2006 MPA-IMAG Conference - Keynote Speaker Highlights

May 11, 2006

3rd Annual MPA-IMAG Independent Publishers Conference May 10 &11, 2006 | W Hotel Union Square | New York City

Photos & Highlights | Podcasts | Keynote Speaker | Program Overview



Keynote Speaker Highlights

Morning Keynote: The Cycle of Leadership

John Griffin
CEO
National Geographic Magazine Group

John Griffin discussed what he called the Cycle of Leadership, represented by a graphic in which the best editorial content attracts the most subscriptions and newsstand sales, thereby attracting the most ads that command the highest prices, which then funds research and testing that can in turn inform and incubate what he called leadership programs. Leadership programs such as sponsorships and events provide a touch point to and from the best editorial content, and the cycle of leadership begins anew with more velocity.

For Griffin, the quality and relevance of a magazines editorial content should be the most important concern for publishers. He reminded attendees that the readers are the clients and advertisers partners. He expressed disappointment at how often those relationships are reversed, bringing short term gains but an inevitable decline.

Griffin also talked about the connection between how a magazine values itself, and how readers and advertisers value the title. He focused on the increasing imbalance in the buyer and seller relationship, explaining how chasing the advertisers whims today harms the overall integrity of a magazine tomorrow.  This will lead to loss of readership, which devalues the magazine as a vehicle for the advertising it carries. Advertisers interests are not your interests, he warned.

Finally, fresh from snagging a National Magazine Award for excellence online for the National Geographic site, Griffin said, The web is your friend. He maintained that the web is a place for magazines to use all of the content that they cannot fit in their pagesbe it longer articles or photos and previously archived or unused videoswith the ultimate goal of making the web editorial content the richest and best it can be.

Griffins address is available as a podcast. Visit the Leadership Conference event page to download the audio.

Luncheon Keynote

Victor Navasky
Publisher Emeritrus, The Nation,
George Delacorte Professor of Magazine Journalism
Columbia University

Victor Navasky listed four important things he learned as an editor, illustrating those points with stories of his experiences with The Monocle (which he founded) and The Nation.

First lesson: Be nice to the postmaster.  Navasky recollected his first dealings with a postmaster, due to his misclassifying of his magazines mail type. He urged conference attendees to become more involved in the discussions surrounding postal reform and the coming postal rate hikes.

Second lesson: Overpay your writers. Navasky shares a mercurial relationship with long-time The Nation contributor Calvin Trillin, who had registered a public complaint about his low wages on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Navasky had to agree to the writers no diddling clause, which meant no edits are allowed to be made, and that Trillin can make fun of the editor.

Third lesson: Let the editor decide. According to Navasky, The Nations longevity stems from its absolute and inflexible commitment to the editor. In disputes between the editor and publisher over business matters, the editors will prevails.

Fourth lesson: The case for undercapitalization. Navasky noted that Playboy was started with only $500. He recounted his own fund raising attempts on behalf of The Monocle and The Nation and concluded that it was easier to get $1,000 from three individual people, than raising $3,000 from one source.

Navasky also offered some thoughts about the Internet and its value to magazine publishers. He mused that in 135 years, what The Nation had done was to build a brand with integrity, and now the web offers that brand a worldwide newsstand.

He closed by referring to a letter he recently received from a woman, who wanted to know where all the democrats had gone because she wanted to speak with one again before she died and would be willing to relocate. He mused that this was ultimately The Nations purpose, and indeed, the purpose of all magazines: to engage readers and to foster community.

Navaskys address is available as a podcast. Visit the Leadership Conference event page to download the audio.

 

This MPA-IMAG Leadership Conference was sponsored by: