Revving Up Readership

Communicate to flippers and skimmers with speedbars

by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.

Editors and communicators are constantly concerned with reaching flippers and skimmers — those audience members who look at our pieces, but don't necessarily read them.

Family Practice Management magazine has come up with a great solution to that problem: Speedbars. Speedbars are running summaries of key ideas, highlights and to-do's in the scholar's margins of the publication.

So even if a doctor doesn't read the entire four-page article on, say, "Documenting High-Risk Cases to Avoid Malpractice Liability," he or she can still find out that a common problem in colon cancer suits is when doctors don't follow through on tests they recommend to patients.

Speedbars are a great way to get the word out to tired, busy, distracted readers who, more often than not, don't read all of the text. "Speedbars" is a registered trademark of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the publisher of Family Practice Management.

For a sample copy of Family Practice Management, call 800-274-2237.

Need more techniques for creating a structure that makes your copy easier to read and write? Check out Ann's workshops and learning tools.

About the author

Ann Wylie runs a company called Wylie Communications Inc. Ann works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. To learn more about her training, consulting or writing and editing services, call Ann at 816/997-8753 or e-mail her at ann@wyliecomm.com. Get a FREE subscription to Ann's e-mail newsletter at http://www.wyliecomm.com/newsletter_signup.shtml.

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