Business Xpansion Journal

XpansionLab, a dot-com in the economic development industry, purchased two ED titles and were attempting to produce the magazine by dividing various duties among three of its executives. During my initial discussions and meetings with the company, while they were looking for an executive editor, it became apparent that the company needed an experience magazine professional to direct all of the operations of their two new titles, and I was hired in this capacity.

Unfortunately, XLab had purchased two ED industry pariahs, U.S. Sites and Development and Corporate Expansion Journal. It was repositioning the two titles as Business Xpansion Journal (a monthly) and Corporate Xpansion (a quarterly), respectively, with the aim of making them the premier titles in their industry.

This was accomplished by providing high-quality, ethical editorial (historically not a hallmark of economic development magazines); high-quality design, art and illustrations; a professionally built Web site; and on-time publication.

My responsibilities included:

*Complete responsibility for all areas of the magazine's operations, excluding sales.
*Hiring and directing a managing editor and various contributors and freelancers.
*Working with the editorial and sales departments to develop an annual editorial calendar.
*Managing internal database and circulation functions and lead fulfillment program.
*Developing print and online sales and marketing materials for the sales staff.
*Writing and editing editorial.
*Working with XLab's CFO to develop budgets, determine expenses and keep the magazine on track.

My accomplishments included:

*Repositioning the magazine's editorial to better reflect the magazine's readership.
*Implementing a traffic coordination system among editorial, sales and art which kept the magazine on a timely publishing schedule.
*Providing the magazine with accurate budgets, including realistic manufacturing and overhead breakouts.
*Improving circulation lists to provide more attractive readership and BPA audit to advertisers.
*Developing the publication's Web site, complete with online media kit.
*Developing a unique, online lead-delivery program for advertisers.