EDITORIAL, CUSTOMER SERVICE AND MEMBERSHIP
Editor
Debbie Carter – debbie.carter@trainingjournal.com
Contact me about writing for the TJ website: blogs, news, podcast and video content, and social media.
Advertising
Dominic Risolino – Dominic.Risolino@totalpolitics.com
0044 207 593 5534
Contact me about commercial opportunities: webinars, white papers, content marketing, display ads and more.
Customer service helpdesk
customer.service@totalpolitics.com
A GUIDE TO WRITING FOR TJ
TJ is a website dedicated to supporting all those involved in workplace learning. That group of people has expanded dramatically over the past 5-10 years as learning is delivered in a variety of ways by a growing number of people. With this change in mind TJ will not be producing a traditional editorial features list for 2023 but supply guidance on some of the topics that learning and development specialists, leaders and managers along with some learners would find useful.
What areas do we cover?
TJ’s editorial covers three broad areas: communication, learning theory & practice and understanding business and organisations. These three reflect the key skills of successful learning and development practitioners.
1. Understanding business and organisations
Requires practitioners to have good understanding of their industry, their own organisation and the competition to the organisation. This also is part of the horizon-scanning / problem solving that many L&D people see as part of their role in supporting leaders in the organisation.
2. Communication skills
Without great communication skills L&D practitioners are not going to be able to connect with leaders, managers and employees to find out what their organisations needs to fulfil their goals. Often acting as internal consultants they work across departments to ensure change is implemented and new practices embedded.
3. Learning theory and practice
Understanding how people learn, and increasingly how learning is delivered is the final cornerstone of our editorial. Keeping readers abreast of new ideas, techniques and ways of delivering learning is a vital part of the learning practitioner’s role.
Topics currently being featured include: the future of work; talent, skills & apprenticeships; leadership & management; change; diversity, inclusion & equality; coaching & mentoring; technology’s role in learning; wellbeing & mental health and creativity & innovation.
What do we look for in a submission?
All submissions will be judged against the following criteria:
• Is it exclusive? (Will it be / has it been published elsewhere? If so, we will not accept it)
• Is it targeted at our audience’s needs and interests?
• Does it provide market information, analysis or explanations that will interest and inform our readers, helping them in their working lives?
What areas do we cover?
We are always looking for topical opinion pieces and features for the website to supplement our news and regular bloggers. TJ uses short, focussed pieces from subject matter experts, with word counts ranging from around 500 – 750 for a blog and 800 – 1000 for a feature/opinion piece.
Those considering submitting an article should run their ideas past editorial staff by submitting short outlines of their proposed contributions.
Some dos and don’ts
Do:
• Link to studies if you cite them. Any statistics (and analysis of them) or research data that isn’t backed up by the original source will be deleted
• Ensure all links to reports, research and so forth must be open – we cannot use references that requires the reader to provide their details before accessing the report. Opportunities for lead generation is available from our sales department – see above
• Write in the third person – first person can come across as too promotional and not independent.
• Include author credits at the end of articles in the format: [Name] job title] [organisation]. We can also link to a website landing page. Pieces must be attributed to specific author/s (The only exception is Sponsored Content)
• Write in clear English without excessive use of technical jargon or ‘business speak’
• Submit all copy as open Word documents not PDFs.
Don’t:
• Write directly about author’s own work however there can be links to case studies that illustrate a broader point. (TJ is keen to share with readers our contributors’ expertise and experience in relevant fields, but this rule – aimed mainly at PR firms – helps minimise the submissions in which private businesses write in uncritical and self-serving terms about their own products and services.)
• Send pictures or logos unless requested by editorial staff.
We welcome ideas for TJ please send a short synopsis to debbie.carter@trainingjournal.com
Publisher
Total Politics Ltd
Registered in England and Wales under Company number 07291783.
