American Institute of Physics by the numbers
Introduction
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a cornerstone of the physical sciences sector and in 2031 it will celebrate its centenary. But as the organization looked forward to this milestone anniversary, it knew it was time to reappraise its mission and make sure it was poised to prosper for another hundred years.
Renewed strategic vision
AIP has been working with consultancy Mod Op for more than five years, and the initial result of this collaboration was a redefined strategic framework that articulates its aspirations as both a federation and an institute.
The strategy positions AIP as a vibrant federation that advances the success of its 10 member societies and 12 affiliates. As an institute, it’s a center of excellence that promotes the physical sciences through research and analysis.
Underpinning its work as both a federation and an institution, AIP’s vision is to be a trusted and reliable source of information and analysis. It also wants to be recognized for cultivating an effective, talented, diverse and engaged staff that delivers excellence to its stakeholders.
To deliver on these strategic goals, AIP needed to complete in-depth market and competitor analysis. It needed to define its target audiences, understand their needs, map their user journeys and identify how they could be simplified and enriched.
Mod Op worked with AIP to carry out this work. Once complete, it was clear that delivering the organization’s strategic objectives would require an overhaul of its content management and delivery capabilities. And after an extensive market search, Mod Op recommended that AIP re-platform onto Brightspot’s content management system (CMS). Following a thorough discovery and planning phase, the Mod Op and Brightspot delivery teams partnered closely to bring the new experience to life in mid 2023.
As a federation, AIP helps its member societies and affiliated organizations leverage their diverse expertise and activities to advance research in the physical sciences. It also helps them enhance the contribution they make to education, society and the economy.
As an institute, AIP publishes a wide range of specialist magazines and research. It runs a diverse mix of historical and student programs to support the physical sciences sector.
Content challenges
AIP and its AIP Publishing arm has a stable of more than 30 specialist publications. It also manages lots of shared services for its members—marketing and communications, for example—and publishes a wide array of research and academic papers.
The previous content strategy was splintered and scattered across AIP’s diverse range of outputs. There was no consistency in the technology used to create and publish content, or in its distribution processes. Nor was there a content leadership team in place to oversee the content function at an enterprise level.
As a result, AIP’s content was siloed and lacked consistency both in its branding and its style. Each editorial group operated to individual governance standards and targeted their own audience, while cross marketing and promotion was a rarity.
In short, AIP’s expert content was not packing the punch it should.
Content solutions
Brightspot’s ability to offer a range of set formats and templates was important in establishing clear and immediate guide rails. This enabled AIP’s disparate and varied editorial teams to publish with consistency as well as greater efficiency.
The CMS’s robust suite of permissions and access-management tools helped to keep individual teams on track during the transition. Going forward, they can be customized and developed as required, but the initial focus was on consistency.
The wide range of content types supported by Brightspot was also attractive given the scope of AIP’s publications. In many instances existing content types such as sections and pages or ‘press release’ could be used straight out of the box.
But others needed to be developed. For example, AIP hosts many different annual awards for which a bespoke content type has been created. Similarly, the individual categories in each set of awards will have their own, newly created content type.
This will deliver consistency across all awards and means it will be quicker and simpler to publish content for each annual iteration of these ceremonies in the future. The data from past awards has also been uploaded into this new, consistent format.
AIP is now using the roster of previous winners to build a directory of prominent people, which includes details of their professional history, their published papers and research, and other articles they’ve authored or in which they’ve been cited. Powered by Brightspot, this will be a valuable resource for AIP’s audience of scientific experts and researchers, which will enhance content searchability and improve AIP’s ability to proactively prompt users to other items of interest.
The organization also keeps a close eye on changing legislation and government budgets, which are of huge importance to its audience. Additional bespoke content types created within Brightspot’s CMS include ‘Government Bills’ and ‘Government/Agency Budgets’. Integrations with government data sources ensure AIP knows about any new announcements and/or updates. The integrations and tailored content types mean that publications on these topics are timely and consistent in style. An integration with Congress.gov ensures AIP is able to present the most accurate information for its readers as bills are introduced and evolve over time.
Two other integrations are central to the performance of the new content strategy. One is with the customer data platform, enabling editorial teams to track user journeys and develop sophisticated user profiles. The other is with the data platform that gathers information from external and internal sources and offers a suite of analytical tools to let AIP generate valuable insights. This data lets it develop its content proposition in a targeted and informed way.
AIP has also made full use of Brightspot’s shared global taxonomy. Previously, individual editorial teams used their own taxonomy terms and the switch to a global standard has improved the quality and accuracy of content tagging.
Efficient workflows
Re-platforming to Brightspot has enabled AIP to simplify its workflows and generate significant improvements in its efficiency.
One of the editorial teams has gone from operating in 13 different systems to publish an article, to just one—Brightspot. The simplification prevents individual actions being overlooked or missed, speeds up the process and ensures that publishing guidelines and permissions remain consistent throughout the entire content journey.
Individual editors have gained up to two hours a week, giving them more time to actually write content and develop new ways of engaging with audiences. When taking into consideration improvements to various integrations and automated workflows, AIP has gained the equivalent of a full-time team member with these efficiency gains.
The ultimate goal is to have a single editorial workflow for the entire organization. Already, there are just three—a huge improvement on the individual approaches taken by each team prior to adopting Brightspot.
A single workflow would mean editorial staff could move between teams without having to learn a new process for publishing content. This would make it easier for the organization to manage bottlenecks in demand for output and to realize the full potential of the resource and expertise across all its editorial teams.
Reducing the number of workflows to three has already made it easier for writers to work on different publications and boost their overall productivity. Not just a benefit to team output, these streamlined workflows have improved overall content governance for publishing accuracy and efficiency throughout the organization.
Future developments
With Mod Op’s strategic partnership, the move to Brightspot has enabled AIP to be confident in its mission to deliver trusted and reliable information and analysis. It now has a consistent framework to handle the launch of new websites and initiatives, as well as the ability to improve its existing content output and better serve audiences with more sophisticated functionality.
The appointment of a Chief Content Officer also speaks to the coherence and direction that now characterizes AIP’s content delivery. Supported by Brightspot’s CMS, the organization has transitioned to a digital-first approach that will support its ongoing evolution and strengthen its standing long after the centenary celebrations are over.
American Institute of Physics in brief
