via the Association of Magazine Media
American Magazine Media 360 Conference program focuses on multiplatform publishing
The MPA’s annual American Magazine Media 360 Conference (in the past called the American Magazine Conference) took place last week in New York City with an estimated attendance of 500, and the program discussions signaled a unified commitment to multiplatform publishing, Folio: reports.
MPA President and CEO Mary Berner President cited the MPA’s recently implemented monthly report – which has consistently shown a growing demand for content on the part of readers and subscribers – in pushing back against any public perception of digital magazines’ demise. And unlike when she took over the MPA reins two years ago and expressed similar sentiments at the MPA’s conference, Berner has the numbers to back her up now.
“I was frustrated, I was pissed, I was angry, call it what you will – not simply because the doom and gloom narrative was wrong, but because we were feeding that narrative,” she said. “Our inability to measure and communicate what I and my industry colleagues knew to be true about the accurate state of magazine media created a vacuum filled by partial facts which, in the absence of anything else, were used to define our industry.”
Folio: reports that Berner also addressed the question of what “magazine” will mean in the 21st century, and how consumer demand, “the critical indicator of vitality for any media brand,” helps define that term.
“Magazines are magazine media,” she said. “The operative word here is ‘media,’ reflecting the shift from magazines, which historically almost always refers to the print format of what we do, to magazine media.”
When we talk about multiplatform publishing and digital magazines, we mean maximizing your content by capitalizing on every possible use of current and developing technology. This is not a concept we’ve recently discovered – it’s the concept we’ve built our company on.
And the concept you can build your company on.
Print can be one component, of course, but it certainly doesn’t have to be! After all, can you offer an archival library with each issue of your print product? No, but you can with a tablet and mobile edition. You can also send eBook downloads with the click of a button – for revenue, as a freemium for an address on an email campaign, or to help earn loyalty – while also producing events, videos, and apps.
You can read about one Mequoda Member’s recent – and successful – multiplatform publishing efforts in Ed’s case study of Sovereign’s Warfare History Network.
Other trends from the MPA conference that Folio: reported on include marketing to Millennials, the state of native advertising, and ecommerce. In addition, GfK MRI and Comscore gave talks on digital metrics, while Acxiom and Hearst Magazines did the same on demographics and traffic.
Did you attend the MPA’s American Magazine Media 360 Conference? Did you notice any trends or a focus on multiplatform publishing? Let us know in the comments!
To read more about the discussion of multiplatform publishing at the MPA’s American Magazine Media 360 Conference, visit Folio:.
