Life Lessons: The Story of an Old Man and Social Media
Editor’s Note: The following is a personal take on the value of social media by Sundeep Kapur, who will be moderating a session at next month’s Publishing Business Conference & Expo, “Social Media Workshop for Publishers.”
Okay, he is my grandfather and I can call him old.
‘Nanaji’ is 86 years old and to my chagrin had stopped subscribing to the morning newspaper. When we asked him why, he explained that he was tired of having to wait for the newspaper, or even the 24-hour news channel, so he now has a schedule where he reads the news online three times a day.
Plus, he can always go online whenever he wants to. Additionally, he reads five different online news magazines every day. He loves joining discussion groups, not to share his opinion but to get people’s perspective on the news.
He has stored our family pictures online, enjoys YouTube and is constantly getting updates via the online world as to what the rest of his family is doing.
He is religious and worships his wife, God and Google. Google, he says, has taught him a lot about the Web, and he also loves his dialogue with Google. He leverages the search engine to find recipes, news, information on medicines, etc. He asks, Google answers! No waiting!
What he loves about an online article is that he doesn’t have to find page B16 for the rest of the story. A simple click gets him there. He fills out his preferences and loves advertising that is targeted. He despises irrelevance and hates pop-ups.
He does buy the newspaper. His approach is simple; he reads most of the articles online and decides which publications are worth purchasing in print.
His take on the value of social media – it’s informational, entertaining, and gives him the ability to solve problems.
A simple message for all of us: Think about the value proposition to the consumer.
- Social media has made information available to consumers in real time. They want information now.
- Consumers also can get an opinion of how the information or news is trending by simply reading about the buzz on social media channels.
- Consumers have learned to differentiate between brands; there are some that offer better information versus others.
So for publishers to leverage social media we need to think about “linking” our articles to online and print sources. This gives the consumer lots of options and the ability to easily find useful information.
We need to also think about creating communities where we can facilitate discussions amongst like-minded readers.
Publishers also need to focus on differentiating their brand. There is incredible value in print, and even more value in multi-channel.
Join us April 6 at the Publishing Business Conference & Expo as we explore the best practices on how we could leverage social media into our communication mix. We will discuss a five-step approach to social media, all geared towards building our brand, driving revenue, and engaging our readers.
Marketing Innovation and Entertainment: An interview with Brett Cohen, Vice President, Quirk Books
When it comes to drawing attention to a book release, sometimes quirky is a good thing—just ask Brett Cohen, vice president of Quirk Books, whose 2009 release Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a pop culture sensation. The publisher has a knack for mining the zeitgeist at just the right time, but putting out books people want to read and talk about has to do with more than just great timing. As Cohen explains below, you need a coherent plan and understanding of which marketing channels work best for the product at hand.
Cohen will be speaking at the Publishing Business Conference in a session called “New Marketing Strategies for the New Publishing Model.” Here, he speaks to Insider about his company’s marketing approach.
Insider: Today’s marketing executives are faced with so many changes in the market and new options for marketing books (print and e-books). In your experience, how do you determine the best way to develop a marketing plan? Do you do this by title, or do you have an overall strategy you implement across titles?
Cohen: Quirk has an exceptional team on the development and the marketing sides that ensure that the market planning starts with the inception of the product. As for the execution, it’s truly a combination. Specific marketing initiatives only work in the context of a broader picture. Having a good sense of the target customer and the ability to reach that customer is critical, and that happens through a dialog taking place over a longer period of time. From there, you can launch title-specific initiatives with an audience in place ready to receive that initiative—and get excited about it. In many ways, it’s marketing 101 and can be applied to any product, but with the Internet’s easy accessibility, it’s too easy to adopt an “if I build it, they will come” approach—and, that’s a long, and oftentimes futile, approach, which relies too heavily on luck. Luck is a part of it, but not the foundation. Our session at this year’s Publishing Business Conference and Expo will speak to broad and specific strategies for marketing print and digital products.
Insider: What do you see happening to the in-person author tour? Is it still, and will it still be a viable way of marketing books? Why or why not?
Cohen: Author tours work when the author has a fan base of people that want to meet the author. This harkens back to the original question. Marketing initiatives work when there’s an audience ready to accept that initiative. Author tours are an initiative that can work if they tap into an existing audience—either the author’s audience, the publisher’s audience, the location’s audience or a partner’s audience. With the onset of social media, it is easier than ever for an author to build a fan base before the book releases. Since 2009, we have been offering our authors a handbook with guidance and tools to help with this very effort.
Insider: What about in-store marketing, with end-cap displays, etc.? Is this still an important component of marketing new releases?
Cohen: Yes. Front-of-store placement creates a front-of-mind feeling. Retail stores are still the best place for browsing, and there’s a lot to be said for positioning yourself so that your book is the first book a browser sees when they enter a store. Additionally, in-store marketing is a weird form of validation. Many customers interpret an end-cap placement as an endorsement from the store.
Insider: Some publishers have abandoned trade shows for selling their books. What are your thoughts on this?
Cohen: Trade shows are a great place to sell your books if that’s the best and most productive way to interact with your audience. At last year’s Publishing Business Conference & Expo, I spoke about how it’s important to seek out your customers where they congregate. That could be a social media site, a blog, an annual convention, a local park or whatever. Wherever it is … if they are there, you should be too.
Insider: Social media has played a major role in many book publishers’ marketing efforts over the past year or two. It does offer a less-costly means of marketing, and can help publishers reach niche audiences, if done right. Do you think an entire marketing plan can be based on social media?
Cohen: Social media can be used to launch a title, but if it is successful, it would naturally generate buzz in other forums. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was an Internet and viral sensation that started on the blogs and was passed around through social media. That momentum ultimately gained the attention of larger, traditional and print media. From there, we initiated author appearances and advertising to capitalize on the early buzz.
Insider: Can you tell us about one of your more effective marketing initiatives around one of Quirk’s recent releases?
Cohen: Quirk’s publishing program is known for innovation and entertainment. We aim to have that same sentiment translate to our marketing program. As such, Quirk has been a pioneer of the book trailer as an art form and a marketing tool. The award-winning book trailer for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters was launched in 2009 and established our YouTube channel as a destination for quality video entertainment for our demographic. Since that launch, we have built a significant audience of subscribers and regular viewers. Additionally, we have forged relationships that embed and syndicate our videos on other sites. This past Fall, we released a book trailer for Night of the Living Trekkies that received 80,000 views in the first week. We attribute this to a willing audience and the means for them to share it easily.
Insider: We’re looking forward to having you speak at the conference. But, as an attendee (and a member of the conference advisory board), is there anything in particular you’re looking forward to at the conference?
Cohen: I always enjoy hearing about what other companies are doing successfully. Book launches, logistical transitions, digital conversions whatever. It’s a changing marketplace with tons of opportunities. I’m looking forward to hearing how others are assessing and addressing the opportunities.
Audio Message from Jim Hopkinson
Audio Message from Jim Hopkinson
Lulu.com Founder & CEO Bob Young to Keynote Digital Book Printing Forum
INTERQUEST Announces Speakers for 2011 Digital Book Printing Forum in New York
Charlottesville, VA (March 8, 2011) — INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, today announced that Lulu.com Founder and CEO, Bob Young will headline an impressive lineup of speakers and panelists for its annual educational forum on trends and opportunities in digital book manufacturing.
According to INTERQUEST President Gilles Biscos, “Self-publishing is one of many important trends digital printing has enabled in book publishing, so we are excited to have Bob share his unique insights and experiences at Lulu with our attendees. We’ve also assembled a stellar lineup of leaders from all sectors of the book publishing industry for this year’s event. They’ll address a full range of topics that are actively shaping the twenty-first century book printing business.”
Bob Young will kick off the 2011 Digital Book Printing Forum with the opening keynote address. Prior to founding Lulu in 2002, Young co-founded Red Hat, the open source software company that provides a standard platform for hardware and software vendors to certify their technology. Young was named one of the “Top 50 Agenda-Setters in the Technology Industry in 2006” and ranked fourth as the “Top Entrepreneur in 2006” by Silicon.com.
Following the keynote address INTERQUEST will present key results from recent research it has conducted in digital book printing. A panel of leading book printers will then present their experiences, applications, and challenges in digital book manufacturing and explain how recent technological developments are helping them enhance their solutions. Speakers include Chris Greene, President and CEO, Frederic Printing, a Consolidated Graphics Company; Rick Dunn, Vice President Manufacturing, Hamilton Books; Jim Robinson, Vice President of Operations and Administration, Harlequin Enterprises; and Mike Collinge, President, Webcom.
Following lunch, executives from leading digital printing systems vendors will update their companies’ strategies, developments, and recent successes in the book market. Speakers include Vince Ferraro, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Digital Printing Solutions Group, Eastman Kodak; Avi Basu, Manager, North America Business & Market Development, Indigo and Inkjet Press Solutions, Hewlett-Packard Company; George Promis, Vice President for Global Production Continuous Forms Solutions & Technology Alliances, InfoPrint Solutions Company; Francis McMahon, Vice President Marketing, Production Printing Systems Division, Océ North America; and John Conley, Vice President of Publishing, Xerox Corporation.
After additional INTERQUEST research findings are presented, a panel of experts will focus on challenges and developments related to workflow, paper handling, finishing, and substrates. Speakers include Bruce Watermann, Senior Vice President, Print Operations, Blurb; Adi Chinai, President, King Printing; as well as Johan Laurent, Business Manager, Standard Finishing Systems
In the final session of the day, publishers will share their experiences with digital book printing as well as their views on synergies between eBooks and printed books and the impact of new digital printing technologies on their business. Speakers include Craig Bauer, Senior Vice President, Operations, Hachette Book Group USA; Michael DeFazio, Vice President, Production Planning and Paper Purchasing, Random House, Inc.; Dick Hanson, Data Operations Manager, Vance Publishing; and Lynn Terhune, Global Digital Print Administrator/Corporate, John Wiley & Sons.
The 2011 Digital Book Printing Forum will be held Tuesday, April 5, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis New York in midtown Manhattan during the annual Publishing Business Conference Expo organized by Book Business magazine. The Digital Book Printing Forum is sponsored by leading players in the market, including Blurb, Bridgeport National Bindery, Gasch Printing, Glatfelter, Hewlett-Packard, InfoPrint Solutions, Kodak, Lulu, Océ, Standard Finishing, Webcom, and Xerox. The event is supported by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) and the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN).
About INTERQUEST
Founded in 1989, INTERQUEST is a market and technology research and consulting firm in the field of digital printing and publishing. INTERQUEST has conducted extensive research into digital book printing markets. Its studies of digital print manufacturing include Digital Book Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast (2010-2015), High Growth Segments of Digital Book Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast and The Digital Book & Manual Printing Opportunity: Market Analysis & Forecast. Every year since 2006 INTERQUEST has organized the Digital Book Printing Forum held during the Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York City. In 2010 INTERQUEST organized similar events in Paris, London, Toronto, and Montréal. INTERQUEST can be reached by calling (434) 979-9945, by fax at (434) 979-9959, or on the Web at www.inter-quest.com.
About Book Business
Published six times a year, Book Business magazine is read by a highly targeted audience of book and multimedia publishers and their key suppliers, including producers of trade, professional, software, directory and educational books. Combined with the popular Publishing Business Conference and Expo and bookbusinessmag.com, Book Business magazine offers its readership a one-of-a-kind resource.
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Message From Brett Cohen
Audio Message from Brett Cohen
Executives From U.S. News & World Report, Slate, Springer, The Economist Online, Lerner Publishing Group, Vanity Fair and More Added to Publishing Business Conference Speaker Line-Up
With the Publishing Business Conference & Expo—the largest conference and expo of its kind—just more than one month away (April 4-6 in NYC), final speakers are being added to round out what Noelle Skodzinski, conference program director, is calling “our best event yet.”
“Each week, we keep signing on new, amazing speakers, and I keep getting more and more excited about the event,” she says, which features extensive programming for both book and magazine (including digital) publishers. “Publishers don’t often have an opportunity to hear from all of these brilliant executives in one place. One of our conference chairs, who is a book publisher, said he is also excited about the opportunity to hear from some leading magazine publishers, to gain a new perspective and learn from what’s happening in that market.”
Some recent speaker additions are:
Developing New Business Models
Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News & World Report, will share insights into the company’s decision last year to shutter what had become its bimonthly print edition (from its former weekly frequency) and to publish only its college, financial and other well-known guides, plus four annual special editions on newsstands, the decision’s short- and long-term financial impact on the company, and the company’s plans for moving forward.
Becoming a Cross-Platform Book Publisher
Timothy Griswold, vice president, sales, trade and special licensing for Springer, Adam Lerner, President and publisher, Lerner Publishing Group (and co-chair of the conference), and moderator Ted Hill, president of THA Consulting, will join Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Media, on the featured session: The Cross-Platform Book Publisher: Reinvent Your Company, exploring how publishers can begin to think and operate as efficient, multiplatform publishers.
Growing Your Digital Revenue
Ron Diorio, vice president, product and community development for The Economist Online, joins Scott Havens, vice president, digital strategy and operations for The Atlantic Media Co., Peter Longo, CEO of IDG Syndication and Network, and moderator Robert J. Yoegel, vice president, e-Media for North American Publishing Co., in one of the most anticipated sessions for magazine publishers: Growing Your Digital Revenue. The session will provide ideas and case studies in:
- Traffic-building and engagement tactics
- Developing creative, high ROI sponsorships
- Real-time ad bidding
- ad networks … and more.
Diorio will discuss how The Economist is convening audiences (and creating products) around specific topics and driving their interest to sponsors, how it is is using user-generated content to create value for readers and advertisers, and tapping the benefits of an ad network, among other topics.
Facebook Opps In-Depth
Michael Hogan, executive online editor of Vanity Fair, and Katherine Goldstein, innovations editor at Slate, will join Nick Grudin, manager of strategic partner development for Facebook, for the session: Facebook: How to Tap the Real Opportunity. This unique session will explore how Facebook can deliver value to magazine publishers, using case studies and best practices to help you implement effective strategies to increase traffic, increase engagement, and know your audience.
The Retail Market’s Future
Michael Norris, Senior Analyst for Simba Information’s Trade Books Group, will be leading a session called The Retail Market: Where Are We Headed? Where Will Consumers Buy Books in the Future?, which will explore the current state of the retail industry and forecasts for the coming year, consumer trends for book purchasing and where they are headed, how Google Editions will impact the bookselling landscape, how publishers can prepare themselves for the book retail future, and more.
Editor’s note:
These are just some of the new speakers added. And if you haven’t seen the speakers we had already lined up, you won’t want to miss them. View the complete list of speakers and agenda online at http://www.publishingbusiness.com. And don’t forget that the deadline to get your complimentary iPad with your full, paid conference registration is March 14.
Reinventing the Print Business Model: An interview with Brian Kelly, editor, U.S. News & World Report
News weeklies are one category that has been hit particularly hard by shifts in the marketplace, including the way consumers get their news (and what—or if—they’ll pay for it). So, while it may have been a sad day for news weeklies, it wasn’t necessarily shocking when U.S. News & World Report first announced in 2008 that it would shift from its weekly frequency to bimonthly in 2009, and then later announced that it would shutter its monthly print publication entirely, after 60-some years as one of the top news magazines worldwide.
Instead, its new strategy would be to focus on its college, financial and several other well-known guides, which had increasingly grown in popularity and sales over the years, plus four special editions on newsstands.
U.S. News & World Report Editor Brian Kelly will be speaking at the Publishing Business Conference in a special half-hour case study about the decision to cease the brand’s print publication, its financial impact and its strategy for moving forward. Here, Kelly, who has helmed U.S. News for five years and been with the company for 15 of his 30-some year journalism career, speaks with Insider about how major industry evolution has impacted him and his company, and what threats and opportunities he sees for the industry.
Insider: You’ve been in the industry a while to say the least, and through other ups and downs in publishing during that time. Do you find the changes happening in the industry over the past few years unsettling? Why or Why not?
Kelly: In moments of weakness, I still wish the good old days would come back, but then I slap myself back to reality. The most unsettling thing was to come to the conclusion—about five years ago—that the old ways were gone for good, that the industry changes were fundamental and nothing would be the same again. Once I accepted that, my job became creating something new, and that made my stomach feel a lot better.
Insider: What do you see as the greatest threat to news magazines today?
Kelly: The revenue model. There is still a role for publishers who can package news and information in a smart, tailored way for readers. But there is no easy way to pay for it. One of our products that has great potential is our digital U.S. News Weekly, but most of what we publish online and in print is not in the newsweekly format.
Insider: What do you see as the greatest opportunity for publishers today—whether news magazines, specifically, or any magazines, from fashion or cooking magazines to business magazines?
Kelly: With so much schlock out there, people want quality information and trusted magazine brands can still deliver it.
Insider: Your decision last year to shutter what had become your bimonthly print edition could not have been an easy one. … I know you’ll be addressing this decision more in-depth at the conference , but can you give us an idea of what led you to decide this was the right path for U.S. News, especially with the hit the brand would take revenue-wise?
Kelly: We were fortunate that we had developed a strong website and had other print products, so we knew that we had a good business and a large audience beyond print subscriptions. The subscriber business model just didn’t work for us. I thought about having a proper wake, but in this climate you can’t afford nostalgia.
Insider: We’re looking forward to having you speak at the conference. But is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to as an attendee?
Kelly: I’m looking forward to stealing some great ideas from some very smart people.
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