Please don’t confuse the features editor at a magazine or an online site with the news editor.
News editors have to fill the space every day or week and they value speed, topicality and reliability/trust of the source of the material.
Features editors have publishers demanding a good feature be produced so that they can attract advertisers. The features editor is under pressure to make the supplement/feature as good as possible.
A good feature to my mind is one that scoops up the current issues and projects forward ideas/statistics/viewpoints on how these issues will affect that sector.
It is not about being the next big thing, rather a forward-looking idea that captures the editor’s attention and they can then imagine how it would bolster the feature.
You don’t see much space given to fads or nut-case ideas in financial services features. But an idea that challenges the current orthodoxy might get a run if it reflects a valid point/direction for the industry. Smaller players can get a share of a feature by playing in this space.
We stay close to features editors and try and talk with them a few weeks ahead of their commissioning of articles. We don’t interfere nor bombard them with product releases…. we simply seek to assist where possible with topics, strategies that are looking forward in their focus so that they might appeal to these editors.
Philippa Yelland, who works with this, has been an editor and features editor over the years and she now seeks to produce material that features editors will hold on to and review as they are planning a feature.
I asked Philippa for the short list of what makes a tasty/topical theme to offer features editors. Here’s her list:
- Stay in the word limit and deliver copy early to build good trust and rapport with the editor
- Statistics, statistics, statistics – tables – charts – editors never tire of numbers and standout graphics that explain trends
- A world expert is nice to have. If you haven’t developed an understanding by that magazine/editor as to the capabilities of your global guru, then it’s very hard to create interest at the last minute
- Proactively suggest topics, or email ‘tasty’ ideas to features editors. See our Financial Services IssuesRoom for some of the big-things we see coming over the horizon.
- Photos/illustrations. Tony Abbott doesn’t have a monopoly on knowing that ‘sex’ sells. Get some stand-out photos done of your talent: ‘selfies’ done in front of a bar fridge just do not cut it.
It’s certainly worth the fight to get space inside a feature with a well-respected magazine to your sector. It is very different from getting a product oriented point into a daily news feed and your mindset has to be different from the daily news grind.
Quite often, you can get repeat business with features editors if you have delivered good material ahead of schedule to them. As important to me as that nice piece of coverage required is in a feature I get a bigger buzz when that editor calls back for assistance with another feature often in a different area.
Chris Hocking, founder and director of Chris Hocking Strategies: SMSF and financial services public relations. Sydney based with clients nationwide.