first — from content design, to user experience, and everything in between.

They also dive into the challenges and opportunities that editorial teams face, and share their advice on managing all aspects of a digital magazine. 

How to listen:

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts
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• Watch on Youtube

Guest names: Matt McGregor and Thomasin Sleigh

What they do: Matt is the Director of Content at Shorthand, and Thomasin is a Senior Editor at Shorthand.

Company: Shorthand

Noteworthy: Matt used to manage a small nonprofit that worked in copyright, and he dealt with different aspects of the publishing industry. Thomasin's background is in arts, and she has worked in galleries and communication roles.

Where to find them: Matt's LinkedIn | Thomasin’s website 

• Kei roto i ō tātou toto: It’s in our blood — digital feature using the tool tip integration by Stuff NZ
• Stuff NZ Shorthand case study 
• How Shorthand has revolutionised The University of Queensland's online storytelling
• Shorthand on LinkedIn

A blog and a digital magazine aren’t the same thing

Matt explains, “The reason I'm interested in magazines from a content strategy point of view is that they're a nice antithesis to the blog. The blog is this category — this container of content that's very nebulous and that a lot of companies just throw all their stuff into — and often, there isn't a strategy to that, whereas magazines are more coherent.”

Thomasin adds, “I think there is definitely a hierarchy, as Matt said, between a blog and a magazine and to capture something in a discrete entity like a magazine is also a statement of editorial intent. So, to Matt's point, it implies an editorial oversight and rigour to that work in a way that a blog doesn't.”

User experience is key to a successful digital magazine

Matt says, “People turn to and rely on print because the digital experience is so terrible a lot of the time. And I think a lot of people who have grown up using and creating content for the web have a lot of bad habits and often treat their reader really poorly and don't respect the attention of their reader, which makes for a terrible experience. And why some of us feel drained and wasted after a long experience on the web — it's because you're flicking around and getting interrupted all the time.”

Digital allows readers to easily search and access archives

Thomasin explains, “Digital obviously lends itself to breaking news, stuff that needs to be consumed or read and watched kind of immediately. I was also thinking about how great digital is at archival, at background material, or the archival material that magazines and institutions might hold — just because it's so much easier to search, it's so much easier to access. 

“For example, when you have a lot of subscriptions to some of the big magazines, you have access to all of the archives. What a dream! You can just search these archives in a keyword, and it's just so different from going into a library or an archive and ordering them up. It's a total game changer for the way society accesses that information.”

On approaching legacy magazine projects

Matt says, “If you're starting a magazine or you're inheriting a legacy magazine that you're looking to keep going, you need to think hard about what that narrative is about and how this thing fits into the broader strategy of your organisation. 

“You need to know how it benefits your organisation. And that's true whether it's a company, a nonprofit, or a university. Every digital magazine, at some point in its life, is going to have those questions asked of it, and you need to have a really good answer.”