Coverage of the 2005 American Magazine Conference in Fajardo, Puerto Rico

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Coverage of the 2005 American Magazine Conference in Fajardo, Puerto Rico

By Kim Mateus, Managing Editor Mequoda Daily and Library

The 2005 American Magazine Conference: "The Future of Magazines" was held October 16-19 at the Wyndham El Conquistador in Puerto Rico, with nearly 475 publishers, editors and other senior business executives in attendance. The weather was warm and sunny, as were the vibes that spread about the future of magazines and embracing the digital age.

Jack Kliger, President & CEO, Hachette Filipacchi Media, and incoming Chair of the Magazine Publishers of America, said, "By breaking free of outdated practices at this most precipitous time, we will move forward into this landscape as a unified entity. We are producers of branded content who've mastered one platform and now have an opportunity to transition to others. Complacency is not an option."

Thomas Ryder, Chairman & CEO, the Readers' Digest Association, and outgoing chairman of the MPA, described the industry's existing environment as the "dawning of the golden age of magazines." Ryder elaborated about how consumers control of communications is changing the business and the importance of embracing that change.

Don Logan, Chairman, Media & Communications Group of Time Warner, closed the conference by saying that some may feel the Internet poses a threat, but he doesn't see it as a bad thing. "This is an unprecedented opportunity to think cross platform and package content on the Web that will extend readership, not cannibalize it."

Independent Publishers "Get it"

Nowhere were those sentiments more evident than in the pre-conference MPA-IMAG session. It appears that the smaller special-interest publishers, whose companies typically range from $5 to $150 million in revenue, are ahead of larger magazine publishers in terms of digital initiatives. Independent publishers shared plans during roundtable discussions about new launches and a quick tally indicated that far more than half of all new initiatives were email newsletters, websites or digital magazines.

Smaller publishers, like Taunton Press and August Home Publishing, have been quicker to figure out that the Internet is truly unique among platforms that they are deploying against. No other medium has the power to be a nexus for an entire media business. There is no way that television, magazines or books has the potential of being a marketing engine as well as a media presence the way the Internet can be.

Learning by Observation

This theory fascinates us not because we figured it out on our own, but because we've observed guys like Christopher Kimball of America's Test Kitchen, Thomas and David Gardner of The Motley Fool and Bill Bonner of Agora Publishing's The Daily Reckoning who are making a lot of money by deploying the Internet as the nexus for their business. Common and crucial to their Internet strategy is a single website where they direct all the traffic they get from outside media to build their customer list.

The interesting thing is that they've all figured out the Internet strategy nexus in different ways, and they're each using different outside media to build their customer list. Chris Kimball uses a PBS television show, America's Test Kitchen, to drive traffic to his free Internet hub, AmericasTestKitchen.com. Show viewers are required to register for access to the free site, giving the company opportunity to upsell other products, like subscriptions to Cook's Illustrated magazine. The Motley Fool uses Yahoo! Web feeds, mass market books and a weekly radio show on NPR to drive traffic into its Internet hub, Fool.com, that will generate $22M in 2005 from its print subscription sales. Agora Publishing uses PPC advertising to drive traffic to a free Internet hub, which captures email and opens up communication to Agora's many paid products.

Media Luminaries Finally Setting the Precedent

While IMAG-sized publishers seem to be ahead of the rest in embracing change, there are luminaries like Kliger, Ryder and Logan who understand change, as well as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne, who announced the company's "single biggest goal for 2006 will be to launch a new major Web presence." We hope her staff reads the America's Test Kitchen Internet strategy case study, because if Chris Kimball can accomplish Internet success with his relatively small Cooks Illustrated brand, imagine what a media giant like Martha Stewart could do.

Mequoda Editor and industry veteran Don Nicholas says, "While we think the world of Tom Ryder and Don Logan, who are perhaps two of the media industry's most clear thinking individuals, along with Martha Stewart, we still don't see the clarity in their strategy where they understand that their magazine brands are not the nexus of their media strategy, but that their websites are the nexus of their media strategy. If they do understand it intellectually, we have not seen it manifest itself in their media strategy. And boy, are we waiting."

Reading Between the Lines

We wonder how long it will be before the big companies actually understand the meaning of this. Is it possible, if you read between the lines of Martha Stewart, Don Logan, Tom Ryder and Jack Kliger that they are beginning to understand that their website is the nexus of their business, not their magazine?

As we know, the Internet is ubiquitous, it's 24/7, it's always on and it's constantly updated. It is unlike any medium we've ever dealt with in the history of communications. We're standing by watching and waiting for these larger companies to focus their smartest people and their best research and development dollars on their Internet hub, the center of their media network. We'll be reporting on the sidelines as it happens.

My Personal John McCain Story

I'd be remiss to end my coverage of this event without telling my John McCain story.

The night before the Arizona Senator was to speak at the conference, he played craps at the resort's casino and I happened to be one of the onlookers watching him play. Within minutes of me standing four feet from him, he introduced himself and offered to teach me craps. Apparently I was "Lady Luck" and the Senator requested I stick around while he and other members of the MPA claimed their increasing share of the casino's money. The table finally cooled and the majority of us, Senator McCain included, walked away with very few winnings. It was a lot of fun and it's certainly a story I'll be sharing for a while—especially if he ever runs for president again.

We applaud the staff at the MPA for putting on such a great event and look forward to next year's event in Phoenix, Arizona.

Public Relations Professionals, Editors and I Enjoying Cocktails

There I am far left chatting over cocktails before the Annual Dinner with Public Relations Director Heather Wright and Communications Director Heather Riley of National Geographic, Public Relations Publicist Mariela Azcuy of the Meredith Corp. and Editor-In-Chief Johanna Buchholtz of Siempre Mujer.

All pictures © Doug Goodman, AdAge.com and the MPA.