This event took place yesterday at the Publishing Executive Conference in NYC. Nxtbook was a sponsor and I was one of many speakers, so consider that my disclaimer. Here’s how I expect the media to cover this event:
14 Word Summary: Digital magazines don’t work for consumer titles. They do, however, work great for BtoB.
20 Word Summary: Digital magazines don’t work for consumer titles, unless the audiences are well defined. They do, however, work great for BtoB.
The detailed report:
The symposium was chaired by Peter Meirs from Time, Inc. If you know anything about Time, you know that they do consumer titles aimed at broad audiences. Thus, it should come as no shock that Peter was less than thrilled about digital magazines. Granted, he’s hopeful for the future and likes to look far down the road, but this time he was more interesed in talking about things that don’t work. Or rather haven’t worked. For him. Peter’s a brilliant a guy but even he admitted he wasn’t exactly a natural choice for the chair. However, mad props to the guy for admitting he knew "less about BtoB than anyone in the room." Peter’s upfront in saying today’s digital magazines don’t work well for him, but he gets that they work for others.
Next up was Steve Paxhia from the Gilbane Group, which is completing the first ever comprehensive study on the audience size and growth of digital magazines. Steve delivered a very similar executive summary to the one he delivered at our webinar last week and said the complete study would be available from the sponsors in the next few weeks. We’re one of those sponsors but - truth be told - I was hoping Steve would give up more of the goods yesterday. As MediaBistro demonstrates today, surveys coming from sponsors are often not as trusted by the media. Regardless, Steve’s message was that things are great for digital magazines. When we see the study, you’ll be the first to know.
Next up was Gloria Adams from Pennwell. Gloria has been the pied piper for BtoB digital magazines for some time and while her show offered little new material for those of us who’ve seen her perform before, it’s always a good show and was freshened up with the latest data. We’re a big fan of Gloria - she’s a great cheerleader for digital editions.
Gloria was followed by Sylvia Sierra from Access Intelligence. Among other solutions, Sierra uses our Nxtprint product, courtesy of the YGS group, though I wasn’t aware of this until she told me prior to the program. I hadn’t heard Sylvia speak before and was extremely impressed. Great insight - well presented, and another big fan of digital magazines. Here’s the head-scratcher from her presentation, though:
Access Intelligence is the same company that publishes MIN’s BtoB, where writer Steve Smith has frequently made a habit of blasting digital editions. His favorite line is that they’re a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. In previous posts, I’ve accused Steve of being a lazy journalist because he rarely backs up his assertions with quotes and/our sources. Now - realizing that a publisher he writes for has such a vibrant outspoken supporter of digital editions - I’m not sure what to think, other than that the employees at Access Intelligence should mingle a bit more. (Disclaimer: I’ve written for MIN. Aside from Smith’s columns, I’m a fan. Alas, Smith is the one entrusted to the keys of the digital kingdom over yonder, so readers can expect to hear more of the same from him.)
So that was panel one - 3 people saying digital magazines saved money and generated revenue being moderated by a guy who had little good to say about them. A wee-bit off-center, but successful never-the-less.
Panelists shifted a bit the second time around, with myself and a competitor joining the panel along with Marta Worhrle. All went well and I don’t think I said anything that I haven’t spouted on this particular soap box before.
Was this event better than the Digital Magazine Forum from 18 months ago that we had less than flattering things to say about? I’d say yes and no… 18 months ago, there was no clear delineation between who was successful and who wasn’t. Yesterday, the line was drawn pretty clearly: Digital Magazines work for BtoB and the jury’s out about whether or not they work for BtoC, but if you’re going that way, go after a narrow niche.
Though that makes for a good story, I’m not 100% certain it’s the whole story. Keep in mind that the lion’s share of consumer titles run through Zinio. And keep in mind that just when people were embracing browser-based EVERYTHING four years ago, Zinio rolled out a downloadable product. In recent weeks, Zinio finally turned that particular ocean liner around and released a browser-based solution. While far from perfect (in our Nxtbook opinion), it’s a big step in the right direction. This wasn’t even discussed in yesterday’s sympoium but it crossed my mind: is the lackluster performance of general audience BtoC digital publications due to the audience or the horse the publisher opted to ride at the time? Only time will tell.
Though the audience for the event was skewed in the BtoB corner, I wished I had the opportunity to bring up this point to the BtoC crowd. If you see a BtoC publisher who attended the symposium, send this post their way.