IMAG Conference

On-Demand Printing: MagCloud

The talk concerning on-demand printing, centered primarily around the internet company MagCloud. Three young entrepreneurs - Noah Kalina, a photgrapher from Brooklyn NY, Jini Rooney, Chief Partnership Office BizTech Daily, and Michael Gnade, Co-Founder Indie Games Magazine - talked about their experience in using MagCloud to create their own independent magazines.

The talk reassured publishers that print was still important. Patty Tulloch, Marketing Manager for MagCloud, informed the audience that of 3.8 billion magazines delivered to newsstands, 62% were returned to the wholesaler. She therefore encouraged publishers to consider the new approach of on-demand printing which is both financially and environmentally economical. She also told listeners that it was 25% easier to read from page than on screen and that consumers are still willing to pay money for a printed magazine that is tangible and personal and provides a kind of intimacy that is not gained from reading or viewing content online.

Kalina, Rooney and Gnade all emphasized their use of social networking sites to publicize their products. Rooney, in particular, emphasized her use of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, which have links to each other and which ultimately lead back to MagCloud where consumers can order the magazine. Both Kalina and Gnade stated that their magazines were supported by a small, niche community who wanted to support them and who enjoyed having a tangible product that had personal value.

The talk promoted print and discussed consumers' passion for buying relevant and unique material. It suggested that, for the independent magazine market in particular, there is still a consumer driven requirement to have a magazine in printed format. Tulloch stated that publishers should not consider moving exclusively online, but that the perfect relationship was a combination of print and digital.

Consumer Adoption of New Gadgetry-Summary

The final talk of the first day of conference sessions was held in the Atlas Center at the University of Colorado. The panel was moderated by Mike Edelhart, CEO of LiveDeal and consisted of Laura Kornish, an assistant professor of Marketing at the university; Dr J. Richard Stevens, assistant professor of Journalism and Mass Media at CU; Daliah Singer, a soon-to-be graduate of Denver University and editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, The Clarion; and Lynn Schofield Clark, an associate professor and Director of the Estow Center of Journalism and New Media at DU.

Lynn Schofield Clark began the talk with an overview of her findings in a recent study researching how families incorporate digital media into their lives. She stated that 89% of families with children under 18 had more than one cell phone. She went on to explain how this rise in the use of technology was not limited to cell phone use, but that social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn were also becoming more widely used and were attracting more cross-generational interest than ever before. Surprisingly, her findings suggested that television viewing had declined, whilst the use of these other forms of media and communication were on the rise. In particular, her findings suggested that moms that have moments of free time will productively utilize these new technologies to correspond with friends and share information and content that they consider entertaining and/or pertinent. She was, therefore, optimistic that magazines could benefit from the increased use of technology to spread their content over text, Facebook or email with little or no cost to themselves. Overall, she believed that this was a great opportunity for magazine publishers to reach a larger audience, and echoed the previous talks of the day by emphasizing the need for magazines to embrace new technologies.

The talk progressed with the examination of the needs of different generations, specifically of Baby Boomers and Millenials. Daliah Singer gave us an insight into the relationship between youth and new media where she explained the desire of youths to have instant access to short, informative snippets of news and entertainment that would give them a general overview of a subject rather than an in-depth examination. Dr Stevens added that whilst Boomers considered sports and entertainment a distraction from work, Millenials wanted to see the two integrated rather than mutually exclusive. He also suggested that Millenials see media as an opportunity to produce as well as consume and that allowing interaction and the sharing of ideas was key to infiltrating this market.

Laura Kornish concluded the talks in expressing her view that magazines were the original mobile content, but added that we were about to see a boom in the production and adoption of new electronic reading devices, such as The Kindle. Her tone and line of argument was similar to the other speakers, stressing that the integration of new technology is of paramount importance, but without suggestion that print is, or soon will be, obsolete.

The talk was generally uplifting. The speakers explained that although the use of new media is being increasingly adopted by all generations, they were convinced that magazines could create their own unique space in this market through adaptation and innovation.

Speakers: right to left, Mike Edelhart, Lynn Schofield Clark, Daliah Singer, Dr J. Richard Stevens, Laura Kornish.

Highlights: "Extending Brands Beyond the Page"

"Extending Brands Beyond the Page" with Colin Crawford (Media7), Chris Allen (Consultant), Clay Hall (Aspire Media), Don Peschke (August Home Publishing)

“Customers are at the center of everything “

§  20% learns by reading text

§  40% learns by photo/illustration/video

§  Some learn kinetically (via experience)

§  Others learn via 3rd person/1st person

“Sites should be created with the intention to sell “

“Publishers must engage in matrix marketing”

·         E-delivery

·         Subscription or pay per dpwnload

·         Targeted content (quick read <5min.)

·         Professional content

·         Designed for screen (not pdf)

·         Media Rich (text phone, video

·         Interactive

“We have to create multiple touch points to engage customers and draw on revenue”

Top Ways to Extend Your Brand:

·         Online back issues

·         Online books

·         Online video

·         Online subscriptions

·         Advertising

·         Traditional subscriptions

·         Create once and deliver often

·         Articles

·         Email newsletters (daily)

·         Blogs

·         TV program

·         Book features

·         After-life licensing

·         Events & workshops

·         Video (DVD) & streaming video

·         Online communities

·         E-commerce store

“All strategies should be directed at transactions”

Highlights: "Success: D-I-G-I-T-A-L" (Pt III)

Part III: "Success: D-I-G-I-T-A-L" with Andy Clurman (Active Interest Media), David Lusterman (String Letter Publishing), Janine Scolpino (Tanton Press), & Jonno Wells (Surfline/Wavetrak)

Opinions & Observations:

·         “Freemium” is the buzz

·         Content that costs more to produce than the revenue it generates is basically subsidized marketing cost.  At some point, magazine must make an ROI on it (online or offline)

·         Supply of advertising impressions is growing exponentially faster than demand.  The price of an impression is heading toward free

·         People are flooded with content and media choices and need trusted filters more than ever

·         There are undiscovered utilities in every market

·         There is unique content worth paying for in ever market

·        Publishers must be focused on finding value that some users are willing to pay for

Highlights: "Success: D-I-G-I-T-A-L" (Pt II)

Part II: "Success: D-I-G-I-T-A-L" with Andy Clurman (Active Interest Media), David Lusterman (String Letter Publishing), Janine Scolpino (Tanton Press), & Jonno Wells (Surfline/Wavetrak)

Quotes of the Day:

“If you can’t give consumers what they want they’ll find someone who will”

“Move from free model to fee model”

“Product  + Expertise + Engagement + Trust + Quality  = High User Value”

“An upsell does not equal ‘more’ but equals ‘better’”

Lessons Learned:

·         Content (archives, video, proportion of free, article preview pages)

·         Pricing (parity pricing, annual membership for online-only subs – parity)

·         Acquisition (organic, cover wraps and space ads, pay per click campaigns)

·         Email marketing

·         Conversions (quick order process, reduced order process)

·         Research (consumer level of satisfaction)

·         Offers/Upsells (Free trial, combo offer, future tests)

·         Vendors & Software

·         Retention (how long members stay w/you)

·         Consumers will Pay

Highlights: "Success: D-I-G-I-T-A-L" (Pt I)

Part I: "Success: D-I-G-I-T-A-L" with Andy Clurman (Active Interest Media), David Lusterman (String Letter Publishing), Janine Scolpino (Tanton Press), & Jonno Wells (Surfline/Wavetrak)

Digital Publishing = audience

Management of digital publishing resides with audience development team.  Their mission:

·         Treat readers and visitors as customers

·         Stay focused on direct marketing

·         Solicit engagement and feedback

Web+ email = direct mail

·         Traditional dependence on direct mail has shifted to web and email marketing

·         Cost of direct mail = costs of web development

Three Popular Subscription Products:

·         All access:  access to premium web content

·         Premium: premium web access + magazine

·         Club : premium web access + retailer discounts + community

Web visit = sales opportunity

Four Types of Registration Programs:

·         E-newsletters

·         Giveaways with contracted advertising partners

·         Social networking

·         Awards program

Publisher “To Do” List:

1)      Focus on SEO (search engine optimization) and build traffic

2)      Expand e-commerce

3)      Use articles to cross-market products

4)      Add fifth registration option w/free downloads

5)      Make club more visible to visitors

Summary of Bo Sacks's Talk on the Future of Publishing

Bo Sacks, President and Publisher of Precision Media, talked after lunch about the future of the publishing industry. His main argument focused on publishers' need to embrace new technologies as they emerge and that denial of their existence and importance would rapidly lead to our decline.

Bo's charismatic speech, which included many an amusing picture slide, aimed to encourage us that print was not dead, and that it was only the delivery of our content that has changed and will continue to change for years to come. He talked about the new technologies, such as e-readers, that are available to allow magazines to survive if editors utilize their function. This lightweight product, which holds thousands of pages of content, simulates the form and flexibility of paper and relies on low power - only used when turning a virtual page. Bo talked about the host of different companies now involved in producing e-readers, such as Fujitsu and Sony, which served to emphasise his point that we are not a dying industry, we are innovating and finding new ways to survive.

Bo stressed that magazines still have a lot to offer their readers, noting six key properties of a magazine which will continue to aid its survival:

Metered - division of written material into defined pages of content

Edited - the use of editors to fact-check and tweak content to avoid the publication of irrelevant and low-quality material.

Designed - that information and content is arranged and formatted by professionals to suit their audience.

Date-Stamped - giving readers the opportunity to relate content to context.

Permanent - other than a few minor edits, once the content is published it is permanent.

Periodical - relates to calendar rythms and is relevant at the time of print.

He expressed his belief that the internet had not killed newspapers, that their decline preceded its introduction, but that this new media most likely accelerated the speed of their regression.

Bo championed Twitter as a way of instantaneously communicating up-to-the-minute news to a specific audience. He noted the Chinese earthquake tweet as an example of the relevance of this form of communication. He explained that there was a new kind of attitude where people expect the news, if important enough, will find them. This passive approach to reading the news necessitates the use of sites like Twitter in order to reach a less active audience.

Bo's main theme was that quality of content is key. Magazines, he declared, are still hugely relevant and, if we adapt to the technological changes, we will continue to survive and thrive.

Bo Quotes:

"It is now more important to know how to search for a fact than to know a fact".

"The future is already here, it's just not widely distributed"

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it"

Highlights: "Outsourcing" (Pt II)

Part II: "Outsourcing: Strategy or Necessity" with Len Burnett (Uptown Media), Jim Elliott (James G. Elliott Co, Inc.), Rick Jonesv(DJG Marketing, LLC) and Dedra Smith (Printmark West)

Typical Outsourcing Objections:

·         “We tried it before and it didn’t work for us”

·         “We need high-caliber salespeople”

·         “Our sale is different, and reps just don’t understand”

·         “Rep firms can’t handle our business”

·         “We use sophisticated CRM or publishing systems”

·         “We want more control”

Common Outsourcing Mistakes:

·         Decisions are based on the manager, not the process requirements or other business realities

·         No look-back to test that the outsource adds the expected value

·         Failure to anticipate other adjustments that will be necessar to work with a third party

·         Failure to gain input from all constituents

·         Not REALLY enough time spent on planning and testing of the assumptions

·         Neglecting to do a follow-through

·         Not clearly articulating your needs

Read:  Highlights: "Outsourcing" (Pt 1)

Up Next: “The Future of Magazines” with Bo Sacks (Precision Media Group)