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The Conference Board Review® Article
Openers
Closers
By A.J. Vogl
Several years ago, I came across a reference to something called the "false consensus effect," in which people think their own attitudes and preferences are more common than they really are. This effect has particular relevance to marketing, which may account for the number of new-product failures, but it has obvious implications at the editorial end as well.
I sometimes ask myself where I get off assuming I know what readers of The Conference Board Review want to read in the magazine. I answer that I've been editor for eighteen years, so I should know something about what goes down well (or not) with readers. But come to think about it, this is not much of an argument. If I made a bad judgment seventeen years ago, why is it any better for being repeated? My tastes may change; so, too, those of readers. Another article about reengineering? There may still be managers out there who find it illuminating, but I suspect that many more will turn the page without digging into the piece, no matter how good it is. And what about a subject like leadership? Is there anything fresh to be said about it? I know our readers say that leadership is a subject they can't get enough of. Am I to take them at their word?
To take them at their word, we in the editorial game — like those in other fields — often use surveys. But as you know, there are limits to surveys. Do the small percentage of respondents represent the larger universe? Do they really remember the article you're asking them about? Would they, heaven forbid, lie? After all, how many managers would declare themselves, even anonymously, to be indifferent to the subject of, say, reengineering?
Such ruminations are triggered by my impending retirement from the editorship of TCB Review (remembered affectionately by some of you by its longtime former name, Across the Board). Eighteen years is a long stretch at any job, no matter how agreeable one finds it. I am a curious guy. Finding out things I know little or nothing about is a pleasurable thing for me, and there was plenty of that, on a daily basis, at the magazine. Creating and maintaining a first-class staff was always a pleasure, despite the inevitable departures. Finding out how much readers liked the magazine (and not through surveys, I might add) was also a pleasure to be savored. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
In my place at the top of the masthead will be Matthew Budman, who has been named the magazine's acting editor. He has been with TCB Review since 1992 and managing editor for the last eleven years, so his learning curve will not be steep. He is knowledgeable, able to say no — as an editor should — and a wizard at making copy read better, for if not that, what's an editor for?
Besides writing columns like this.
Pages: [1]
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Return to the March/April 2008 The Conference Board Review® issue.
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