The Magazinist
Critical Thinking for Publishers
Key Performance Metrics
"What are your goals?  How will you know you've reached them?"  These are two of the most important questions any publisher can ask a manager. 

The following list includes performance metrics that help measure progress in critical areas.  There are others, of course... but this is a pretty comprehensive collection.

Some metrics are more important than others.  We think that the top three might be:

1) Renewal percentage
2) Average revenue per page
3) Productivity (Revenue divided by FTEs)

What are your thoughts?

Click here for a comprehensive list of magazine metrics, a sample worksheet showing calculations, and a copy of our presentation on the subject at the Publishing Business Conference in March, 2009.