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MPA-IMAG INDEPENDENTS' DAY
HOW INDEPENDENTS CAN CHANGE, ADAPT AND GROW WITH THE TIMES
MPA-IMAG DAY LUNCHEON REDISCOVERING THE PROMISE OF MEDIA AND THE POWER OF GOOD
Keynote: Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO, GOOD Worldwide, Inc.
Jonathan Greenblatt of GOOD kicked off the sixth annual Independents’ Day pre-conference sessions at the 2008 American Magazine Conference. Some of the things he discussed included the many different ways GOOD, which donates 100% of its subscription revenue to charity, is spreading its brand.
A few examples Greenblatt shared included an onsert in a recent New York Times that reached 750,000 subscribers as well as special theme-based mini-issues of GOOD distributed at Starbucks.
"We also wanted to capitalize on the election year and get our audience involved," Greenblatt said, so the magazine invited readers to design bumper stickers that would encourage people to vote, resulting in thousands of entries. "The important thing for us is to create that conversation and dialogue with our readers and then create pathways for them to take action," he said.
GO DIGITAL: PUBLICIZE YOUR BRAND AND ENGAGE YOUR READERS
Moderator: Andrew Clurman, Group Publisher and COO, Active Interest Media
Panelists: Nancy Alonzo, Publisher, dwell.com (left)
Mitchell Fox, President and CEO, 8020Media (center)
Kent Kirschner, Media Specialist, Neighborhood America (right)
During this Independents’ Day session, Andrew Clurman of Active Interest Media led a panel on one of the great movements in publishing today, entitled "Go Digital: Publicize Your Brand and Engage Your Readers."
Each of the three panelists, which included Nancy Alonzo, dwell.com; Kent Kirschner, Media Specialist for Neighborhood America; and Mitchell Fox, 8020 Publications, discussed what his or her company was doing to engage audience.
"The audience is in the middle of everything we do and it allows us to think holistically about it," Alonzo said, noting that Dwell isn't a magazine company but one that serves its audience. "The magazine may engage them, but people want to talk about issues online or at events." The important thing, she says, is to have a passionate audience to work with and then create an environment where they feel comfortable expressing themselves.
Kirschner encouraged publishers to determine what users' specific goals may be when using a particular site and then create an environment to help strengthen that. If someone is looking for virtual workout buddies, that idea can be taken and used to encourage audience participation and interactivity. "Which workouts are being used? Which ones are people finding effective?" he asked. "This kind of relationship building can be a very effective thing."
Fox noted that engaging an audience can lead to other revenue streams. For example, a site can allow users to post photographs and also offer a feature to produce and purchase hard-copy photo books.
AMC 2008 KICK-OFF
KICK-OFF KEYNOTE
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
The 2008 American Magazine Conference officially kicked off its Sunday proceedings with a keynote address from Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who represents the San Francisco district where the conference is being held. Pelosi made news last week when Republican members of Congress claimed she derailed the $700 billion bailout bill by giving a scathing speech on the House floor.
Pelosi shared that she has loved magazines since childhood, reading Newsweek, TIME and BusinessWeek every week, among other publications. She pointed out that when America was first born, communication and transportation were intertwined. Messages could only go as far as a horse could travel or a boat could sail and timeliness was tied to that as well. Magazine publishers have traveled a long way since then, she noted, "Magazines have adapted and you have all been in the lead.”
One issue that Pelosi feels strongly about is First Amendment rights and providing a Shield Law for journalists. "It is crucial that journalists have that kind of protection," she said. "You are a very important part of making our government work." She mentioned that the House has passed a Shield Law but that the bill died in Senate and was not re-introduced. "The Administration did not want that bill to continue," she said. She promised that if there is a Democratic President and Congress after November 4, the Shield Law will be revisited and passed.
Pelosi spoke at length about the recent Wall Street bailout, which she preferred to call a "rescue." She said that there were four elements that were crucial to the passage of the bill:
- Oversight and accountability to the American people
- An ownership stake for taxpayers so there is a potential financial upside for the taxpayers
- Salary reform on Wall Street: no golden parachutes
- Forbearance for homeowners.
She also noted that she hopes that with a Democratic President and Congress, there will be significant investment in science and technology on a variety of fronts, including education, energy, healthcare and infrastructure rebuilding.
KICK-OFF KEYNOTE
Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO, DreamWorks Animation SKG (right)
Interviewed by Andrew Serwer, Managing Editor, FORTUNE (left)
The evening continued with Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, interview by Andy Serwer of FORTUNE.
Katzenberg discussed the resiliency of the movie business in light of the current fiscal crisis in America. "What we have seen historically and today still is that movies, DVDs and the entertainment that we're involved in tends to be recession resistant," he said, noting that movies and DVDs generally provide good value to the customer.
He did note that larger entertainment companies will likely be hurting because their business are more spread out, and some of them are likely dependent on advertising support, which has lots of financial pressure on it. "It's going to be a very challenging couple of years," he said.
Still, Katzenberg feels DreamWorks will grow its business over the next few years. One of the reasons for that is the debut of Next Generation 3D in the coming months. "This is an experience that will be truly exceptional and can't be done in their homes," he said, thinking that this would draw viewers back to movie houses.
Katzenberg has been working on 3D for many years now and is excited to see it come to fruition. A deal is very close, he revealed, between distributors and exhibitor companies to put the proper equipment in place to show digital and three-dimensional films.
He believes this new version of 3D will be as large a shift within the film industry as when films went from silent to sound and from black and white to color. Katzenberg felt that this development could spill out into many other parts of the general culture, including magazines and photography. "Movies today are the equivalent of a vinyl record," he said.
Katzenberg and Dreamworks have also been working with a large eyeglass company to produce 3D glasses that people can own, rather than using the flimsy cardboard versions. There is currently one set of glasses under development that work as sunglasses outside and as 3D glasses within the movie theater.
SHOWTIME’S UNIQUE MAGAZINE AD BUY
Matthew C. Blank, Chairman and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc. (center)
Michael C. Hall, star of Showtime’s “Dexter” (right)
Interviewed by Drew Schutte, Vice President and Publishing Director, The New Yorker (left)
The Sunday evening program closed with Matthew Blank of Showtime Networks, who was interviewed by The New Yorker’s Drew Schutte. They spoke about the evolution of television and particularly about an advertising campaign by one of the network's biggest shows, “Dexter.” In the ad campaign, the main character appears on a variety of magazine covers with the show title replacing the magazine title. "There are a lot of great, distinctive magazine covers out there so we took this unique idea to have Dexter morphed into a number of magazines," said Blank. "The traditional belief is that the best way to sell television is through television. Michael C. Hall, the star of "Dexter" who gained fame in HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” spoke with Schutte as well.
NETWORKING AT AMC 2008
Attendees mixing and mingling at AMC 2008 Day One
AMC 2008 Chairperson Michela Abrams, Dwell; Nina Link, MPA; Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and MPA Chairman John Q. Griffin, National Geograpic Magazine Group
Edward Lewis, Essence Communications; Don Kummerfeld, FIPP; Christie Hefner, Playboy Enterprises; and Tarun Rai, Worldwide Media
Jack Kliger, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., and Alain Lemarchand, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.
Chris Johns, National Geographic; MaryAnn Bekkedahl, Rodale Inc.; John Q. Griffin, National Geographic Magazine Group
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