As expected, the current economic downturn was the first discussion point at FIPP’s Congress. Nick Higham, correspondent for BBC News, UK, led a panel discussion that included representatives from some of the most senior executives in the global magazine and newspaper publishing industry.

Although the downturn appears to be a worry for magazine publishers, there are some positive stories. Bill Kerr, chairman of the board at Meredith Corporation, USA (pictured), said that newspapers and radio in the US are under more pressure than magazines. Meredith’s subscriptions are up on last year, and the company’s online activities are increasing their profitability. Kerr predicted that 2010 will be a ‘flattish’ year for the industry.

Talking of Guardian Media Group’s acquisition of Emap last year, chief executive Carolyn McCall OBE, said that B2B is not immune from the downturn, but it’s resilient. When the ‘long and painful’ recovery comes, revenues will come back and will grow. McCall cited WGSN, Emap’s fashion and apparel brand that is entirely digital and doing ‘fantastically well.’

Aroon Purie, chairman and editor-in-chief of The India Today Group, India, said that India has been affected by a crisis of confidence, and that people are holding back on adspend, which has lead to a ‘complete flattening out’ of the market over recent months. Purie sees a ‘great opportunity’ in mobile phones, with 320 million alone in India. Said Purie: “if we can produce valuable content that can work on mobile – maybe this is the future.” Bill Kerr agreed, calling mobile the “next great wave of opportunity.”

On the subject of e-readers, John Smith, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, UK, said that they don’t seem to have taken off in the way people expected them to, and have not yet had the same ‘catastrophic’ effect as the internet had on its arrival. McCall said that Guardian Media Group is currently in talks with Kindle about using the newspaper’s content, but said that the charging model has to be right before any major decisions are made.