Producing Emphasis magazine
"Capital B Media is instrumental in helping us communicate effectively with our members and stakeholders. We rely on them as our outsourced media team and to produce our member magazine and other publications. They never fail to deliver and genuinely care about what we are trying to achieve as a charity."
Shaun Clayton, director of membership support, the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA UK)
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the brief
Capital B Media is retained by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA UK) to produce its member magazine. ‘Emphasis’ is an A4 52-page publication published four times a year.
4800 copies of the magazine are printed each quarter, mailed to the 4500 members of PHA UK and six specialist treatment centres. It is also available to read online.
PHA UK is a national charity which supports people affected by pulmonary hypertension and works to raise awareness of the disease. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare life-limiting condition, affecting just 7,000 people in the UK.
The primary objectives of the publication are to: provide a ‘value for money’ channel to communicate with members; promote hope and positivity amongst members via uplifting content; support members to live well with PH by providing information on issues that affect them; reduce feelings of isolation connected to having such a rare disease, and reflect a consumer magazine in terms of visual impact and design.
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the action
Every issue, we work closely with patients, members of the PHA UK team and medical professionals to ensure the content is relevant, engaging and accurate.
We work in conjunction with a design and branding specialist to ensure the magazine appeals visually to its readers.
Strong use of colour and fresh, varied design is reflective of modern consumer magazines, and as PH patients are used to generic printed NHS communications, it’s important for Emphasis to be visually engaging.
Content is planned to provide a balance of news, expert features and positive first-person reader experiences. PHA UK membership is made up of people aged between ten and 80, male and female, who live all over the country - so it’s important that the content appeals to all in this readership range.
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the outcome
Feedback on Emphasis is consistently positive. Every quarter, when an issue is published, we invite comment via the charity’s social media accounts. Two members of Capital B Media staff travelled to the PHA UK Patient Conference in Oxford to seek feedback from members face-to-face, using specially created feedback forms.
Feedback from PH patients:
“I was given previous copies of Emphasis to show me the diagnosis wasn't all doom and gloom. After reading the copies I felt more hopeful. It makes me feel like I'm not alone.”
“Full of information and wonderful inspiring stories…congratulations to the editorial team, it’s up there amongst the best!”
Engagement with readers has increased issue by issue, measured by the volume of letters, emails and social media posts received from readers keen to share their stories with the magazine.
Emphasis magazine has twice been crowned ‘Best Publication’ at the 2017 and 2019 CIPR PRide Awards.
