Archive for the ‘Print’ Category
Publishing Talent is Everywhere
12 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
One of the unfortunate realities caused by the 2009 recession is that a lot of very talented people are out of work. One of the hardest hit sectors has been the publishing industry where powerhouse newspapers and magazines have cut staff or gone out of business entirely. New graduates are finding it nearly impossible to find publishers who have open positions and are hiring.
Even if your particular company has weathered the recession fairly well, like Imagination Publishing, the atmosphere of uncertainty that surrounds our clients causes everyone to be overly cautious about adding staff even when business is growing.
Consequently, publishing talent is everywhere. The state of publishing has allowed us over the past year to have a number of outstanding contractors and interns in our offices who would not have been previously available. These talented individuals, hungry for opportunities, have made significant contributions to our work and as a company we could not be successful without them. These positions offer both the company and the individual the opportunity to see each other in action. As a result, several interns have been offered and accepted full time positions at Imagination as they became available.
I suspect that this will continue to be both the situation and an opportunity throughout the publishing industry for the foreseeable future. For publishers and marketers, I say you should seize this opportunity to tap into the wealth of available talent by constructing creative scenarios where the best talent can demonstrate what they have to offer. For editors, designers, marketing professionals and digital specialists, now is the time to impress innovative companies with your creativity, passion and energy. You need to create your own opportunities to be noticed and prove your value to companies who can afford to be highly selective right now.
The Aha Moment of Print Magazines
8 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
I had a wonderful lunch yesterday with a prospective client in Washington, DC. At one point, they asked me that question which has been asked so many times over the past several years, “Do you think that print is going away?”
I’ve thought about this question many times and so I answered it with an unequivocal, no. Of course, there’s no denying the seismic shift that is sweeping media and content delivery because of the Internet. Digital delivery of information has changed everything and will continue to do so as technology, communication and innovation rapidly allow all of us to choose how we want to consume whatever it is that we are looking for.
But there are some very strong reasons why print will continue in the future as well. First, we all know that there’s intangible quality and texture to print that will continue to attract it as it always has. Second, the portability of print will also endure. But I believe the most important attribute about print is the “Aha” factor. Print dominates over digital in its ability to create the Aha moment. The thing that I love about browsing a magazine or newspaper is the unexpected article that excites me, interests me or enlightens me in a way I never expected and wasn’t looking for. With digital, I search and learn, with print, I browse, learn, think and am entertained all at the same time.
As I boarded my plane back to Chicago, I once again proved my point. I purchased The Harvard Business Review, Yoga Journal and The Atlantic at the newsstand. Although these three magazines have nothing to do with each other, they all mean something to me and all three provided information, entertainment and stimulated some action on my part.
Let me give you an example. The new January issue of The Harvard Business Review is completely reinvented from an editorial and design standpoint which is what first caught my eye. I highly recommend that you pick it up the new issue for many reasons but particularly for the article on “Rethinking Marketing”. It is an enlightening insight into the changes that are occurring for every company and organization that will necessitate a complete change in strategy and organizational structure.
This HBR article, that I wasn’t searching for, provided such an Aha moment that I’m tingling with how I can communicate the breakthrough thinking to my company and our clients. I’m certain that I’ll be committing my blog tomorrow entirely to this future trend but for now, back to my original point.
Print will always be a strong delivery channel for target audiences who crave well-written editorial content that informs, provides thought-leadership, entertains, provides the unexpected and delivers that Aha moment.
Long Live Magazines!
7 Apr 2009
by James Meyers
Another business trip to the west coast! As I fly through the air at 35,000 feet for four hours without online access, how will I possibly survive?
Good old print magazines. They’re still great at informing, exciting, awakening, thrilling, surprising, uniting and engaging. Just like digital, those attributes can also still be found in print.
When I’m online, I’m usually looking for something. It might be information on a specific topic, or another user with similar interests to mine or a company that interests me. I browse, but I’m usually browsing in an area that interests me. I spend hours every day online usually looking for something or interacting but it’s nice to sit back and passively enjoy the unexpected.
With print, I might be reading a special interest magazine but I also might be browsing a daily newspaper or lifestyle magazine. And I’m reminded of how happy I am to find things I didn’t know I was looking for like an article on museums in the Financial Times, an in-depth look into China in The Economist, an article on leadership in BusinessWeek or the latest in men’s fashion from Esquire.
And I’m not alone. As I look around the first class cabin (I luckily got an upgrade), I see three people reading books (not on Kindles), one reading People, one reading Road & Track, one reading the in-flight magazine, two working on spreadsheets on their computer, two people in conversation and two more sleeping.
It’s my favorite part of flying. The chance to toss four or five magazines into my briefcase and then spread a couple of hours being entertained, enlightened and educated on topics I wasn’t really looking for.
I’m lucky to work in an environment every day where I get to use and experience the best of both print and digital publishing worlds. Both have incredible strengths that our clients use to connect and engage their customers and members. The smartest marketers utilize both print and digital in an integrated strategy to use custom content as a highly effective marketing tactic.
They’re Partners, Not Clients
24 Mar 2009
by James Meyers
Over the past several years, Imagination has come to understand the importance of customer relationships to insuring business success. During the early years of our custom publishing business, we successfully grew the company by focusing intensely on driving new business opportunities. While the strategy worked, we too often found ourselves needing to replace lost clients. In the newspaper business, we called it churn. Often times it was because the client’s budget was cut, or a personnel change at the client or they decided to try something new. Like the time a client decided to eliminate their very successful custom magazine in order to pay for sponsoring seat cushions at the Super Bowl. They did it one year and the custom magazine was gone, the Super Bowl sponsorship was gone, the great ROI was gone and soon after the CMO was gone too.
Occasionally, our intense focus on developing new clients caused us to underestimate the opportunities that we had with existing clients. Eventually, we realized that our best opportunities for growth came from clients where we had moved beyond a client/vendor arrangement to a valued partner relationship.
For years, we had used terms like customers and clients to describe our relationships but the reality was that they weren’t really relationships because they were based on “I need something and you can sell it to me” rather than a much more intertwined partnership. And it’s true partnerships with partners who understand, value and are willing to invest in custom content and publishing services that are they key to long-term success for both parties.
Like every company, we began 2009 unsure of the effects that the global recession would have on our business. We’ve seen some losses but we have more than made up for them with new business opportunities from existing partners and new clients who were seeking the full range of strategic custom content strategies that we provide. We take pride in the fact that many of our largest partner relationship have been in place for more than five years and that our business with them has consistently grown. In the end, isn’t that what a successful relationship is all about? The opportunity for both parties to grow by understanding each other’s needs and expectations while working together in a spirit of mutual respect and trust.
Business relationships don’t happen on day one. It takes time to develop and nurture a partnership so that both sides benefit from the relationship over the long run. We’re proud of our partnerships with some of the world’s leading companies and trade associations.
Innovation is Alive in Magazines!
15 Sep 2008
by admin
I just returned from my local Borders and found that—despite all the doom and gloom I hear and read about in the print publishing industry—creativity and innovation are not dead!
If you haven’t seen it yet, run out right now and buy the 75th anniversary edition of Esquire magazine. The cover art utilizes the world’s first E-Ink cover.: Digital comes to print!
Displayed prominently on the front tables of Borders—real estate normally reserved for the latest best-selling books—the magazine cover flashes with innovative digital impressions, much like we’re all used to seeing on websites. It’s sheer genius on the part of Esquire and I’m sure they had no problem getting the whole thing paid for by Ford who got to share the digital technology on the inside front cover in an ad for its new Flex SUV. The cashier at Borders told me the issue is flying off their shelves.
Some will say it’s a gimmick, but I say that this is innovation in publishing at its finest. And we need a lot more of it. Instead of remembering the good old days, let’s focus on how we can bring innovation to the publishing world for the future.
This kind of innovation is, in large part, driving the success of custom media even when traditional publishing is in decline. The willingness to think differently, to understand the needs of marketers and to come up with innovative content solutions is what custom media is all about.
Every day, my firm, Imagination, spends time thinking about what innovative new content strategy we can bring to our clients that will help them achieve their business objectives. That is not only the key to our 14 years of success, but it is critical to protecting our company from the down cycles that will always occur into the future.
Kudos to Esquire for coming up with an exciting, bold and innovative idea when much of the print publishing industry is running for cover.
