How to become a Trade Magazine Writer

By Gerry Forde
February, 2007

Trade magazines are niche magazines read by professionals in a specific business sector. Many associations also have their own trade magazines for members. Some examples of trade magazines are ABA Journal which is the American Bar Association's magazine for lawyers; American Salon, a magazine for salon owners, beauticians and product distributors; Glass magazine which is for the architectural glass industry; and Writer's Digest, a magazine about writing and publishing.

You can break into this market quickly by interviewing executives within the industry, writing about trends, discussing how a company solved a problem, reporting on promotions within companies, discussing emerging issues, profiles, Q&A interviews, technologies that will affect the industry, or developing articles that teach professionals how to run their company better.

The key to getting into trade magazines is to know the audience and tailor your article to them. Perhaps you used to work for a company that assisted small businesses in gaining government contracts. Every business can benefit from an article teaching them the ropes of government contracting, so which magazine do you target? Target them all! Do this by writing a specific article for each industry. This is how you can be clueless about the trade, but get into the trade magazine-by helping the business owners.

Business Requirements

Do not make the mistake of thinking that trade magazines have lower standards than mainstream publications like Cosmopolitan or People. Trade magazines don't have the staff and budget of the big hitters like Cosmo and for this reason writing for a trade can be challenging at first, since proper spelling, punctuation and capitalization are critical if you want your article to see print. While larger publications have many editors who check your work, trade magazines have less, but more technical needs you’ll need to get right. For example, to see if you know the business writing basics correctly by answer the following question.

Acme Company has just accepted your request to interview the vice president of the company. The interview goes well, but as you write the article, would you know when to spell out the word "company" in Acme Company and when to abbreviate it and use Co.?

Upon first mention in the article you would spell out the word "company" and every mention thereafter it can be abbreviated as "Co."

In trade and business writing you will often refer to company names many of which will be followed by the terms, company, corporation, incorporated, limited liability partnership, limited liability corporation, or limited. Remember, spell out the full company name when you first mention it in your article, and abbreviate after that. Other abbreviations include: Company Co. Corporation Corp. Incorporated Inc. Limited Liability Partnership LLP Limited Liability Corporation LLC Limited Ltd.

Also, with trade and business writing you will often use executive titles in articles. You may have noticed when reading business articles or letters that sometimes the title is capitalized and other times it is lower case. Only capitalize the business title if it is used before the person's name. For example, "Director of Marketing, John Appleton, commented it was very exciting to join an established like ABC Company."

If you write the executive's name first, the business title should follow in lower case. For example, "ABC Company appointed John Appleton as director of marketing." Either way your order it is correct, but for uniformity's sake select one order and stick with it.

As with the company name, it is also standard to spell out the employee's full title upon first mention and then abbreviate all further mentions.

Some common titles include: Chairman of the Board Chairman Chief Executive Officer CEO Chief Operating Office COO* Chief Financial Officer CFO President President Vice President Vice President Manager Partner Managing Partner (used in Britain)

*While the abbreviation for chief operation office could be COO, it is advised that you spell out the title, since most people are not familiar with it. Also notice that president, vice president and managing partners do not have abbreviations