Editor's note: Read part one of this article in the January/February 2011 issue of Signature or access the digital version online.
By Constance Hardesty
Stranded. Stuck on the print side of the Great Divide. All the fun stuff is going on Over There, where the video, audio, interactive party is going on.
That's where I was six months ago. I could throw a big party Over There. I could point my readers to it. But I couldn't take them there.
And now?
Load up the car, we're going to the party!
The April 2011 issue of Trends magazine featured QR codes in both editorial and ad spaces. The cover art spoofed a classic painting; a code on the masthead page displayed the original. The issue also carried a false cover with a code that linked readers to a promotional video.
How did we get from dead-end to full speed ahead?
Sprinting into the Wall
In the January/February 2011 issue of Signature, I described my first attempt to use QR codes in Trends magazine, published by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA). I used the codes to link readers to enhanced content and to demonstrate that Trends magazine is ahead of its competitors in helping advertisers extend their reach.
I gave it a couple of shots. Then I reached a dead-end.
Readers didn't get it, and neither did the Trends team. Our designers didn't know how to test the codes, the ad sales team didn't know how to sell them, executives couldn't care less. Everyone understood the concept, but no one cared. Except me.
It's a perfect example of a leader getting excited about a new technology and plunging ahead without taking the time to lay the groundwork, get buy-in from association executives, educate and motivate the team, write a creative brief, and allocate budget.
Plunging ahead is a quick way to get up and running with a new initiative or technology: Square it with your mission, develop strategy/tactics, conduct a pilot, measure results. Decide: Abandon or go forward? To go forward, close the gaps, test, launch, and scale up fast.
In software development, this approach is called a sprint. It's a quick-start alternative to the traditional, painstaking "get it perfect before you launch” process. A sprint works if your strategy is sound. My strategy—to extend the print magazine's reach for both readers and advertisers—was sound. The pilot revealed gaps in leadership and operations.
Operations was easy to fix: I bought an iPhone so I could test the codes. Leadership needs were tough: Build excitement for QR codes among association executives and the Trends team. I did that by talking about the possibilities, displaying an ever-changing array of QR codes on a wall near my office, and calling attention to QR codes in airports, movie theaters, stores, and so on, so that people would begin to notice them as they went about their daily business. When people began to tell me about the QR codes they had spotted during their daily lives, I knew we were at the place we could relaunch.
Time was my ally. In the past two years (since the first issue with QR codes went into layout), QR codes have moved ever more into the mainstream. You see them in everything from consumer magazines to menus. Mobile devices, including phones and tablets, have become ubiquitous. About 8 percent of visitors to Trends Today (the website for Trends magazine) are using mobile devices.
Getting Readers on Board
Months after the first QR code published, I received a letter from a reader who had used it and loved it. Of course, I published the letter in the magazine.
Exchanges on the Association Media & Publishing listserv helped me improve the reader experience. Someone asked: Do your QR codes link to web pages formatted for mobile?
Well, sort of. I got lucky with the April cover image: The image I linked to on Wikipedia fills the phone's screen perfectly. I got lucky with Trends Today, too. Its "column width” for articles is the perfect width for reading on a phone turned landscape.
Frankly, I hadn't thought about the display. Now I have a rule: QR codes must link directly to an online article, never to the Trends Today home page. It's what I did intuitively, but now that constraint is worked into the process. This is a good example of how the iterative "sprint” process works. Everything needn't be justified and codified before you launch; as you go, you'll discover what you're doing right and codify it.
Another question on the listserv concerned how I educate readers and measure their use of the codes. The answer: minimally.
In 2010, I ran a full-page explanation of QR codes: what they are, how they work, instructions for downloading the reader. It created the impression that using the code was difficult. Now, I've dropped all the background info and even the instructions. I expect my readers to know what the codes are and how they work.
In the April 2011 issue of Trends, I included a sentence: See VanGogh's original The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, here: (QR code inserted here). As it turns out, that's a little too sketchy. In the future, I'll place QR codes within a "picture frame” of pale blue, with the pointer above (See Van Gogh's…) above and the tip (Get the free apphere).
What about reader adoption? It's too soon to measure. I'll use both QR codes and short URLs for the next time, then ask readers to grade both for usefulness.
Full Speed, On the Fly
Leadership, timing, luck, an opportunistic approach and iterative process that lets me expand, apply and improve on the fly: That's how we went from "dead end” to on the road again. I know. Even to my ears, that sounds haphazard. What we want is a process that can be duplicated with certain results.
On the other hand, as journalists we know that there's really no such thing as luck and timing – they are what you make of them. How often does an article, or an issue of a magazine, or online enhancements take a direction you didn't intend? How often do you tweak on the fly? Month after month, how much do you rely on judgment, combining mission with opportunism? Journalism itself is a sprint.
Reporting is discovery; so is publishing. As I consider the future of QR codes in Trends, I will rely on strategy and opportunism and the capacity for journalism itself to flex. This may mean taking advantage of QR codes' other uses: displaying a brief message, sending a text message, or sharing a virtual business card – in addition to connecting readers to the web.
Regardless of their variety of uses, QR codes are just one tool for connecting print-bound readers to online resources. Certainly they will serve readers like me, who read the print copy -- with smart phone in hand. For other readers, Web addresses or URLs get the job done. Short URLs (generated using bitly or tinyurl) serve readers who peruse the hard copy with a laptop nearby.
Even for readers with phones, short URLs may be the way to go. Anecdotal evidence indicates that college students using smart phones would rather key a URL than use a QR code. (This anecdote comes from the chat transcript recorded during a webinar for IT professionals on college campuses, sponsored by EDUCAUSE.)
For all their shortcomings (see sidebar), the use of QR codes is the only method I have to connect print-bound readers to online resources. Based on members' vehement protests last time the association converted a print publication to online only, I anticipate that Trends will remain in print for the next five years, even as tablets gain traction.
Meanwhile, I am ramping up the Next Big Thing: a digital edition for tablets. Because my audience—veterinarians and their staff—is quickly adopting tablets for professional use (updating medical records, etc.), I expect growing demand for this version of Trends. The digital edition will have no use for QR codes, of course.
It's a thicket to be sure, but strategy provides a clear path: Whatever the tool, whatever the Next Big Sprint, all of my efforts will be directed at this: to connect Trends readers to the information, tools, organizations, and people they need to build their businesses and provide better health care to pets.
Constance Hardesty is editor in chief of the American Animal Hospital Association and blogs at Editorial Strategy and Management.
