Jan 19, 2010

A World of Details

Top of mind for every editor should be serving one’s audience. But that’s sometimes easier said than done, especially in the area of custom publishing, where an editor needs to be sensitive about the appropriateness of content for an audience of consumers who are loyal to a brand. In my case, as executive editor of Four Seasons Magazine, I create print and digital content for guests of the luxury hotel and spa brand. Needless to say, they’re affluent, well educated and worldly. The worldly part is what makes things tricky.

I’ve been all over the world in my professional life, but as an editor based in the United States, my viewpoint tends to be oriented toward what’s happening in North America and Europe by sheer reason of proximity. And doing a good deal of my work out of New York, and working with writers and producers who are based there (and let’s face it, most are because the world’s publishing industry makes its home in the Big Apple and because it’s an exciting melting pot to which every person finds his or her way at some point or has close friends). But that viewpoint, while it may have served me well at other times in my career, needs to be moderated now that I am serving the needs of readers from every corner of the globe. That means when our team decides on the scope of an issue, we must consider differences such as language—we don’t want to serve up diction that’s too esoteric or literary for readers who speak several languages and English may not be their native tongue, cultural differences—no fashion that could be considered risqué if the magazine is going to countries where modesty is important and censorship may come into play, or even politics—where Westernized use of a country’s name can result in customs agents taking a Sharpie to the offending nomenclature.

In the end, what we aim for is content that mirrors the lifestyle and values of our readers and sparks a desire to know more about the vast world that has been made much smaller through the ease of travel and communication. So when potential contributors call inquiring about how we decide on stories, I ask them if they have a bit of time for a conversation. Inevitably, the call ends with the writer saying they had no idea how much thought went into the creation of content for the publication, since many thought it was our goal to just chat up what it’s like to stay at the Four Seasons in Cairo or the Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai. Our readers are too smart for that. Our aim is to provide content that surprises, inspires and, in some cases, provokes.

Posted By: Susan Weissman