Short-Term Duty, Long-Term Gain

The freelance editor of a bimonthly magazine published by a longtime association client of Coulter Nonprofit Management announced her resignation after more than 10 years on the job. Once she completed the next issue, the magazine would be without editorial direction.

The Challenge: The freelance editor of a bimonthly magazine published by a longtime association client of Coulter Nonprofit Management announced her resignation after more than 10 years on the job. Once she completed the next issue, the magazine would be without editorial direction.

Coulter Strategy & Innovation’s Response: While the association’s board of directors and staff issued a request for proposals and began screening prospective editorial directors, Coulter Strategy & Innovation stepped forward to provide interim turnkey editorial management of the magazine—at the same rate the previous freelance editor charged. Coulter Strategy & Innovation staff are themselves longstanding members of the association, which serves association publishing professionals. This helped us to quickly and decisively put together an engaging, authoritative issue of the magazine that included a provocative cover story on the alleged “death” of print. Just as important, we created and held the magazine to a rigorous production schedule, sending the issue to the printer a day earlier than planned—a far cry from the chronic lateness the publication suffered under the previous editor.

The Result: The association’s staff was thrilled with Coulter Strategy & Innovation’s thoughtful editorial content—especially the cover treatment—as well as our hard-line production management. The board was also pleased with both the quality of the issue and the smooth transition to the association’s new editorial director that our interim services helped facilitate.