It’s been a busy couple of months since my last Editor’s Notes.
Since the start of the year I’ve given a lot of thought to the evolution of Portfolio North, thinking about what we have come to stand for and our ‘why’. Following the growth of the publication, it was important for me to gain a hold on the impact we could have, what our goals are and how to eloquently depict our ethos to our audience and growing team. This is why, along with my trusted brand consultancy partner We Are Ken, we developed our brand guidelines and carefully considered our key pillars.
Our purpose always was and still is ‘to celebrate North East business’ – but we had to dig a little deeper. Credibility, relevance, readability, sustainability and aspiration. That sums up Portfolio North in five words. The five words that showcase our values, our mission and who we stand for. We want to be different, provide a solution to our partners and advertisers and create a great publication for our readers.
My priority is to ensure that Portfolio North is a trustworthy, expert and first-choice source of news, thought leadership and features – all of which are delivered with authority. That means our independently written articles are well-researched and considered, sharing topics and news updates on important matters which impact our region.
As a publisher of both print and online content, it’s important for us to run our business ethically and responsibility, with sustainability at our core. We choose to carbon offset our printing, and use paper which is certified to be from sustainable European sources created with a system which reduces environmental impact. We don’t waste a single copy, strategically targeting our demographic and carefully planning our distribution to avoid unnecessary carbon emissions. The magazine is recyclable when the cover is removed, too.
We also strive to understand our audience and create interesting, educational, timely and relevant articles for our readers. We develop a detailed understanding of our readers via digital data, perception surveys and analysing our distribution list. We are confident in our reader’s intelligence and understanding of topics such as the local business landscape and politics, which is why we publish thought leadership articles which share perspectives and commentary on such topics.
Our ‘readability’ is key, and this pillar covers everything from the content to design, ensuring that our content is engaging, our headlines are clear and intriguing, our print layout is clean and our website is well structured. This will also cover our new app when launched, ensuring that each element of our
communications has good ‘readability’.
Circling back to our understanding of our readers – we know that our readers are accomplished, ambitious and aspirational. Our content feeds that, we share inspirational success stories from businesses, luxury lifestyle articles, investment opportunities and beautiful homes. We know that our readers are professionals – 88% being management level and above. The age of our readers generally sits between 23-45 indicating that our readers have career longevity and opportunity for long-term relationships ahead.
Other facts we know about our readers include geographical location – and we know that we cover the entire North East region. We also know the size of the organisations they work for, in which industries, what their preferred platform is for consumption and what sources of news they like. I find it all so interesting and important to analyse this regularly to ensure we’re delivering the best magazine possible for everyone with an interest.
All of the above have played a key part in our new brand profile and new media pack which will be launched alongside this new edition. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been working on.
As well as the above we have also launched the Portfolio North Newcastle Business Lunch and the Portfolio North Tees Valley Property Lunch. Our Newcastle event will be held at Jesmond Dene House in partnership with JAM Prints and Marketing, Jesmond Dene House and SDDE Smith Group, while our Tees Valley Event will be held at Acklam Hall and include a dinner catered for by Tomahawk Steakhouse with sponsors Bradley Hall, Kirtley Co. and SDDE Smith Group. The events will include speakers from SDDE Smith Group, Bradley Hall and Mayor Ben Houchen.
The success of the ticket sales for these events has spurred me on to create more events across the region, so keep an eye out for updates on future events and how to sign up to hear more.
Another important milestone over the last couple of months has been welcoming our new content and marketing executive, Anna Robinson, to the team – and I’m looking forward to growing the team further this year as demand for our services continues to grow.
And last but not least, our news app has been in development and is now testing. We’re looking forward to launching that in the next few weeks. The app will include exclusive content and provide an even more mobile friendly platform to read our news.
Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoy Issue 21.
