Use your editors to help develop winning marketing efforts.

Tom Tansey, marketing director at Mealey Publications, firmly believes in "utilizing your editorial resources to enhance your marketing efforts."

"Army vs. Navy. Gimbel's vs. Macy's. Some folks just aren't supposed to get along. In the publishing business, it's Marketers vs. Editors.

"Even in many of the best houses, there is an unstated, and equally unscalable, fire wall between the marketing and editorial departments. The former creates the 'product' while the latter promotes it ... and never the twain shall meet.

"The situation, where it exists," Tansey says, "overlooks an invaluable opportunity to increase the effectiveness of a publisher's subscription marketing efforts by integrating contributions from its editorial staff.

"Editorially driven marketing is a strategy that utilizes editorial input to create promotions that appeal directly to the specific interests of a target audience.

"It can result in marketing efforts that capture the attention and interest of potential subscribers by delivering a message packaged not in what the marketer wants to say, but in what the audience wants to know. At the same time, it highlights the inherent value of the newsletter or website being promoted.

"Editorially driven marketing also enables marketers to take advantage of breaking news, special reports or exclusive content as a means of adding timeliness and urgency to their promotional message.

Tansey suggests that publishers bring their editorial and marketing staffs together and discuss the following goals and initiatives:

* Capitalize on the marketing value of your editorial content. Attract the attention of your target audience, and establish the viability of your newsletter/report/website using promotions based on your information content.

* Utilize editorial content as a driver for marketing creative. Sell the "steak" instead of the "sizzle," using breaking news, special reports or exclusive stories as the primary focus of timely, relevant promotional pieces.

* Solicit input from editors when developing mailing lists. Get the most out of your in-house experts, using the input of your editorial staff to target overlooked or niche markets, which will enhance the overall effectiveness of your mailing lists.

* Achieve Editorial Department-Marketing Department synergy Can't we all just get along? Create an atmosphere of cooperation while maintaining autonomy and respecting boundaries.

* Whet the market's appetite without giving away the store. Determine how much to tell and how much to sell when including editorial content in promotional materials.