Mark Sterne, who is based in Chicago, is the founder and president of the Print & Marketing Solutions Group. He works with associations and other organizations to improve their marketing ROI and constituent engagement with effective print, fulfillment, digital publications and web-to-print solutions.

His focus is to help associations with printing, marketing and fulfillment for their books, magazines, meetings, membership recruitment, renewal and retention programs.  

In this episode, we talk about: 

• How to find the right balance between print and digital.
• The importance of knowing your specific audience and their wants. 
• Why some students and younger members like print products. 
• Ways to save costs on print products. 
• How print can help build community among members. 
• Benefits of using direct mail today. 
• Creative ways to use QR codes, which you can personalize and track. 
• Current status of paper availability and supply chain, after the shortage during the pandemic. 

Resources:

Mark’s email address

Contact Mark by phone: 847-498-9640

Recommend future Association Station guests, for season 3 in 2024, to Melanie melanie@meledits.com.

Check out Melanie’s other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today’s guest is Beth Rosenberg. Beth is the director of communications at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which is based in downtown DC. She primarily oversees the digital editorial content and social media channels.

Beth has worked at NBAA for 11 years and was previously a newspaper reporter, working at newspapers throughout the Northeast and with the Associated Press and trade publications. 

Beth walks us through how she takes a newsroom approach to planning and developing content for her association and also how she has this newsroom approach on-site at their annual events. She describes how she does it and why it’s helpful and what you should think about if you go this route. 

In this episode we talk about:

• How Beth manages the content demands as a director of communications. 
• How it’s helpful to host a weekly “enterprise” call with staff. 
• What excites her now about association communications.
• Why they switched from a weekly newsletter to a daily newsletter. 
• How they began to take a newsroom approach to covering content. 
• How they use that newsroom approach at their in-person events. 
• How they use their in-house TV studio at their events. 
• How they use “playbooks” at the events to keep track of their content. 

Resources:

• Beth on LinkedIn
• Beth’s email address
• National Business Aviation Association

Check out Melanie’s other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).

Today’s guest is Chris Durso. Chris lives in Arlington, Virginia, right outside Washington, DC. He is the editor-in-chief of Construction Executive magazine, which is published by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). He has more than 30 years of experience as an editor, writer, publications leader and content strategist across a variety of industries. 

In January/February 2023, Chris and his team at ABC debuted a redesigned and reimagined Construction Executive magazine, along with the new look of its accompanying newsletter. The magazine is published nine times a year and has a circulation of 50,000 — about half are members, the rest subscribers. With the flagship print magazine leading the content plan, they are now in the midst of redesigning the magazine website and boosting their social media strategy. 

In this episode, we talk about: 

• How they began the process of reimagining and redesigning their print magazine, along with a magazine website and newsletter. 
• How they chose a new outside design firm. 
• How this process differed from Chris’ previous experience with association magazine redesigns. 
• They debuted the new look via the magazine-associated newsletter, CE This Week, then debuted the new look of Construction Executive magazine. 
• What they changed about their newsletter. 
• After the magazine and newsletter redesign, they are now in the midst of redesigning the magazine website, www.constructionexec.com. 
• They increased their art budget to lean into the visual aspect of their industry. 
• The importance of taking the time to find the right vendor partners. 
•  Why it’s beneficial to look outside the association world for redesign inspiration. 

Resources:

• Construction Executive magazine
• Chris on LinkedIn
• Chris on Twitter

Check out Melanie’s other podcast for freelancers, consultants and solo business owners: Deliberate Freelancer (free on any podcast app).