5th Annual

MPA-IMAG
Independent Publishers Conference

May 14-16, 2008 | Hotel Orrington | Evanston, IL

Day One Conference Sessions
May 15, 2008

Moving from Crisis Management to Change Management

John Sheehy, publishing consultant

"I for one don't think this is the end of magazines.  But it definitely is the end of magazines as we know them."  Sheehy talked extensively about helping publishers manage change not as victims of change, but as active players in charge of their destinies.

Successful Multi-media Publishing Strategies

Don Nicholas, Mequoda Group

"An Internet hub:  that's the most important thing a publisher should be.  At the end of the day, it's a free website.  It's where users find you and come to love you."  Nicholas also revealed that his company's research found that Yahoo! is the world's first billion-page website.  "It's the only one we know of," he said.  Nicholas discussed email strategies as well, and urged members to spend considerable time thinking about how often they contact readers and why.

Successful Multi-media Publishing Strategies

David McKee, DRG

"Crochet is our strongest brand.  We started as a magazine but now we are a company with 70% ancillary product....We have people who download 170-page books (that we offer)."

From Print to Digital

Cia Romano, Interface Guru

"The website is the window to the corporate soul," said Romano, CEO of a digital consulting firm whose clients include a number of publishing companies.  "If you are not user-centric, you have no strategy."  She advised the audience to create short and comprehensible landing pages.  "Don't assume people are coming in through the home page."  Romano emphasized the customer experience is the basis of a websites success and that usability testing is a critical tool in assuring that the audience has a superior experience.

From Print to Digital

Jan Allured, Allured Publishing

On usability training:  "It transformed how we do business." 

News from the Capitol...

Rita Cohen, SVP/Legislative & Regulatory Policy at MPA

Cohen addressed legislative and postal issues that could impact consumer marketing and digital practices.

Conference Chairman David Lusterman,
Publisher, String Letter Publishing

Laura Simkins, VP, Consumer Marketing,
8020 Publishing

Robert Acquaye, Circulation Director, Johnson Publishing Co., Inc.

Greg Jones, President, Granite Bay Media

Bradford Fayfield, Owner/Founder, Storm Mountain Publishing

Madeleine Buckingham, COO/CFO, Mother Jones

Chuck Croft, SVP, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Daniel M. Ambrose, Managing Director, ambro.com