MPA Speeches--Nina Link Magazines 24/7 2005

December 8, 2005

Nina Link
President & CEO
Magazine Publishers of America

Opening Remarks
Magazines 24/7
December 8, 2005
New York, NY

Good morning.  

I’m Nina Link, and I’m President and CEO, Magazine Publishers of America. 

I want to welcome you to this conference.  It’s been sold out for almost a month, which really speaks volumes about the intense interest in the subject.  And it suggests that those of you in this room are the some of the industry’s long-range thinkers, early adapters and risk takers. Probably more than a few of you bought Google at 100, right?    Well, at least I hope.

And I also want to compliment everyone here including those of you watching via webcast.  You’re all part of history. 

Today represents an important industry “first.”  Even though magazines have been involved in digital media for a decade, “Magazines 24/7” is our first conference dedicated exclusively to leveraging consumer magazine brands in the digital age. 

We have a number of important reasons for staging this gathering:

- We’re here because we want to showcase the accomplishments of our magazines on digital platforms.

- We’re here because we want to spotlight some of our digital leaders.  Who are they?  What do they do?  What are their dreams for tomorrow?

- We’re here to listen to people one-step outside of our industry discuss new pastures where our brands should be grazing. 

- We’re here to support and encourage experimentation. The digital world is a color-outside-the-lines opportunity.  We should be bold, embrace risk and accept that not everything we try will succeed. 

- We’re here because we want you to walk away with practical ideas that you can apply to your digital efforts. 

- And we’re here to deliver this message loud and clear.  Magazines are already part of the great digital revolution.   The ad dollars are falling in our buckets.   The eyeballs are glued to our websites.  The content is already being digitized in bold new ways that express the souls of our magazines.

Digital extensions of magazines strengthen our print brands and build stronger relationships with readers.  Magazines are the centerpiece of the brand experience.  Readers are passionate about their print magazines.  They sit back and lose themselves in the pages. Readers express their experience with magazines using words like: “it is my personal timeout, it makes me smarter, the stories absorb me, it is sophisticated, it helps me try new things.” Readers enjoy the tactile experience, the stunning photography, the imaginative graphics, the graceful writing, and of course, the durability and portability of the magazine. 

But the digital world beckons.  And it’s a natural fit for us – a good marriage.  We’re already a naturally viral medium, as copies of favorite issues are passed along from friend to friend.  We’re already a targeted medium with content that can be easily re-configured for life in cyberspace. We’re already the center of countless communities built around people with like-minded interests.  As a logical extension of our brands, digital platforms will allow us to touch our readers every minute of every day, and every day of every week. In other words…magazines 24/7.

There’s a saying that the best way to predict the future is to invent it.  Throughout the day, you’ll hear from two-dozen speakers and panelists most of whom are involved with inventing our future.  No one has the perfect crystal ball, but I can promise you that they all have their eyes on the horizon.  You’ll hear a lot about search and wireless, but we’ll touch on other important topics as well.   

Of course, we can’t cover everything.  That’s why we’re already planning our second digital conference, which we’ll stage in the early spring.  We’ll announce more details in January. 

I also want to announce today that MPA has launched a new digital section of its website. It features a magazine blog roundup, profiles of magazine digital leaders, links to magazine video content, and a database of magazine digital brand extensions.  And that’s just for starters.  This will be your home on our website.  The door will always be open and there will always be something cooking on the front burner of the stove.

And now I’d like to welcome conference chair Stephanie Sandberg, Vice President, Marketing, Fortune and Fortune Small Business.  Stephanie has been a driving force behind this conference and today’s event is partly the result of her energy and vision.  Stephanie…