Strategy - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 15:46 - 0 Comments

Magazine Mission Statements

Mission Critical

Would you ever drive your car with a bag over your head? If you did, it sure would be a challenging ride. You would get lost. You may veer off of the road or cross the yellow lines into someone else’s territory. We all know this would be a very bad idea. This dangerous driving scenario comes to mind as we deal with an ongoing problem seen and over again working in the publishing industry: Why are so many magazines being published “in the dark” without a mission statement? It’s just like driving with a bag over your head.

In our work we see many editorial teams struggle with this. They either don’t have a mission statement or don’t see the importance of having one. Some have a mission statement that communicates nothing about why they publish or how their magazine is different from all the others.
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