HIGHLIGHTS FROM DAY ONE: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28

MPA-IMAG Independents' Day
This fifth annual event features an afternoon geared especially for Indy publishers to network, share information and explore the opportunities and challenges unique to their businesses.

IMAG Luncheon Keynote

Tracey Ryder, Co-Founder, Edible Communities

Tracey Ryder was raised by generations of farmers in upstate New York, a hard way of life that has led her to co-founding an extremely successful magazine publishing business: Edible Communities. Ryder chronicled the firm’s life in her keynote talk Monday during the IMAG luncheon.

For 15 years, Ryder and co-founder Carole Topalian ran a graphic design and marketing design firm before deciding to turn their efforts toward something for which they both feel a passion: local food. They produced a 16-page quarterly newsletter in the spring of 2002 about the topic, "Edible Ojai," about the issue surrounding their town in northern California. The title gained some acclaim and interest from the people in the growing local-foods movement across the country and then, in 2004, Saveur named Edible Ojai to its Top 100 list. More than 200 calls came in that week from around the country, many asking what they could do. The pair had been working on a business plan to offer franchises of the publication and, soon after, kicked that plan into gear. There are now 52 publications about different local-food regions and Ryder expects the company to keep growing rapidly as the movement continues to flourish. Edible publishes more than 51 million copies of its titles yearly.

She noted that ECI helps each publication get off the ground after it is launched, sending people to train in all departments and actually producing the first four issues. Edible has a 100 percent success rate so far with its largest circulation at 80,000 and its smallest at 20,000. Each magazine has subscribers but is also provided free at farmer’s markets, restaurants and the like.

Editors share information via a listserv so they gain knowledge from one another’s experiences. "They all look at one another’s work," Ryder said. "And that drives them as well." ECI gets more than 80% response rate on reader surveys. "We’re tapping into something that is really personal to people." Advertisers seem to like that as well, with national advertisers signing on to be on the same pages as local ads.

Progress Report on Industry Measurement Initiatives

Ellen Oppenheim, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Magazine Publishers of America

The world of magazine measurement is rapidly changing and MPA Executive VP/Chief Marketing Officer chronicled some of those shifts.

"Media measurement is much more critical of how advertisers value publications," she said, adding that agencies increasingly have to justify their spending to clients.

MPA has identified that magazine measurement needs to be more comparable to other forms of media, more timely in order to keep pace with other forms of media that give measurement on daily and weekly increments rather than every six months such as ABC and BPA. Magazine measurements need to be more accountable and, therefore, more credible.

That accountability needs to reflect that magazines are much larger than their print editions now and can encompass many media. Publishers need to find a way to bring all of those varying measurements together under one roof.

"One of the great things about circulation is that it’s a census," Oppenheim said, but the focus needs to be more on the readership, not the distribution. "Engagement is key."

So what’s evolving in the measurement world are issue-by-issue metrics as well as fusing print and web traffic numbers. There is movement to measure advertising engagement and actions taken.

Technology holds much promise for the audience-marketing world, with the possibility of building better online surveys, using RFID to track how readers use their publications, or finding new devices, such as e-paper, which could hit the market as early as 2012, to track every movement a reader makes with a publication.

"Circulation is not going away. The marketplace will ultimately decide what the new form of audience measurement will be," she said. She then encouraged more magazines to be measured in different ways. "If we’re serious about comparability, more magazines have to be measured."

Research on a Budget

Gail McGrady, President, Research One, Inc.

Gail McGrady shared a few tips on how to research a publication’s audience in order to bolster its position with media buyers. She focused on two areas: researching with no budget as well as researching with minimal budget.

For those with no budget, she encouraged them to use U.S. Census information, which offers all types of demographics, including age, education, income, origin, race, veterans, and whether or not he or she is a grandparent. Information can be broken down regionally and the Census also offers projections to 2050 in order to see where a market might be headed. "They are also very helpful on the phone," she said.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey is also a help, she said. It takes Census information and breaks it down into how people are spending money on everything from food, transportation, insurance, tobacco, and health care. Charts can also be constructed from past information and future projections so that it can be shown how one particular demographic is spending in a category vs. another demographic.

Other places to look for free information include the Selig Center at the University of Georgia, MRI, the Monroe Mendelsohn Affluent Study (which measures adults that make more than $85,000), the MPA, ESRI Community Tapestry, press releases for industry associations that contain market information, and a magazine’s own surveys, which can be place within a publication or mailed to subscribers separately. It should be four to six pages at the most, said McGrady, with a target of at least a 50% response rate. Some key questions to ask include male/female, age, income, home value, and married/single.

McGrady also mentioned local city and community reference libraries as good resources for those without a budge, in addition to getting audited by ABC or BPA, and/or subscribing to one of the following studies: Media Market Research, Monroe Mendelsohn Affluence Study, Beta Research Corp., Readex and Erdos & Morgan Influencers Study.

 Life After Indie: Leveraging Big Media to Grow Your Business

Janesse Bruce, Publishing and Managing Director, Body + Soul 

In her search for capital to grow Body+Soul, Janesse Bruce sold the magazine to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) in 2004. The magazine has since become the leading publication targeted to the natural lifestyle market.

Bruce gave advice to independence publishers looking to sell some equity for capital, or sell their business to a larger publishing company:

Some investors focus on scale and are often skittish when faced with a niche title: Communicate that magazines are wonderful brand builders, especially niche pubs. It’s hard to find a better, cheaper way to build a foundation of engagement with a customer.

Independent publishers are usually in it for more than money—they bring passion to the equation. Be wary if people don’t recognize passion as a value.

Do the math. It may be more beneficial to get a good premium today rather than deal with the potential growth constraints that can result from a long-term payout.

Not having enough money can be a good thing—publishers run a tighter business.

If acquired by a larger media company like MSLO, understand that it’s great that a company is big, its size is a product of its success. Learn to leverage the company’s size and relationships to cut down on cost (e.g. paper, postal) and learn what made it so successful in the first place.

It’s not that cash is king, culture is king. Niche magazines should spend time perfecting their culture.

"Ask a lot and take what is given." Selling your magazine to a larger company could help you do the job you love better.

Belvoir Media: Three Decades of Selling Niche Content

Philip Penny, Chief Operating Officer, Belvoir Media Group 

Phil Penny runs Belvoir Media Group, a multimedia company with more than 30 niche periodicals, magazines, newsletter and websites.  As expected the job comes with its set of challenges, risks and rewards.

Penny outlined several cases that served as learning experiences.  In the area of licensing, he found the following pros and cons:

Pros

• Royalty-based relationships, copyright owned by publisher
• Sub file owned by publisher, allowing for potential portability
• Brand gets the direct mail envelop opened (15 to 20% lift)
• Differentiates products in a crowded market
• Partners open to line extensions
• Long-term contracts can allow for an equity build
• Over thirty periodicals, magazines, newsletters and websites

Cons

• Approval process can be difficult and confusing
• Decisions more about "CYA" than marketing potential
• Editorial and marketing restricted
• Not everyone within believes in the mission
• Investment subject to risk of scandal or negative publicity
• Relationship always subject to whim of the institution

AMC Kick-Off

Kick-Off Keynote

Tony Snow, (right) Former White House Press Secretary, interviewed by People Managing Editor Larry Hackett (left)

Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow gave AMC attendees a window into the world of dealing with the intense press scrutiny in our nation’s capitol during AMC’s kickoff keynote Sunday evening.

When comparing the two Bush presidencies that he worked for, Snow noted how drastically the press corps has changed between the two tenures—and how much that has affected the press secretary position. "CNN existed, Fox News didn’t exist yet, MSNBC was a ghost of what it is now," he said, and only a few major dailies were the main focus of the press secretary. "Now you have bloggers, the Internet, old media, you have to communicate to all these different kinds of media."

Snow mentioned that the two biggest surprises for him as press secretary were how much fun he had in the position and how collegial the environment was in the White House. "I’ve been in a lot of different workplaces," he said, "but this is one where people are generally supportive." But that didn’t mean there weren’t some raging arguments. Snow wouldn’t be specific, but he said that Bush welcomed questions.

Snow also said that he thinks the Democratic presidential nomination is wrapped up but the Republican race is extremely wide open. With the primaries the way that they are, he said, one candidate could get hot and just take the nomination. He offered two problems with the current system in which many primaries are loaded into January and February instead of being strung out over a number of months as in previous elections. "I think that’s nuts," he said. "One of the glories is that you had to find out who really wanted it." Also, he fears the long time window between when a candidate will have the nomination wrapped up and is actually nominated, saying there isn’t enough time on the front end for journalists to really look into the candidates thus leading to the possibility of potentially damaging information to arrive in the spring and early summer on candidates.

John DeLucie, head chef of New York City hotspot The Waverly Inn, prepared his signature burger and truffle fries.