Philadelphia Business Daily

Any good ideas for publicizing and creating excitement on the release of a new psychotherapy journal?

A friend of mine is the editor-in-chief of a new psychotherapy journal which is just releasing its premier issue. I'd love to come up with some good ideas for publicizing it, for increasing awareness about it, and for generating some excitement about it. I've come up with some ideas (publishing party, send out announcements to all similar institutes, etc.) but I'm sure there are a lot that I just haven't thought of. The journal is a professional, peer-reviewed journal. It's oriented toward gestalt therapy (a particular modality of therapy), with a theme of "building bridges" to other types of psychotherapy. How can we create some interest and excitement? How can we capitalize on the one-time-only event that the first issue represents? How can we create interest, increase the readership, and get people excited about participating in future issues? Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Public Comments

1. Well this is interesting because most journals come out of universities but I suppose that what I would do is create a very professional, color, glossy announcement page complete with a note from the editor and a brief summary of what the mission of the journal is and then I would send it to all of the professors of psychology that teach therapy in all of the universities across the country. You can also send it to various counseling centers that you can find in the yellow pages. To save money, you can skip the pricey mailing and go with a fancy e-mail (like the ones you get with the images and links...) You may be able to find a database of e-mail addresses and mailing addresses from the APA...I don't know how loose they are with this kind of information... otherwise you can just look it up online--it will take a lot longer but some people are bound to pay attention. You could also talk to the APA about how to promote this... I don't know about finances on this whole thing either, but you could have a release party with guest speakers and invite prominent local psychotherapists to attend. Champaign and mini sandwiches are a MUST. Other suggestions are creating something useful that advertises the journal like they do for medications... so a stress ball with the name of the journal and a website? A magnet? A pen? You can find places online that will do this in bulk for RELATIVELY little money....I have posted a google search of "promotional products below". Good luck and best wishes.
2. Some general comments: Advertise the new journal on the top three or four websites which deal exclusively with Gestalt therapy. Try to obtain an endorsement from a proponent and a protagonist like Wilber.