It is true that, when I cover a conference, I usually write smaller articles, but, silly me, I forgot my iPad mini at home and while she gets a nice vacation (my iPad is a “she”), I miss her for doing my live blogging. Nevertheless, I can comment on the conference, a posteriori while keeping my brain cells fresh for my upcoming burrito and tequila. Ok… Maybe I should focus…
I attended the PBC Digital Magazine Summit.
It all started by a one-to-one chat with Joe Hyrkin, ISSUU’s new CEO. I must admit I have never been a great fan of digital replica (or page flippers). They are a ton of various “digital magazine” solutions more or less appealing, more or less working, more or less ergonomic for the end-user. I will not go over why this is not what readers are expecting of the web as I think there is a bigger issue than that.
ISSUU provides a lot of services for free, some of the premium features are available for a small additional amount. It’s not obvious that they are really the features bringing more value to the publishers, but that’s their model.
What is subtler about ISSUU is their interest in their readers’ digital trace. Let me explain… You love golf and you read your usual golf magazine, which is now on ISSUU. So, logically, you go read it on ISSUU. ISSUU learns from you that you like golf. They don’t need you to open an account to do that. So next time you go to ISSUU, the platform will suggest other golf magazines.
So, the poor publisher who wanted to bring you the latest and best about golfing in a digital way may lose his trusted readers because the platform is now redirecting the reader to his competitors…
As a publisher, I sure want my magazine to be seen in as many outlets as possible, but do I want that some smart algorithms place my competition in front of me? Am I back in the war for bidding for the best spot on the newsstand?
Nothing is ever free. Never. But is the price to use a relatively good tool for free, worth the risk of losing my readers?
On another hand GreenIvory recently released a page flipper – check it out at http://replica.contentlc.com/. It pretends to be the easiest to understand around here with the most comprehensive pricing and I really think it is. What do you think?
From left to right: Murray Izenwasser from Biztegra and Matt Bean from SI.com (Sports Illustrated)
The debate between Matt Bean from SI.com (Sports Illustrated) & Murray Izenwasser from Biztegra reminded me a bit of the fight for or against the web. Izenwasser was all in favor while Bean was more cautious, less willing to drink the post-web 2.0 Kool-Aid.
I must admit that I was probably like Izenwasser a few years ago but real examples of web successes are unusual for small to medium size publishing houses. Although I agree that publishers are sitting on impressive quantity of content, which we all dream of monetizing; we are still looking for the way to do it. I surely have some ideas and I am still looking for a few publishers having the cojones to experiment a few innovations. Are you one?
It’s fun to see that a 5% increase in traffic would please some publishers, although we have recently several examples of 5 to 8 times more traffic. Sure, those are relative and you need to see where you are coming from, but you should be ambitious. You will get traction and be able to start this virtuous circle only if you manage to reach a certain critical mass. As an example, it is no secret that NAPCO is combining all those efforts on a target base of 13,000 publishers with Publishing Executive, BookBusiness and the Publishing Business Conference, creating a virtuous circle around those 3 “media outlets”. You don’t need a lot of fresh content everyday, some innovative tools, similar to MashupXFeed™ and newsletter automation (GreenIvory has one too) will reduce the production costs.
If you then add social media automation… Ok, we need to talk, no?
Maybe I am a little too webby, but I found the session with Tony Mamone, the CEO of Livingly Media and John Pavley, the CTO of Huffington Post a little disappointing. Oh… don’t get me wrong, they are very good people and great speakers, but I was expecting a little more insight on how they make money. What new and innovative tactics a publisher can use in his monetization-mix? When Pavley says he’s considering advertorial “but done right”, I have a flashback to the 80s. Sure, it’s “in the old pots that you make the best jam” as we can say, but we are using new media, new technologies and we come back to using old recipes. It makes sense; it’s just not new…
Ethan Grey, Thea Selby, SiNae Pitts and Steven Chaiken concluded the symposium. Ethan Grey is the senior VP for Digital Strategy & Initiatives at The Association of Magazine Media (MPA). Thea Selby Is the principal at Next Steps Marketing, a marketing firm specialized for publishers and an active tweeter during the conference (@TheaSelby). SiNae Pitts is the founder & CEO of Amphetamobile. Steven Chaiken is the managing editor at CR Fashion Book, V Magazine and VMAN, here in New York.
The panel was great. I really felt connected with Grey: one of the latest MPA project is to standardize the definition of measures. What is an opened magazine according to Apple? Is it the same according to Google? Standardization of vocabulary is key in any industry. Its definitively a way to common metrics.
The future is indeed promising: the rate of growth of subscription to digital magazine is higher than the loss of paper subscription, with digital subscription growing every year. However, publishers are not ready to sell articles; they rather sell by issue to match the circulation for ads.
Advertisements on tablets are clicked 10 to 12 times more than their web counterparts and the also have a higher engagement rate. That’s definitively encouraging for publishers looking for more revenues.
And I do not have my tequila yet…