Nina LinkPresident & CEOMagazine Publishers of America
American Magazine ConferenceOctober 23, 2006Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix
The theme of this conference is transformation. This morning you heard about how an agency, a retailer, marketers, publishers and editors are evolving their brands and transforming their business models. So here is the good and bad news: the good news – magazines are not alone. The bad news – magazines are not alone. All of our partners are going through a similar upheaval which, of course, adds to the overall uncertainty.
We are all slightly cross-eyed trying to keep our eyes on the ball. One eye is focused on growing our current magazine business while the other eye is roving the landscape looking for new opportunities, partners and talent. But magazines have always found the right prescription to adjust their vision to meet the needs of the reader. What other medium has brands that have reinvented themselves generation after generation? We have many that are as relevant today as they were 25, 50, 75 years ago. What other medium has passionate communities of interest that are so totally absorbed in the content that all other media fade into the background? In what other medium do people actually like the advertising and see it as a valuable part of the experience?
Just as magazines are reinventing themselves, MPA is also being transformed in order to provide you with even more relevant resources and services. Protecting publishers’ business interests, promoting the power of our medium and developing industry talent take on a whole different meaning today than they did even two short years ago.
From MPA’s news communiqués, you should be familiar with our broad range of activities. But rather than just list them, I thought I would pick six that illustrate the kind of transformation we, too, are undergoing, a transformation driven by the Board of Directors and member committees – in other words all of you.
Transformation 1: We have transformed our Government Affairs operation into a powerful industry voice and coalition leader. On the postal front, the magazine industry has been at the forefront. Our message is: never give up! And, we haven’t. I was hoping, no actually praying, that I could bring you a message at this conference that postal reform was done…over…finished. Sadly, at the eleventh hour, it did not come up for passage, but we are still working 24/7 to get it passed during the lame duck session following the mid-term elections.
Thanks to proactive efforts by MPA and many of you, the Postal Service’s requested increase for Periodicals rates is not nearly as big as we feared. It’s still larger than the system-wide average, and we are still working hard to keep it as low as possible. That means we are fighting aggressively in the first full-scale, fully litigated postal rate case since 2000.
There are two other areas in Government Affairs where we’ve been focused: consumer protection and advertising. In consumer protection, MPA has worked hard to achieve balanced legislation at the state level on a number of key issues such as expiration dates on renewal notices. On the federal and state level, the focus has been on ensuring that privacy and data security legislation protects consumers’ rights while still considering the legitimate needs of business.
In advertising during the past year, the Government Affairs team fought successfully against efforts that would have infringed on our right to carry lawful advertising. We remain committed to protecting the rights of publishers to carry direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.
Transformation 2: As you’ve heard, through the work of the Magazine Marketing Coalition, our industry has begun the transformation from an individual magazine focus with disparate voices into a powerful marketing force carrying unified messages about the strength of magazines. We are committed to changing advertisers’ perceptions about the value of advertising in our pages – and beyond.
The Magazine Marketing Coalition has achieved significant success in marketing our medium. Last year, magazine advertising share grew. And we’re still pounding away with our messages using advertising, PR, the web and more sales calls.
Transformation 3 is taking place in consumer marketing where the industry is working toward evolving the way magazines are measured. Nowhere is this change more evident than in the “verified” circulation category, which recognizes the enormous value in public place copies. I mean let’s face it…who doesn’t read a magazine in a waiting room? We embarked on a campaign to educate advertisers and the industry about its benefit through seminars, newsletters, press coverage and a special section on our website devoted to this important issue.
Transformation 4: We’re also trying to transform the complexion of our workforce. This initiative is critical for the industry. Our magazines must reflect the changing racial and ethnic composition of American society. It’s in our business interests. This goal can be accomplished only if our staffs have professionals of color. And these employees must have significant opportunities for advancement. We’re working on this issue in a number of ways. Our Magazine Mentoring Exchange pairs rising stars with experienced magazine talent. We’re reaching out to historically black colleges and universities to attract students who may want to pursue magazine industry opportunities. And MPA is holding more events like our Town Halls which raise the tough questions and seek solutions from inside and outside the industry.
Transformation 5 is taking place in our professional development and events area in response to the shift in publishers’ business strategies. 30% of our seminars now focus on the technical, organizational and cultural challenges publishers face when delivering content across platforms.
And, after listening to your comments, we’ve made changes to certain MPA events. The Lifetime Achievement Awards will now be a faster, lunchtime event rather than an evening gala, so keep that tuxedo in the closet. We tightened the AMC schedule and ran concurrents because you asked for it.
Perhaps the greatest potential for transformation lies in digital. In the last couple of years, digital initiatives have been a priority for MPA. MPA staged the first “Magazines 24/7 Digital Conference” last December and a second one in the spring. We were so encouraged that today I’m announcing a third “Magazines 24/7” conference that will be held February 27 at City University in New York. A special part of the conference will be MPA’s first-ever digital awards ceremonies for magazines. We’ll unveil the winning magazine websites and digital initiatives in 10 categories. These categories include Best Online Video, Best Mobile Strategy and Best Online Community.
To give digital its due on MPA’s website, in January we created a special digital section that features a magazine blog roundup, profiles of magazine digital leaders, and links to magazine video and audio content. Check it out.
Our online database of magazine digital brand extensions is updated daily. In the first three quarters of this year, member companies announced the launch of 85 digital initiatives including online radio stations, branded email accounts, podcast series and interactive dating blogs. MPA also discovered that more than three dozen magazines have profiles on MySpace.
Most of what we’re seeing magazines accomplish in the digital space is evolutionary. Some of it is revolutionary. But none of it suggests that we abandon the past. To paraphrase Frank Moss, the new head of the M-I-T Media Lab who was the keynote speaker at our April Digital Conference, “Magazines as an object will never go away. Their form is simple and elegant. Magazines are a human-centered design.”
My hope for this year’s AMC is that what we’ve heard will reframe the discussion of where we can go from here. New roads involve new risk. Give your imagination free rein and see where your brands can take readers!
This afternoon’s speakers can help magazines think about their digital journey. Each of the speakers – Dr. Jeffrey Cole from USC; Dan Rosensweig, COO of Yahoo; and Tim Armstrong, Google’s Vice President of Advertising Sales – have a unique perspective on how digital is transforming consumers’ media and advertising.
And if anyone might know what the year ahead will bring, it’s our next speaker, Dr. Cole. He is the director of USC’s Center for the Digital Future. He’s been tracking how people’s lives change when they go online.
Please welcome Dr. Cole.
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