Editing articles for multiple audience segments
This article was originally published on the ACES website on April 24, 2023. Read the original.
Special challenges come with editing for an organization or client with several different audience segments. It’s common in associations and the nonprofit world to have content streams for subject matter experts, legislative advocates, technicians, the general public and more. You’ll need to make adjustments in what you look for as an editor, depending on who the reader is for a given piece of content.
Here are some tips for doing substantive editing for multiple content streams:
Use appropriate terminology.
At the green building nonprofit where I work, a large segment of our audience is composed of professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction field. Climate activists and sustainability advocates constitute another segment. Both groups are extremely familiar with the language of green building and climate change mitigation.
However, other content is created specifically for target audiences such as emerging professionals, schoolteachers, local volunteers or the general public. These readers might stumble over excessive jargon or initialisms that are not spelled out on first reference. Editors are used to spelling out on first reference, per many stylebooks and in-house guides, but it’s not always appropriate.