When it comes to a publication, there are some costs that can clearly be accounted for such as printing and postage bills. However, there are many more hidden costs which need to be considered when producing a publication in-house.

Third Sector Services have posed a few questions that organisations should ask themselves in order to maximise the benefits their organisation’s publication.

Are staff members properly allocated?
In many instances it is the CEO that ends up dedicating a lot of his or her time to the magazine or newsletter. These people are usually well paid professionals with many competing priorities and goals to achieve on behalf of their organisation.

If publishing is not the CEO’s specialty, then a considerable amount of money could be wasted by paying them a professional salary to do something they are not a professional at. The same goes for a designer who ends up writing articles, or a writer who ends up selling ads. The cost of staff’s time spent working on the publication needs to be taken into account.

Is the staff’s time well-spent?
If the organisation’s best staff are dedicating a lot of their time to the publication, an assessment needs to be made on what they could otherwise be achieving with their time.

For example, the potential short-fall of having a talented marketing person pursuing companies for articles and relatively low-value ads instead of dedicating their time to seeking high-end sponsorship needs to be considered.

Is the publication living up to its potential?
Just as a contractor who buys a valuable piece of machinery then leaves it idle, or an investor who leaves money under their bed rather than in a fund are missing out on their potential earnings, so too are associations that have a good industry, great members and a publication which fails to live up to its potential.

Organisations distributing a publication to a few thousand members could be missing out on many thousands of dollars a year in revenue if advertising within the publication is not properly managed.

Additionally, if the publication is not presenting the best face for the organisation and not communicating information as effectively as possible, then the organisation is being sold short and the cost of that cannot be underestimated.