SIPA UK Conference Spotlights Consultants, Key Topics
Top consultants may charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars to give their advice. At the upcoming SIPA UK 17th Annual Congress, July 13-14, in London, the sage words of some of these consultants will be included in the price of admission—along with roundtables, breakouts, discussion forums, an awards ceremony and…well, afternoon tea, of course.
Dominic Jacquesson is the CEO of the consulting group Ink on Dead Trees. At the SIPA UK Conference, he will lead a session titled “Going mobile – lessons for digital publishers.” In a recent interview with Customer Direct, Jacquesson said, “We’ve had more than decade of the web where, to our own discredit, we’ve trained consumers to expect that everything will be for free; we’ve got to hit the reset button on that. Whenever there has been a shift in the past in media platforms—we’ve seen it before with tape to CD, etc…—it gives you a chance to reset pricing models. And that’s what apps are doing. And they are doing it. People have shown willingness to pay for apps and app content—even when the content is intrinsically the same that they can get for free on the web.
“I don’t think consumers are going to be willing to pay anything more for app-driven content than they would on newsstand or subscription-based pricing, and I think that some of the pricing plans that have been followed so far are overly aggressive or overly optimistic…We’re trying to reach a demographic that magazine publishers have been losing touch with, that younger age group. And if we’re going for that higher volume, it’s a sort of quid pro quo, higher volume, lower pricing…”
Also on the schedule, as a keynote speaker, is Dan Brown of Xponential Publishing Consultants. Brown spent almost 30 years as a journalist, publisher and partner at United Communications Group. He will be speaking on the changing role of content generation, specifically the shifting mission or your company, the new assembly line for content gathering, packaging and delivery, and staffing for the future. Journalist and executive David Gilbertson will deliver the opening keynote on shifting media. Gilbertson stepped down last month from Emap after three years as chief executive, so he has had an incredible perch to advise us from.
Martin Stabe, interactive producer for the Financial Times, also will provide an excellent viewpoint. On his website, Stabe provides a constant set of links to articles about some aspect of online publishing. And he seems to have a little fun with it as well, highlighting briefing blunders, leaked memos and unmasked bloggers. Stabe will be leading a session titled “Digital publishing skills for editors and journalists.”
On the entertainment front, Jonathan Feroze, CEO of Business Monitor International, will once again emcee the Annual Awards Presentation Ceremony. Feroze first met BMI co-founder Richard Londesborough in Mexico when they were working as editors producing a weekly supplement for the Mexico City News. They also did some stringing for the news agencies and London press. “We returned to London in 1984, and the first title we launched was Latin America Monitor, five monthly newsletters on the politics and economics of the region, and still going strong today,” Londesborough said. “We spent 90 percent of our time writing and producing the newsletters, and 10 percent on marketing (and much of that was stuffing our own mail shots before someone told us about mailing houses).”
That percentage has surely changed, maybe as much as the industry. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the value you will get by attending the SIPA UK Annual Congress. London is a wonderful place to be in July, with long days and comfortable temperatures. Make your plans now to attend.
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Join these speakers and more at the…
SIPA UK 17th Annual Congress
13–14 July 2011
Dexter House, 2 Royal Mint Court
Tower Hill, London EC3N 4QN
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