The new boss at Kiplinger's

Jennifer Nycz-Conner of the Washington Business Journal interviewed Janet Bodnar, who becomes the new editor at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance next month.

Here is an excerpt:

If you’re doing your job really well, what are you doing as editor? You really have to inspire your staff. You have to be excited about what you do. You have to make them excited about what you’re doing. You have to make them know they’re valued, telling them over and over how much you value what they do. I think that is really job one as far as the staff is concerned.

As far as being editor on the outside, it’s giving your readers what they need at this time. I mean, my gosh, this is even more challenging I think perhaps than the ’70s were. You have to know your reader, listen to them and be giving them the information that they need. And that’s what we specialize in here at Kiplinger’s. We kind of pioneered “you� journalism. This is what you should do in this kind of situation. That’s really what our stock in trade was. We keep the personal in personal finance. We write about it from the standpoint that people can relate to.

How do you keep content that you cover over and over fresh? Well, I’ll tell you: A financial crisis certainly helps. We’re writing stories about the new rules of investing. The new rules of retirement. The new rules of insurance. We’re having our own internal debates on do we want to change the rules? In the January issue, we do have a story on the new rules of investing, and the question is, are people really ready for this? The ‘new rules’ that some people are talking about are outside the comfort zone for very many people, including people like us who invest.

Read more here.