Editor’s Note: Last Week to Enter for Chance to Win Samsung Flatscreen TV
For the past three weeks, the Publishing Business Conference & Expo has been conducting a Build-a-Buzz marketing campaign, where you can enter your name into the sweepstakes for some great prizes. So far, prizes given away have included an iTunes Gift Card, a Kindle (3g+wifi), and a Sony Blu-ray. This week, the final drawing will be for the grand prize of a Samsung Flatscreen TV.
HOW TO PLAY
Here are the 3 easy steps to increase your chances to win the grand prize and help the conference build-a-buzz:
1. Click on “Enter Now” and complete a short entry form.
2. You’ll receive that week’s Tweets to promote to your followers. The more you tweet, the more chances you have to win.
3. That’s it! Help Us Build-a-Buzz!
Conversations With My Speakers
How one-on-one interaction with publishing industry leaders provides irreplaceable insight.
By Noelle Skodzinski
If you produce events, you know how much is involved in them, from sales and sponsorship efforts, venue negotiations, content planning and speaker acquisition, marketing planning and implementation, budgeting, etc. Regardless of the size of the event, it can be a behemoth process that spans many months before the event, and even several months after.
Still, many benefits exist, aside from potential revenue-generation and audience engagement (face time with your audience for your staff and your vendors).
But, I have an added advantage of organizing an event (the Publishing Business Conference and Expo) for my own industry, magazine publishing, and also for book publishing, an industry for which I am a personal advocate, and in which I am heavily involved as editorial director of Book Business magazine.
The benefits, therefore, for me are even greater, and possibly more like that of an attendee than a planner. I’ve had the honor of speaking with industry greats like Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion—our keynote speaker; Charlie McCurdy of Apprise Media; Ron Diorio of The Economist; Maurice Bakley, COO of Fierce Markets; Lou Sabatier of Sabatier Consulting; John Morse, president of Merriam-Webster; David Granger, editor of Esquire; and dozens of others, including vendors.
It’s amazing what you can learn from talking to these industry innovators for even just five or 10 minutes.
So, my point is to stress how important it is to talk to others at this critical time in our industry, whether you come out to the Publishing Business Conference, join some online social networks (LinkedIn has plenty of publishing-related groups, including those for Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines, as well as many not affiliated with our publications), contact a few of your peers in the industry and ask if they’d like to have lunch or just talk periodically. I know that CEOs of some major publishing houses have lunch and/or get together to share challenges, ideas, whatever.
Essential Concepts/Ideas From Our Speakers
In my discussions with industry executives who will be speaking at the conference, here are some points, concepts, ideas I’ve picked up:
- The Web Ceiling. The Web may have a “ceiling” to potential revenue it can drive for magazine publishers. But it also has many uses for driving business in other areas, such as cross-selling.
- Expanding Beyond Borders. Many book publishers’ No. 1 concern is the retail industry and what its future holds. Where will consumers buy books? Should publishers be pushing quickly to develop models for selling direct to consumer? Some say yes, and even some major publishers are starting to move in this direction.
- Who Is the E-consumer? We don’t know enough about consumer adoption/purchasing of e-books. Amazon’s figures suggest amazing growth and e-book sales, but is it more a case of an impressive spin doctor? New research exists exploring the entire consumer market, and it may surprise you.
- Tap Your Expertise. Custom publishing is opening its doors to the publishing market—driving opportunity for publishers to create everything from custom publications to websites to marketing campaigns, social media campaigns, etc. … anything that can tap a publisher’s expertise at building and engaging an audience.
- Building Blogs for Business. Building online communities can have a significant impact on a publishing business’ ability to compete with even larger competitors. Blogs can play an essential role in this.
- Check Out New Tools. Technologies and tools for helping publishers engage their audiences and increase time spent on their websites are emerging quickly. Start exploring these for ways to ease the workload on your staff, while implementing automated engagement tactics.
- The Hybrid. The time has come for book and magazine publishers to re-concieve what they are. They must begin to see themselves no longer as print publishers considering or branching into digital, but as integrated publishers living in a hybrid world. Facilitating organizational change stems from this perspective.
- Breaking It Down. The new way of thinking about content has been termed by some as “disaggregation”—or thinking of content in useful pieces as opposed to one unit of sale (the book). The Web and the mobile world have exacerbated the pace of transition into this new world, where consumers search for, discover and use content differently than ever before. Disaggregating your content can help you serve them in new ways.
- The Modern-Day Magazine Publisher. A significant number of publishers rely heavily on print for the bulk of their revenue, but that number is declining. New business models and revenue streams are needed. Whether acquiring niche social media sites, blog sites, or other online entities; creating ad networks; developing unique, integrated sponsorship opportunities; licensing content and turning ad sales over to licensees; building or expanding in-person and virtual events businesses, from conferences and educational/instructional content to sponsored meet-ups and focus groups; developing digital content for the web, iPad/tablets, mobile, etc.; focusing on paid-content opportunities, setting up paywalls; etc., the list is endless. Some are pursuing these and trimming or even eliminating print, but many say print is and will remain, at least for some time, the foundation upon which these other business rest.
- The App vs. ROI? Some question whether current hype about the iPad and forthcoming tablets is just that—hype vs. real business opportunity. Many, however, agree the potential brought about by the iPad is eye-opening, but aren’t sure exactly how to tap the opportunity it presents. Are you throwing something out there just to be on the bandwagon? What is your objective? What does your audience want? What’s your content strategy? Business model? Are you expecting a financial ROI? Exposure? Thinking through your strategy, as in any other new product launch, to determine how to best serve your audiences, profitably, is essential.
Adam Lerner: ‘[We] Have Been Sidetracked by Technology Issues’
The Lerner Publishing Group president sees his company’s future in its content.
Adam Lerner is no stranger to the publishing industry—with 20 years in its trenches. He started out at Barnes & Noble, before working in various positions for New York publishing houses over the years, including as a rights manager and director at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, where he was instrumental in negotiating and contracting the film rights of the picture book “Shrek” to Dreamworks.
In 1998, he joined Lerner Publishing Group Inc. and was appointed president and publisher three years later. Under his leadership, Lerner Publishing Group has seen a 50-percent growth in annual title output and sales revenue, and the incorporation of two major acquisitions.
Like most publishers, he sees major challenges facing his business; but unlike many publishers, the primary challenge he sees is not the digital transition and its impact on the industry.
Here, he speaks with Insider about what his company’s most significant challenge is, as well as his belief in a future that, whether print or digital (“hopefully both,” he says) is based on content—a return to “the basics” if you will, where publishers focus on what they’re good at: producing great content.
Insider: What is the biggest challenge Lerner Publishing Group is facing right now?
Adam Lerner: The biggest challenge is frankly the budget crisis that’s impacting schools and library funding. It’s actually a bigger challenge than the digital transition … for us. The digital transition is a big challenge, but it’s been very much exacerbated by cuts the to school and library funding. I think it would have made a transition to digital—[well], it would have happened more smoothly.
Insider: How are you addressing it?
Lerner: We just have to be much more aggressive in our sales approaches to the market, and [aware] that the usual sources of funding aren’t always there—they’re at a lower level than they have been—so we have to figure out ways to position our products and open new sales channels to maintain revenue growth.
Insider: What do you consider to be Lerner’s biggest opportunity in today’s marketplace?
Lerner: For us, it’s that content is still valuable, and people are willing to pay for good content. And we have a huge amount of really valuable content, and we’re working to unlock the value of all of it in various formats, along with print, that complement print.
We’ve been publishing books for over 50 years, we routinely win awards and get great reviews, and are on all kinds of state lists and [have won] ALA [American Library Association] awards, so we have really valuable content, and I’m excited that the focus is kind of swinging back to content and the delivery channels are starting to firm up. People are starting to figure out how to actually make e-books, digital content accessible, on the device side, but also on the platform side—consumers are starting to understand platforms, and so are schools and libraries. And they’re also starting to realize that access to any content—Wikipedia, that kind of thing—free content, in many cases doesn’t meet their needs, and they realize they have to go out and pay for content.
A lot of this sounds basic, but it’s been a long time coming back to the basics … that content is really what we do.
I think a lot of publishers, us included, have been sidetracked by technology issues—hardware, software—all those kinds of issues that we’ve had to grapple with that are sort of outside our area of expertise.
Insider: Where, if anywhere, are you scaling back?
Lerner: … Probably in major digital and infrastructure undertakings, and that’s only because we’ve accomplished a lot of our objectives, so we don’t have to undertake any major infrastructure initiatives now. … We’re not scaling back staff to speak of, we’re not trimming our list. We’re trimming a little here and there, but I wouldn’t say we’re scaling back.
Insider: What were some of the major infrastructure undertakings?
Lerner: We had to [create] a huge new website. [That] was a very big undertaking. We’ve also launched some digital products. We now have a digital platform for digital distribution. We’ve developed an engine to create digital products. So those are two major infrastructure projects we did last year.
Insider: Where are you investing most heavily?
Lerner: We continue to invest heavily in our content. That’s still our primary investment. Whether it’s print or digital, it doesn’t matter, or both—hopefully both. That’s where we see our real future is our content.
Insider: As co-chair of the Publishing Business Conference & Expo, are there any conference sessions in particular to which you are particularly looking forward?
Lerner: I am interested in hearing Deborah Forte speak [on the opening session, "The Cross-Platform Book Publisher: Reinvent Your Company].” We look to Scholastic as an industry leader. We can’t do things that they can on that kind of scale. So to see a media person as part of Scholastic, that’s really interesting to me to see the media as sort of an appendage to Scholastic and how they’re approaching it, and what her approach is—to what’s really a traditional publisher. If there are ways we can model that in a way that makes sense for us, that’s what I look for.
Insider: What are you hoping attendees (including yourself) will get out of the conference this year?
Lerner: To hear what other people are doing, to network, to share ideas.
I also am interested in seeing and being exposed to the magazine world a little bit more. I think that’s important. I think the magazine world is kind of a precursor often to what’s going to happen in the book industry—a predictor, if you will … as far as business models and direction of the market.
One Essential Piece of Advice to Help Publishers Adapt Today: An Interview With Lou Sabatier, Principal, Sabatier Consulting
Lou Sabatier has been in the publishing industry for a quarter of a century. She’s worked with nearly 100 media clients, including Knight Ridder, Harper’s Weekly, The Week, Garden & Gun Magazine, New York Times Magazine Group, as well as dozens of b-to-b and association publishers. She started her consulting firm 15 years ago to help publishers with strategic business evaluations and programs that help achieve enhanced profitability in tough markets.
Sabatier and her colleague, Ed Fitzelle, will be presenting the session, “4 Critical Management Steps to Take in 2011,” at the Publishing Business Conference & Expo, April 4-6, in New York. Insider caught up with Sabatier to ask her what she sees publishers doing wrong in their efforts to adapt to a rapidly evolving publishing market, as well as what her best advice is for thriving in the new media universe.
Insider: What are the primary things you see publishers doing wrong, strategically, in this time of significant industry transition?
Lou Sabatier: Can I recast that question, because I’m not sure I would categorize it as wrong. It could be wrong for one person at a certain point in time. But, what I see right now … is how they’re embracing and changing and adapting with their business models. I think the change is happening so quickly that there tend to be two camps: Publishers of any size tend to be waiting to see where the shake out will be or where it’s going to settle in, and they’re comfortable moving forward; or they’re grabbing one technology or platform, developing for it and going down that path.
I think both of those positions can be faulty. If you’re waiting for things to settle in, they’re not going to settle in. That’s not the nature of the climate. The acceleration of new products and platforms being introduced is so quick, faster than we’ve ever seen, that I’m not sure what the shake out is. What happens is you’re missing some opportunities … on how to move with your audience and meet the needs of your audience, no matter what the niche is.
On the flip side, if you tend to be only looking at one technology—because everyone seems to be doing that; obviously I might be talking about the iPad here—I would [stress] a note of caution because a lot of people are putting a great amount of money into developing those without a thought as to how it fits into their bigger plan. … Does the app need some kind of monetization? And is it the app only for the iPad, or will Android be a much bigger market in a short period of time?
Hindsight is 20/20, but I guess I would say [there needs to be] some monetization, and you want a path ideally somewhere in the middle of those positions.
And what I mean by that is take some calculated risk, but I think there is education and there are resources to tap into, whether organizations or other publishers.
So a little more due diligence and more of the bigger plan on how they’re adapting, rather than just chasing the platform. It’s not about the platform; the platform is just the facilitator. What are you going to do with it? How is it going to serve your audience? And if you serve them, you’re going to make money—or you should make money.
Insider: Do you think small, mid-size and large publishers tend to make the same choices?
Sabatier: Yes. It’s not necessarily a matter of size. I think it comes down to leadership and vision. And some of the most innovative [things] come from the small and mid-size markets as well as the big ones.
Sometimes you would think big companies could not be as nimble, but I’ve also seen small companies get paralysis by analysis.
Insider: Do small publishers have an advantage, as some suggest, because they don’t have corporate red tape to slow them down? Or do large publishers have an advantage because of resources? Or are neither really relevant?
Sabatier: I think the bigger publishers have shed a lot of the red tape. Let’s set aside the really large—when you’re talking to public companies who have to answer to shareholders and boards of directors, and it’s much more formalized, but that’s actually a very small group—so among other large publishers, they’re innovative, the silos are breaking down, and they can move just as quickly or almost as quickly as smaller or mid-size publishers.
I will add that a misnomer people tend to have is that larger publishers have more money, and I don’t thinks that’s always the case. I think it’s allocated, and sometimes it’s a little more costly for them to move into a market, but otherwise, no.
Insider: If you could give publishers one piece of advice to help them navigate the shifts in the marketplace, what would it be?
Sabatier: Keep your eye on the audience, because it’s easy to get off of that and become slaves to our history, our legacy. … So, where is your audience moving or where can you take them? And that’s with analytics.
I really think we need to dust it off and gain a new respect and appreciation for research and data. Because you can take the same audience you used to reach through mass market … that I can [now] serve [through niche markets]. But even now we’re splitting niches 10 different ways, and some are doing it profitably. But they’re doing it because they understand, with research, where the audience is going and what they’re doing, and that research is [often] real-time. …
We have the data. I’m amazed at what’s coming out of fulfillment houses … what they’re doing with their data on the back end, and their analytics with their web products. And if [publishers] don’t know what to do with the data, there’s help out there for that, too.
I think research and analytics are crucial to any size publisher as they move forward. Cavalier doesn’t work well in today’s climate.
Insider: Can you give us a sneak peek into what you’ll be addressing in your session at the Publishing Business Conference?
Sabatier: … I can tell you that it’s not going to be theoretical, even for senior or junior level managers. It’s going to be actually things they can put into practice, some tomorrow and some long term. And I think that’s important because I think sometimes you go to a conference and you think, ‘OK, that’s great. I can put that into next year’s budget.’ But notice we say ’2011′ [in the session title], and it’s 2011 right now; so these are things you might be able to do in the future, but we’re hoping to give you something you can put on the ground and test right now or implement.
So it’s very actionable. It’s not opinion. It’s not speculation.
Lou Sabatier
Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion, to Present Keynote Address at Publishing Business Conference & Expo
Get a behind-the-scenes look at ‘the most powerful and feared media empire in the world’ and its plans for ‘world domination.’
With plans to take over the world’s media, as The Onion President and CEO Steve Hannah says, the satirical media company The Onion (billed as “America’s Finest News Source”) may well be on its way. What started in 1988 in a dorm room at the University of Wisconsin has gone from being a weekly campus newspaper “to the most powerful and feared media empire in the world.”
It has grown into the epitome of an integrated media company, spanning:
- print (published in 12 major cities);
- online (with 10 million monthly uniques online, e-newsletters, video);
- books (such as “Our Dumb Century” and “Our Dumb World,” which regularly make The New York Times Best Sellers list);
- calendars, cards, stickers, magnets, mugs, gifts, maps;
- radio (with 1 million national listeners to Onion Radio News.);
- iPhone and Android apps; and now
- television. (The Onion launched two new TV shows this year, “Onion SportsDome” on Comedy Central, and “The Onion News Network” on IFC).
The media organization was among the early adopters of video, launching its Onion News Network, a 24-hour video news network, in 2007.
The Onion has more than 2.5 million Twitter followers and approximately 1.5 million Facebook fans.
The Onion also launched a sister brand, The A.V. Club, a pop-culture website (with 2 million monthly uniques), which The New York Times referred to as “where the smart kids go” to get news about music, film, video games, books, etc.
Hannah, who has been president and CEO of The Onion for seven years, will deliver the keynote address at the 2011 Publishing Business Conference & Expo (April 4-6 at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square). In an event sure to make you laugh—and possibly cry—Hannah will give a behind-the-scenes look at The Onion and its cross-media growth, its recent print-licensing partnerships and recently launched TV shows, as well as its plans for “world domination, plain and simple.”
The keynote address will take place on Monday, April 4, at 10:05 a.m., following a welcome address by David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine.
For more information about the Publishing Business Conference & Expo, produced by Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines, or to register, visit http://www.PublishingBusiness.com.
Featured Video: ‘How do we Reinvent Ourselves in this Hybrid World?’
Noelle Skodzinski, program director of the 2011 Publishing Business Conference and Expo, here talks about the goals of this year’s conference: to address the challenges and possibilities for publishers as the industry continues its headlong march into a multichannel future. As she notes, success depends on “your strategy for moving forward without losing the core of your brand”—a key focus in 2011 as book and magazine executives gather April 4-6 at the New York Marriott Marquis for what promises to be a galvanizing experience.
A message From Program Director Noelle Skodzinski
INTERQUEST to Deliver Sixth Annual Digital Book Printing Forum
Charlottesville, VA — INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, today announced its annual educational forum on trends and opportunities in digital book manufacturing. The Digital Book Printing Forum will be held Tuesday, April 5, 2011, during the annual Publishing Business Conference Expo organized by Book Business magazine at the New York Marriott Marquis in midtown Manhattan.
“The theme of this year’s Publishing Business Conference is thriving in the new media universe, and what better way to prepare attendees for coming changes than to expose them to this important and exciting application of digital printing,” noted Dave Leskusky, Group Publisher of the Publishing Business Conference & Expo. “We want to give attendees all the information and ammunition we possibly can, and we think the Digital Book Printing Forum will add an important dimension to their experience at Publishing Business again this year.”
According to David Davis, a director at INTERQUEST, “The book publishing business is vibrant with change on virtually all fronts ranging from distribution channels to book formats. Digital printing is playing an ever-increasing role as publishers and printers work to improve the process of producing books and efficiently distributing them to the market. We’re excited to again host this event where leading players gather to exchange ideas and learn about new developments in digital book manufacturing.”
In the morning session the Forum Keynote will be followed by a presentation from INTERQUEST featuring updates and key results from recent research. Attendees will then hear from a panel of leading book printers who will discuss their experiences with digital printing and their views of the market.
The afternoon portion of the program features a panel of executives from leading printing systems vendors who will discuss a number of issues key to the growth of digital printing. This will be followed by a special session centered on finishing, paper, and workflow developments and challenges. Key players in book publishing will then discuss their views for managing supply chain using digital printing, as well as publishing trends and challenges.
“Inkjet printing is unquestionably one of the most significant recent developments in the book printing market,” according to Davis. “But attendees will hear not only about inkjet, but about the entire manufacturing process ranging from printing to finishing. Publishers will also share their views of the challenges and opportunities in the market.”
The Digital Book Printing Forum is sponsored by the leading printing systems vendors, including Hewlett-Packard, InfoPrint Solutions, Kodak, Océ, and Xerox; as well as Glatfelter, Lulu, Standard Finishing Systems, and Webcom.
Forum attendees are also invited to the Publishing Business Expo.
Publishing Business Conference & Expo Conference Launches Build-a-Buzz Giveaway
(Philadelphia – February 2, 2011) The Publishing Business Conference & Expo, the nation’s largest event for book and magazine publishing executives, has launched “Build-a-Buzz” Giveaway – a social networking contest for publishers (or anyone) who wants to win one of four cool prizes: a 32″ Flat Panel TV, Blue Ray Player, Amazon Kindle or Apple Store gift card.
“The Build-a-Buzz Giveaway will allow our followers to engage with us on a more social level. We have some terrific prizes lined up and we can’t wait to award four lucky winners from our social communities,” comments Jessica Marcial, marketing manager, Publishing Business Conference & Expo. “We are also looking to welcome new members into our network and update folks all about book and magazine publishing; plus provide updates on all of the latest and greatest information about our face-to-face event, Publishing Business Conference & Expo.”
To enter the Publishing Business Conference & Expo Build-a-Buzz Giveaway contest, fill out the entry form. After you enter, you can increase your chances to win by posting the promotional tweets on your personal Twitter profile. Each entrant may enter once a day but is only eligible to win one prize, which could be a $100 Apple Store gift card, a Kindle, a Blue Ray Player or a “32″ Flat Panel TV. A complete prize schedule and prize list are available at http://www.publishingbusiness.com/buzz/enter-to-win/. Winners will be selected at random and will be posted at http://www.publishingbusiness.com/buzz/winners/.
Publishing Business Conference & Expo is a three-day, two-track program designed for book and magazine publishers. The leading-edge program addresses pressing issues facing book and magazine publishing executives today. As an attendee, you will walk away with strategies, tips and tactics to help you and your company thrive.. The event is scheduled for April 4-6, 2011, at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square.
Click here for more information on Publishing Business Conference & Expo.
To follow Publishing Business Conference & Expo on Twitter, visit: http://www.PublishingBusiness.com/twitter.
To enter the contest, visit: http://www.publishingbusiness.com/buzz/enter-to-win/
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