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More than 350 delegates from 38 countries gathered at the Deutsche Telekom Conference Center in Berlin, Germany for Powering Digital Success, the 2nd FIPP/VDZ/CeBIT Global Digital Magazine Media Conference on 3 March 2008 and it can be concluded that the magazine industry has come a long way from just one year ago. Many publishers have answered several internal issues including whether or not to integrate print and digital editorial teams – however, there is still much debate about the issue.
“I think that the skills for writing for the web are very different for writing for a print brand,” said Susan Odell, vice president, international, Techtarget, USA, in the session Successful Content and how to Get it. “We have hired a lot of editors and have trained a lot of editors. You have to be wiling to write for Google and you have to be willing to do it without losing your creativity. Your deadlines are totally different. We have had great success with print journalists that have moved into the web and we have had total disasters. They have to be great writers and they have to know the audience they’re writing for.”
Don Nicholas, managing partner, Mequoda Group LLC, USA, was in complete agreement with Odell. “Taking a print journalist and putting them on the web means that that website is not going to be found,” he said. “One-third of journalists will never be changed, one-third will wait to see what happens and the other third will think it’s totally cool that their key words can be tracked and rated.”
Wolfgang Büchner, executive editor, Spiegel Online, Germany, had a different view: “Not very much needs to be different between print and web journalists. You just need to be a good journalist and be good at presenting your stuff. We need good journalists and that’s all.”
James Hewes, head of licensing and syndication, BBC Magazines, UK, had a more neutral take on things, saying that his company is aiming for more of a compromise. “We’re striving for a single team of journalists who are capable of writing across both. On the issue of compromising, most of our journalists understand it and get it, and I think it’s important to have one single team. Finding the right people who get the brand is a key component.”
The four panellists were all in complete agreement, however, about the attitude towards paid content – it is not an option.
“For us, content is all free,” said Hewes about the BBC’s Top Gear website. “We don’t believe that we should charge for content – that is not the future of the internet. There was never a paid content debate for us.
Büchner mentioned that just a few weeks ago, Spiegel Online opened up its entire archive for free. “We are absolutely convinced that this is the right way to go,” he said.
Both Odell and Nicholas mentioned that there are exceptions to the rule but that it would have to be extremely high-end content not available anywhere else.
View from the Top
In View from the Top, moderator Mike Hewitt, president and CEO, gtnews.com, UK, sat down with Jonas Bonnier, president & CEO, Bonnier Magazine Group, Sweden; Eric Verdon-Roe, group managing director, Haymarket Media Group, UK; Pierre Lamunière, chairman, Edipresse Group, Switzerland; and John Loughlin, executive vice president and general manager, Hearst Magazines, USA to discuss what they consider digital success and how to achieve it.
And there were some confessions.
“I’m still confused,” said Bonnier. “I still see a lot of magazine efforts on the defensive. I don’t see the need for all magazines to be on the web but I think that’s just me. I think you should do it because it’s fun and because there’s money in it but I don’t think you HAVE to do it. I’m a great believer in magazines and I think they’ll survive beautifully on their own.
Verdon-Roe had another great confession: “I was a paper publisher and I’m learning about online every day. When we stop thinking like print publishers, when we start thinking about becoming platform agnostic – whether it’s a magazine, online, mobile, whatever – it will be a major step in the right direction.”
He talked about the importance of content, profit and, of course, delivering what your audience wants: “You can have all of this success but you can destroy it overnight if you don’t deliver what your audience wants. If your site crashes, if it’s clunky, hard for your users to register, you will fail – that’s how you measure your digital success.”
Lamunière, like Bonnier, is a huge advocate of print. “I am mainly a print publisher but this year, our web activities have reached about €35 million euros. Every year, we continue to see publishers successfully launch new print projects. So don’t panic – there is no need to get depressed. But don’t forget to continue to invest in print – we can’t neglect our magazines. It’s normal for publishers to try to double up their web activities but neglecting our titles is very dangerous. Even if we see market erosion in the magazine industry, it remains a highly profitable business. It remains a strong and very healthy business.”
Loughlin said that Hearst is very active in both print and digital. “At Hearst, we believe that magazines are with us for the long term but there’s no question that the model is shifting. The consumer is clearly in control in our view and we need to adapt our products to live. The model is now consumer-centric. In a world where consumers are looking for on-demand content, it becomes overwhelming.”
In succeeding online, Loughlin stressed that content trumps brand and that distribution should come first and foremost. “It’s all about scale,” he said. “If you intend to have your businesses be profit-driven, you really do have to go for scale and that’s distribution-driven. As editors and publishers, we have the tendency to want to put our branding on the top and in the online world, that’s less relevant. It’s not content, it’s application.
Investment and Growth Strategies for Publishers
In a one-on-one interview, Mike Hewitt, president and CEO, gtnews.com spoke to
Dr Andreas Wiele, head of BILD division and head of magazines, Axel Springer, Germany about his company’s online activities. Just one year ago at the digital conference in Hanover, Wiele couldn’t give an exact figure but estimated that about three per cent of Axel Springer’s revenue came from online.
“We now have eight per cent of our total revenue from online,” he said. And for 2010, we hope our number will be at least twice, that so at least 15 or 16 per cent, and about €80 million of profits”
Wiele says that Axel Springer realised that as much as the company loves its paper products, its number one priority is its brands.
“We never dared to invest in the online side of ComputerBild, Europe’s largest computer magazine,” he said. “The result was that in the past five years, the circulation of the magazine has been declining at a pretty rapid pace and we had no online presence. Now, we do and the numbers have been growing phenomenally. And the numbers in print have grown by three per cent. That is separate from the online version so the two worlds work fantastically together.”
He says that the most important question they ask themselves is what value can they add as print publishers to a specific activity? “If the answer is none, we don’t go there. For social communities, for example, the answer is none. For content, we know we can add something.”
Success Stories
In Digital Publishing Success Stories, Brian Segal, president and CEO, Rogers Publishing and John Zieser, chief development officer, Meredith Corporation, USA shared examples of how their companies have succeed in the online world.
While Zieser confessed that the internet still creates a lot of anxiety, he said that Meredith has transformed itself from an ink on paper publisher to a multiplatform company in a short time period. “At Meredith, we deliver attractive, relevant and useful content to the consumer how they want it and when they want it. We reach our customers across a broad range of platforms including books, TV, magazines, websites and television.”
Meredith Interactive Media, which includes the websites for Better Homes and Gardens and Parents boasts impressive numbers of 13 million unique visitors per month, 175 million page views per month, 2.8 million net subscriptions and over four million video clips streamed monthly.
But, according to Zieser: “Online can only reach its maximum potential when combined with other media, including print. At Meredith, we don’t see the world as online versus offline. We see the world as multiplatform. The internet can’t survive without reaching that consumer at multiple levels.
Segal emphasised the importance of investing in technology and urged to partner wherever possible: “Wherever you can, partner. I know that it’s easier said than done, but my god, wherever you can, partner. If you want to compete, you have to think: can you do it yourself or should you partner? It’s not all good news on the web and bad news in print. There’s a lot of work to do on the web to respond to the needs of the market.”
Both Segal and Zieser stated that their online consumer and their print consumer are very different.
“Only 20 per cent are cross-customers,” said Segal. “We are creating some new print customers via that 80 per cent cohort. But we are also creating some new advertisers. We like the fact that the audience for the brand has increased – the question is how to monetise it.”
“There has really never been a big overlap between our web traffic and our print reader,” said Zieser. “In our world, the female consumer who goes online typically goes online for a different reason than the print reader. You’ll see different demographics, you’ll see different household incomes, you’ll see different passion points. It just validates in my mind why you have to have different channels.
Worldwide Business Opportunities for Digital Publishing
Keynote speaker Patrick J McGovern, founder & chairman, IDG shared some of his company’s creativity in using some of the tools already on the web and emphasised that publishers have to move with the times.
“We have to move our media practices to the way consumers are shifting media consumption,” he said.
IDG has already moved to a primarily online company. And as a consequence, it has redefined who it is. “When we have whitepapers or downloads, we get people to register and build a database. This helps us fine-tune our projects and planning,” he said.
He emphasised the importance of effective distribution. “You want to show to your advertiser that they are getting a real return on their investment.”
Powering Digital Success is organised by the German Publishers Association (VDZ) and the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) and is taking place at the Deutsche Telekom Conference Center in Berlin, Germany 3-4 March 2008.
Sponsoring the event are knk, Logitech, Zinio, pressmart, Deutsche Telekom, Tomorrow Focus Technologies, brightcove, IntraWorlds, muellerPrange, Dalim Software, eZ, media daten verlag, PMG Presse Monitor, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Horizont and verytv.
The event continues 4 March at 8:45am.
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