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This year's MPA digital conference, "Magazines 24/7: The E-Reading Revolution," drew 325 media professionals with a vested interest in the latest developments and burning issues surrounding the digital publishing business. The inaugural National Magazine Awards for Digital Media (or "Digital Ellies") was held during a sold-out luncheon presentation at the conference, at which magazine legend and pioneering journalist Michael Kinsley was also inducted into the ASME Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.
+ Check out the conference ATTENDEE GALLERY+ View the WINNERS PHOTOS from the National Magazine Awards for Digital Media luncheon+ Read SPEECH TRANSCRIPTS, including MPA President Nina Link's and Michael Kinsley's acceptance speech
Following are highlights from the "Magazines 24/7" sessions, including quotes, photos and presentations for download.
Conference Welcome
Nina Link, President & CEO, Magazine Publishers of America
"Expanding the magazine experience and the magazine community onto new reader-friendly platforms will provide us with the opportunity to grow our business and our audience by allowing us to:
Read the full transcript of Link's speech here.
The E-Reading Landscape: The 50,000-Foot View
Sarah Rotman Epps, Analyst, Forrester Research
“Magazine publishers are obsessed with color. Consumers care about color, but they care about other things more. Durability is most important. They do not want a device that breaks if it is dropped.”
“Ads are inevitable on e-reading devices but it will be a long time before an ad sales model is developed.”
“One third of U.S. online adults say they’d want magazines on an e-reader device if they owned one. That tops newspapers, photos and videos.”
A four slide introduction of this research can be downloaded here. Only Magazines 24/7 conference attendees can have the full presentation, which will be e-mailed directly shortly.
The Insider’s Guide to E-Readers
(l-r) Moderator Bruce Upbin, Managing Editor, Forbes Media; Priya Ganapati, Staff Writer, Wired.com; and Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor, Consumer Reports
Ganapati on e-readers: “The biggest limitation of the e-reader is the black and white screen. It is difficult to make content compelling in black and white.”
Reynolds on hybrids: “The big problem is it weighs 3.7 pounds.”
View Bruce Upbin's powerpoint presentation.
Update on Next Issue Media
John Squires, Managing Director, Next Issue Media
“We want the machines to be inexpensive and the content to be valuable.”
On magazine advertising on e-reading platforms” “If we get this right, we’ll make a lot of money.”
“[E-readers create] more choices for the consumer. And with that comes the opportunity to charge them more for it.”
“We need to quickly focus on common formats and common standards.”
View the powerpoint presentation
How E-Reading Changes the Game for Content Creation
Richard Maggiotto, President and CEO, Zinio; Sara Ohrvall, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, The Bonnier Group; Rick Levine, Vice President, Editorial Operations, Conde Nast; and Stephan Scherzer, EVP and General Manager, PC World and Macworld
Ohrvall: “When we put our tech team together with the edit team that has print in its blood, that’s when you get the magic.”
Levine on workflow: “We hope eventually to stream content to printing plants and to digital distributors."
Maggiotti: “We’re trying to find the right balance between a reading experience and not overwhelming users with whiz bang interactivity.”
Scherzer: “We have integrated our teams worldwide. Together they address how the story in the magazine will be sliced and diced for the website.” View the powerpoint presentation.
The Sports Illustrated Tablet
Interviewer Shira Ovide, Media Reporter, Wall Street Journal, and Terry McDonell, Editor, Sports Illustrated Group
McDonell on the demo for the Sports Illustrated tablet prototype: “We can do everything readers like in the magazine and then enrich it with content they like on the web.”
On the reaction of users to the demo for the Sports Illustrated tablet prototype: “The best focus group I’ve ever attended…Every single person said they would pay for this.”
View presentation
Understanding the E-Reader Ecosystem
Moderator James Meigs, Editor-in-Chief, Popular Mechanics; Cheryl Goodman, Director of Marketing, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies; Gil Fuchsberg, President, Skiff; and Nick Bogaty, Senior Business Development Manager, Adobe
Bogaty: “I think it would be a mistake for publishers to get into the software business.”
Fuchsberg: “Clearly, color is imperative for everyone…. But don’t ignore black and white. It’s where many readers are now and will be for several years.”
Bogaty: “Our strong feeling at Adobe is that the same people at the magazines who are laying out the print (product) should be the ones to create the digital products.”
Goodman discussed Qualcomm’s Mirasol, a reflective color display that requires less battery power than the LCD screen: “We live in a color world,” she said. View the powerpoint presentation.
10 Things You Need to Know About the GQ iPhone App
Jamie Pallot, Editorial Director, Conde Nast Digital, and Michael Hainey, Deputy Editor, GQ
Hainey on reader reaction to GQ iPhone app: “We’ve seen people reading the magazine even more, and deeper.”
Pallot: “Our mantra was: I shouldn’t be aware of the interface. I should be aware of the content.”
View the powerpoint presentation.
Paid Content Models for E-Reading
Moderator Staci D. Kramer, Co-Editor and EVP, ContentNext Media; Maria Streshinsky, Deputy Managing Editor, The Atlantic; Sean Nolan, Vice President, Online Operations and External Online Marketing, Rodale; and Monica Ray, SVP, Strategic Planning and Corporate Development, Paid Digital Content, Time Inc.
Ray: “I don’t think people will pay for content that is available free somewhere else. You need to think through your paid and free content strategy…You’ll see fewer free apps on these devices.”
Streshinsky on fiction from The Atlantic being available on the Kindle: “This is the first time that anyone has packaged short stories directly for the Kindle…There are very few magazines that can publish a 15,000 world piece. We can do this with Kindle.”
Nolan on the pricing strategy for the many apps Rodale has on the market: “Some of it is guessing.”
