DIS day one: brand transformation, growth, innovation

Some 600 – a record for the DIS, a premium event – industry delegates gathered for the Summit, which was preceded on Saturday and Sunday with the DIS @ Media Hackday, a tour of Berlin startups and then opening drinks.

Natasha Christie-Miller, CEO of EMAP, opened the conference talking about the transformation of the company, referencing key actions including subscriptions, sales excellence and customer joy.

David Nussbaum, CEO of F+W, charted the company’s journey from a print-driven publisher to a company where ecommerce now delivers 27 per cent of overall revenues, is the most profitable part of the business and an expectation that it will be the main revenue stream within three years.

Josh Macht, publisher of Harvard Business Review and a contributor to FIPP’s monthly Innovation newsletter, talked about three big lessons learnt in its transformation to a multi-platform brand: Be something; be patient; and be obsessed with the user.

Hearst Magazines International chief digital officer Gary Ellis explained what the company means with its “months-to-moments” strategy, and why it believes you “should give your audience the dessert first”.

TU.no’s Jan Moberg and Svein-Erik Hole explained how they turned around the 160-year old brand, re-imagining content, distribution and more, on the back of rebuilding the tech infrastructure, getting finances under control and appointing the right kind of people.

Adobe’s Mitch Green, director of product management, explained why “going digital is not enough”, showcasing the company’s new approach to mobile with its Fast Company app (the new software will be available to other publishers mid-year). There will be an in-depth, free webinar about this on 1 April – find out more and register for it here. 

Lutz Finger, director of data science and data engineering at LinkedIn and author of Ask Measure Learn, gave the audience “Seven keys to data success”. Getting to actionable insights all starts with asking the right questions to ensure the outcomes are “grounded in value.”

Matt Crystal, Pinterest’s head of international partnerships, explained why he believes social discovery is a bigger trend than search, as well as how publishers can make the most of the platform.

Day one also saw the launch of the FIPP Innovation in Magazine Media World Report 2015-2016, which is now available for free to FIPP members (digital edition) or can be purchased in print (members and non-members) and digital (non-members), or as part of a discounted print bundle of all FIPP’s annual publications. There is more information here or you can contact Helen Bland for more.

All these and other stories are available in this FIPP Round-Up newsletter and on FIPP.com. There will be more of the same tomorrow, for day two. You can also follow the Twitter stream at #DISummit.