Budget Planning

Budget-planning season is a time for both reflection and projection. Looking back: Darkness. Looking forward: Well, there’s at least a dint of economic optimism in the air. So it’s time to hammer out a 2010 budget that balances aggressive cost management with much-needed investment in growth initiatives. Here are some resources to help you work through the process.

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2010 budgeting strategies for media companies
It’s time to take some bold steps with your business model. That means avoiding certain publishing traditions and embracing some new thinking.

How to choose the right eMedia initiatives for next year’s budget
The challenge of budget season is that there are inevitably more good ideas to pursue than we have time or resources to execute on. Here are six critical factors to consider when making tough investment choices.

A poor man’s guide to budget cuts
Many publishers are being asked to cut to the bone. But across-the-board cuts may actually accelerate a downward spiral. Here are a few tips for surviving the mandate to trim next year’s budget with an eye toward long-term growth.

Measuring the true profitability of online media
Too often, media executives manage to the top line instead of the bottom line. Expenses are "buried" in the print budget while online budgets look highly profitable because they contain no salaried headcount. Here are three more accurate and effective methods for tracking online profitability.

Budgeting for social media is a tricky - but critical - process
The best way to minimize the cost and disruption of investing in social media is to spread responsibility among existing staff, designate centers of expertise and adopt popular, off-the-shelf tools.

Open-source publishing tools to meet tight budgets
The open-source software movement has led to the development of solid publishing tools that are available for free or next to nothing to help with content management, design, and other digital publishing functions.

Media companies can find ways to feed digital media efforts
Don't be distracted by shiny objects – and other belt-tightening tips.

Outsourcing content: The editor as recruiter
Where does content come from in the new edit-light business model? Well, from just about anywhere. That’s why today’s editors must take on an expanded role as recruiter of outside (hopefully free) contributors.

New metrics and business models for digital publishing - selling outcomes not inputs?
With digital publishing models, too little attention is given to measuring the outcomes. Specifically, digital media and digital publishing offer greater opportunity to track and measure outcomes that are not so readily available in 'traditional' media.　 

Publishers are killing Web advertising’s potential with misguided pricing
The notion that the Web is some sort of new animal entirely has grown out of a variety of misconceptions that have worked to radically slow the eventual migration of ever-larger advertising budgets online. Former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller offers a way to dig out of that hole.

Setting a budget for your next-generation website
A Folio survey revealed that more than half of the magazine-industry professionals surveyed cited "too little investment" as the most common (and costliest) mistake during the planning stage of a digital product. But how much is too little?

The secret of successful scenario planning
By better evaluating different possible outcomes, their probabilities and their underlying drivers, you can greatly improve your company's ability to see around corners and prepare for the future.

Defending the editorial budget (1991 edition)
Just for fun, check out this piece of nostalgia from the Folio archives on steps editors can take to counter cost-cutting pressures. If they only knew …