Editorially Yours


Michele

Michele Pesula Kuegler is the founder of PeKu Publications and chief foodie at Think Tasty. She runs this one-woman show focusing on creating new recipes to delight her family, friends, and herself.


Version Y- Questions & Answers

by Michele Pesula Kuegler on November 10th, 2014

PeKu Twitter profile pic 400x400We are now one week into our female-focused orientation at PeKu. Thankfully, the transition has gone well for the team.  Our writers are producing terrific articles for their new assignments (as well as their pre-change ones). Our editor has mastered the new editorial calendar and all of its intricacies.  Our marketing team is busily promoting PeKu (and Peku the penguin) to our audience. And of course, our engineering and design team has all of PeKu looking great!

With everything going smoothly, I am excited to write about this change and answer questions as promised last week.

Q: Why did PeKu decide to focus on the female audience?

A: I look at the stats for PeKu all of the time.  In September, I was reviewing our numbers, which were still solid, but I did notice a trend. The publications with the biggest numbers and the most interaction were the sites that were the most female-centric.  I thought about it- I could keep building 21 good publications, or I could pivot and build 12 fantastic publications.  It truly felt like a lightbulb moment to me.

Q: What do you envision changing in the coming months?

A: I plan to spend a decent amount of time refining the editorial calendar. Instead of trying to be a little bit of something for everybody, I now will plan on making a calendar that is focused on an audience half that size. I also look forward to creating article series that run over several weeks and among a handful of our publications. I also hope to create more engagement with our audience.

Q: What was the best thing about this change?

A: I was able to brainstorm and envision a whole new PeKu.  It was great to expand my mind and consider all different things that PeKu could be and how we would get to that point.

Q: What was the worst thing about this change?

A: Letting team members go.  In the past I have had to remove team members, but those were due to issues. This time I simply had to let people go because there wasn’t as much work.  Although we work remotely, I feel like I know a good portion of my team, and it was hard to say goodbye.

Q: What will happen to the 9 dormant sites?

A: For now they’re just hanging out. All of their material is available for reading and viewing.  My writers spent time and effort to create excellent content.  It seems only right that for now their work stays where it can be seen.


Michele



Leave a Reply

Inspire. Inform. Engage.