Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Magazine Group is excited to launch Engage—a monthly e-newsletter for association publishers and leaders.

Why Engage? Because custom publishing and branded content are the fastest growing segments in media. There's a lot of buzz around these topics in the corporate world, yet association execs are the real innovators in the advent of branded content. Associations have always used their magazines and interactive initiatives to educate, not sell. Corporations are fast getting into the loyalty-through-thought leadership game, with a growing number of marketing dollars allocated to content, not sales pitches. Both associations and corporations want their brands to be recognized as leaders. And each can learn from the other.

So who's wagging the tail? You'd think associations, because they're the ones with missions to educate and bring in revenue to educate some more. But, let's face it: Big companies have more marketing/publishing dollars than nonprofits do. And with all that money comes more opportunity for innovation. Some corporate marketers are headed off a cliff while others are on to something. The future will tell who is brilliant and who is not.

We are publishing Engage to educate association executives, publishers and editors on what companies and associations are doing in the field of branded content. We hope it will inspire you to take leading (not bleeding) edge chances and create more ways to educate and increase your member/donor/advertising base. If you get even one idea a year, we'd like to think Engage is worth reading.

Best,
Jane Ottenberg
President