MPA Speeches--Jack Kliger, AMC 2007

October 29, 2007

Jack Kliger
President and Chief Executive Officer
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.

Outgoing Chairman
Magazine Publishers of America

American Magazine Conference
October 29, 2007
Boca Raton, FL

Thank you, Nina and congratulations to David Zinczenko and the AMC planning committee for putting together a terrific American Magazine Conference.

It has been an honor to serve as MPA chairman these past two years, and I thank you all for your input and energy on all sides of our debates and issues, and for making magazines a more valuable and visible player in the media landscape.

I want to thank the MPA leadership and staff. Nina Link has done and continues to do a great job as President/CEO.

Ellen Oppenheim and Dom Rossi are top-flight advertising and marketing professionals who are giving our industry the tools to get us a seat at the big table.

And Jeremy Koch is a great recent addition—a solid, experienced professional who will lead MPA consumer marketing efforts in the future.

And many thanks to Jim Cregan and Rita Cohen who led the long and arduous effort to successfully achieve postal reform legislation.

I also want to thank the three amigas: Christie Hefner, Ann Moore, and Cathie Black, who head up our Political Action Committee and helped to successfully push postal reform over the top as the midnight hour was striking.

It's actually inspiring to look out at this roomful of talented professionals, and feel a part of the dynamic exchange that defines the magazine publishing industry.

As we plan our strategy for the future and set up new rules for a new era, we can proceed with confidence in the framework that we, as an industry, have put in place.

Great content, more valued and needed on more platforms than ever before, is something at which we have always excelled.

Great Brands are our hallmark and our strength, and our link to the hearts and loyalty of our consumers.

And now the owners of the great magazine brands are uniting as an industry to accomplish much needed goals, while still maintaining the unique qualities and individuality of our magazines.

And a great Business Model is emerging, based on more streams of revenue and a better balance between our streams of revenue; based on embracing technology and using it to expand our brand and content offerings; and based on improving circulation profitability and readership development.

We are focused on developing new metrics to illustrate the true value of advertising in magazines, highlighting our place in the purchase funnel, and demanding our place at the table in the advertising effectiveness discussion.

Now I'd like to tell you a story.

About five years ago,

I had a conversation with the head of a major media buying service.

"Jack", he said, "magazines are heading for a rough time.

There are so many in each category now that it's easier for me to play them off against each other.

Magazines are in for some price deflation".

He was right—especially since value wasn’t much of a factor in magazine pricing and buying. 

That realization marked an epiphany for me.

I realized that the effectiveness of magazine advertising didn't hold any value to this buyer and that our industry, not any one company, needed to change the way that magazine audiences are measured,

so that magazine advertising can be valued and priced.

And to do that we needed timely and meaningful audience data to arm ourselves to participate in the discussion of advertising ROI—a discussion that was growing and continues to grow in importance to advertisers as they evaluate all forms of media.

Now, with all deference and respect for Bill Maher, let me share with you what I feel are some important New Rules, ladies and gentlemen, for U.S. magazines:

NEW RULE:  United We Stand; Divided We Will Decompose

There are things we must do as an industry that we can only do as an industry.

We've shown what can be accomplished as a unified entity by what was achieved with the recent passage of postal reform legislation.

This benefited not only MPA members, but also those publishers who have chosen to not be members, while getting a free ride on MPA efforts…I would add that to the definition of being a wimp.

We have united to "Market our Medium", so it is well understood that magazines are the medium of engagement, where consumers actually trust and welcome advertising. 

And we are uniting around making magazine audience measurement timely and reliable, enabling us to participate in the advertising effectiveness discussion.

We must continue to address these issues not as individual companies, but as an industry with shared vision and common purpose.

NEW RULE: Keep the Focus on the Reader; Love For Sale

We've proven over and over that readers love and trust magazines and that they will pay for what we produce.

I think John Griffin is going to be a terrific MPA chairman. He has forgotten more about consumer marketing than most people will ever learn. Actually, let's hope he hasn’t forgotten too much.

John is committed to leading the charge to better readership metrics. This is not to say that we should disregard circulation strategy. In fact, better audience measurement will make possible better circulation strategy, and we must develop circulation management strategy for solid business reasons so we can set the right business practices.

NEW RULE: Digitize and Monetize

We've moved past thinking that technology is Goliath and we have no Davids. Goliath is actually having lunch with us now, instead of eating our lunch. He's picking out carpet for his office suite, and we're making room for him.

He IS a big guy, but he's not intimidating. In fact, he's very valuable to have around, enabling us to spread our content and brands and consumer relationships onto new platforms. And he's making it more efficient to order a magazine or to place an ad!! We now see that magazines and websites work very effectively together and help expand what publishing means. 

So we're not trying to kill Goliath, we're adopting him, and letting him make a financial contribution, as he should. After all, he eats a lot….

And finally,

NEW RULE: The Dominance of the Petulant Metric Needs to Change

Today, the price of a magazine ad should matter less than the results it achieves, but it doesn't.

Because more than any other medium, magazines are bought on distribution input rather than advertising output, and this shortchanges our value proposition to the advertiser.

In a world where advertising is being held to a higher standard of accountability, credible audience metrics are essential. Without them, media buyers, as well as publishers, are being marginalized by a focus on pricing which cannot be connected to value…and when magazine advertising value is not recognized, it's not only the magazine’s benefits to the advertiser that are diminished, the importance of the magazine advertising buyer is diminished as the perceived value of what they purchase is systematically lessened.

We have embarked on the mission to empower ourselves to show how magazine advertising is connected to the value we deliver and if we can demonstrate that value, and make it a part of the measurement and price of magazine advertising, then both publishers and advertisers will benefit. 

Creating great content is as natural to us as breathing. Creating great brands is part of our DNA. And creating the great business model we deserve is our number one priority.

Today, I end my MPA chairmanship, but not my involvement.

My belief in our value is too strong to step aside and let skeptics say that magazines are headed for second tier status. I’m happy to pass the baton to the very worthy John Griffin.

I see a positive future for magazines, and at the same time, I can’t wait to dispense with the past and I challenge us all to stay the course that has been set in motion and push forward the trends now gathering momentum.

Thank you.

Now let me introduce John Griffin, who brings outstanding credentials to his role as the incoming Chairman of the MPA. John has spent two decades as president of several publishing companies, worked for seven years in consumer marketing, and spent seven years as an editor.

Based on this and his youthful appearance, I believe he started working at magazines when he was 12 years old.

Please welcome the President of The National Geographic Magazine Group, and your new MPA Chairman, John Griffin.