Today, in London, there is a gathering of the International Federation of the Periodical Press. This is a world-wide association for magazine publishers.
I bring this to your attention, as I see it part of my job to keep you up to date, as it concerns communication channels.
As I have been pointing out, the print industry is suffering a double whammy: a poor economic climate, and a significant paradigm shift in how information is transported to the consumer.
Here are a few quotes taken from this world-wide summit of magazine publishers:
- Mr. Levy, who predicted that the audience would hate him by the end of his presentation, told them that magazines must "shatter traditional standpoints" if they are to escape the current cycle of "despair, doom and demise."
- "Don't expect the economic crisis to be the end of the crisis for analogue media. This is a profound structural revolution; don't be like the auto industry that waited too long."
- Publicis Groupe's Zenith Optimedia predicted that magazine market share will keep shrinking through 2011 even though the world economy is expected to be back to growth by then.
- Mr. Levy goaded the audience by saying that other industries have managed to think differently -- including the rather debatable claim that the music industry has worked out how to charge online -- and asked, "Why can't you think of something similar for your magazines? You need to think out of the box. Don't wait for a new business model to come out of the sky. There will be no new business model, no Holy Grail, no one-size-fits-all solution for the print industry. Each title or media needs to find its own way."
- "Don't waste the crisis. Use the time to start thinking. As an adman, I'm always surprised how little you take advantage of your great brands. You have built communities long before the internet started. Why don't you leverage this much better? The optimist and the pessimist are born the same and die the same -- the difference is that they live differently. I urge you to live differently. Everything is possible."
Above quotes from AdvertisingAge.
Dear reader, there is a information/communication revolution currently underway. These magazine owners are not in a happy place.
Your take away, from their conference:
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