The FMA Day 2013 held at the Princeton Club opened with a
clear presentation by Ethan Grey, SVP of Digital Strategy & Initiatives,
MPA, who shared several digital success stories and then went on to explain
that as an industry we need to market digital editions better than we have to
date. He used Hearst as an example of a digital industry leader who has a
"be everywhere strategy." He said Hearst is on every platform known
to digi-hood and has instituted a "read them first in digital strategy,"
whereby all issues are released in digital format before the print editions are
available. (I think that it is worth noting that Hearst is up to 1.3 million
full priced digital subscriptions, representing 3% of their total circ and, as
I have reported before, Hearst Digital circ could hit 25% in five years.) Another successful Hearst initiative is
weekly digital editions of Esquire and soon to be released weekly Elle editions.
One of the early morning sessions was called the Print
Channel with Gary Michelson, Consumer Marketing Director of
CirculationSpecialists, Inc., and Andrew Schulman, Director - New Business at
Bonnier Publications. This was an age-old yet vitally important set of
suggestions about how to fine tune the marketing channel. These veterans of the BRC renewal wars
offered great insights into a venerable process, including successful increased
revenue ideas such as a $3 Bill-me-later upcharge that new subscribers to
Sportsman Magazine are apparently willing to pay. This was a new idea to me and
I liked it.
Field and Stream has instituted a policy where Subscribers
are now required to pay shipping and handling at While chatting with Gary & Andrew after
their talk, they sort of apologized for such a boring topic. I had to stop that
line of logic, for two reasons - one, I enjoyed their presentation very much
and two, boring or not, it is an important part of the revenue stream of any
magazine and must be discussed and dissected and fine-tuned by professionals.
How else do we all gain the knowledge to proceed, which is exactly what I told
them.
Next there was a discussion about Optimizing Your
e-Newsletter Strategies and since I don't know anything about that I sat glued
to my seat. Truth is there is always something new learn, no matter who you are.
The keynote was by Jonathan Perelman, Vice President of
Agency Strategy and Industry Development at Buzzfeed, whose topic was Social
Storytelling with a Purpose. He was
entertaining and had some great insights from the social media publishing
world. He suggested that most people
suffer from FOMO, which is the Fear Of Missing Out. Nice, I wish I made that
one up.
Jonathan started making the point that social is the
starting point for much of what happens on-line. He said that in the early days of the
Internet search was the place you started; now the starting point is social. He
also said that great content will find its audience. As the publisher of the
world's oldest newsletter, I am inclined to agree, with the proviso that you
have to be able to have the staying power to wait till your great content gets
discovered.
Then Jonathan dropped another gteat sound bite: he said that
Buzzfeed's focus and all they cared about was the social reproduction rate of
their articles.
Here are six of Jonathan's public secrets
1) Have a heart -
people like uplifting content
2) Content is
about identity
3) Humor works -
people always want to laugh
4) Nostalgia
brings us back to a simpler time. It brings you back to your past
5) Understanding
Cats is vital to understanding the web. (CUTE) how and why do cats share so
well across all the platforms
6) Don't ignore
mobile. Mobile is vital today and will
become the only thing in just a few years.
There were three awards given at FMA Day 2013. I will admit
as an old time and grizzled softie these awards always make me sentimental.
There is nothing quite like the recognition of your peers. It doesn't matter
what your profession or trade is, it is very special getting acknowledgement of
your life's work from your coworkers. There is hardly anything more special
except perhaps the occasional regular pay check. And in a lot of ways the peer
acknowledgement is more satisfying. Awards don't pay the bills, but they do
tell the world that you were and are recognized as more than just a worker bee,
but rather a warrior bee worth contending with.
This year Andrea Sole received the Fulfillment Manager of
the Year Award. She is Fulfillment Director at Forbes Media with over 30 years'
experience. I don't know Andrea, but clearly she was greatly respected by
everyone in the room. Congratulations Andrea.
The next award called the Lee C. Williams Award went to
Robert M. Cohn who is Senior Consumer Marketing Director for Bonnier. I didn't
know Bob Cohn either, but I gathered from his loving introduction that he
actually knew Johann Guttenberg at CBS publishing. Bob went on to tell many
great stories and discussed one of my favorite topics, the lost art of
mentorship. This was especially and supremely meaningful to me, because Bob
worked at CBS Publishing and one of my mentors worked there too. I ran up to
the podium after the awards were over to ask if he knew Irving Herschbein. The
answer was yes, and we had a great but too short conversation about our mutual
friend. To those who knew him, there is no need for me to try to wax poetic.
But for the sake of history, my conscience, and for those who didn't get the
privilege to know him, he was a great and giving man. Plain and simple, Irving
was my mentor, my friend and I am proud say he was a kindred spirit.
The last award was the FMA - Hall of Fame Award given to
Malcolm Netburn, Chairman & CEO of CDS Global. Malcolm was warmly
introduced by John Loughlin, EVP & General Manager at Hearst
Magazines. I must confess a certain
amount of bias here as over the years Malcolm and I have become good friends.
He is the rare corporate bird that can run a global company with thousands of
employees and maintain the professional love and respect of everyone in the
company. That is not an easy thing to do.
Malcolm shared much with the packed audience with humility
and humor. I tried my best to listen and to take notes as he spoke. I think I
have captured the spirit of his thinking if not the actual words.
Malcolm discussed fluently the seismic changes that are
happening in our industry. He said that sometimes we tend to pursue the
miniscule and in doing so miss the next big thing. He went on to say that in
some ways everything has changed and yet in some other ways nothing has changed
at all. He said that the tools for our fingertips are very different but our
fingers haven't changed. First he suggested that the art of communication
hasn't changed. What we need in this era of evolution is the skill to sort out
the noise. For our businesses to prosper we must avoid the risk of treading
water in sameness. The ability to navigate in these times requires courage,
audacity and optimism. If we adhere to those traits we will all have no limits.
My congratulations to all the awardees. I thought FMA DAY
2013 was a terrific day where I learned, laughed, saw old friends and
networked. Not a bad day at all.
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