Mr. Magazine

The first ever Amplify, Testify, and Clarify (ACT) Experience that the Magazine Innovation Center at The University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media is now history. However, the lessons learned at this experience offered “a mosaic of opinion and perspective, when combined into a whole, provided a good look at where the industry is now and where it needs to go,” as my friend Tony Silber, general manager of Red 7 Media wrote in his blog on the Folio magazine website.

Over the next few days and weeks, I will providing links to the keynote speeches that the first ACT Experience witnessed and heard. Those experiences help us, as the theme of the first Experience promised, Reimagine the Future While We Still Have Time.

The opening remarks at the ACT Experience came from Roger Fransecky, the chief executive officer of the Apogee Group. When Roger talks, I listen. And so did the 125 lucky folks who were in attendance on the opening night of the ACT Experience. Here are some sound bites from Roger’s presentation:

The thing that we are really about is possibility
The invitation of life is to life a remarkable life and never settle for second best
We are no longer in the information business we are in the conversation business
There are no accidents
The spirit of this conference is one of generosity
Real change happens deliberately
The challenge of life is to pay attention
This whole conference is about that nutty thing called change
Some are running on empty because of their belief
The question of life is not what you are doing but what are you becoming

Click here to watch Roger Fransecky’s presentation on Reimagining The Future While We Still Have Time.

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By Tony Silber, Folio Magazine

Living in an age of “digital distraction,” magazine-based media companies need to come to terms with what they’re becoming, and whether they’re doing it by default or design, said Roger Fransecky, CEO of the corporate-consulting firm Apogee Group, and keynote speaker at last week’s “Reimagining the Future,” conference held at the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi.

The powerful metaphor going forward is “conversation,” Fransecky said, and media companies can create a path to the next one. “You’re no longer information providers, you’re in the conversation business,” he told the audience of about 125 magazine-industry professionals and journalism-school students. From a business perspective, the challenge is to ask a series of questions in that context. “What’s over?’ Fransecky asked. “What do you still believe? When you look at your business, you need to ask, ‘what do we still trust?’”

The conference was organized by Samir Husni, founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center, and was held at the center’s facility in Oxford, Mississippi. Over the three-day event, speakers tackled the fast-changing landscape from a variety of perspectives, sometimes outlining what they’re doing in their own businesses and other times prescribing advice for the industry.

For example, James G. Elliott, CEO of an eponymous media sales and consulting firm, noted that the recession has hit all media, not just print media and not just magazines. High unemployment in the upper middle class, he said, has caused a dramatic falloff in subscriptions and newsstand sales.

Magazines, Elliott said, are too magazine-centric. “The thinking is isolated and inbred,” he said. “We allow folks in other industries to define us or ignore us.”

Circulation consultant Baird Davis said publishers were caught flat-footed by the recession. There are, Davis said:

• Too many marginal publications
• Too many “over-circulated” publications
• An over-abundance of “leveraged” companies
• Too many “lightly” qualified CEOs
• A lopsided concentration on advertising
• A fragile newsstand channel and diminished consumer value of subscription files
• Diminished circulation staffs with reduced consumer-marketing skills
• Companies improperly organized and staffed to meet demands of the new digitally driven consumer-centric market

And with the recession, Davis said, the private-equity fueled “Leveraged Era” was done.

‘Don’t Be Scared. Be Excited.’

There were some mixed messages about how to deal with the universe of Internet information, where blogs, videos, comments, posts and other content doesn’t have the same meticulous attention to accuracy and credibility as traditional print media. When it comes to advertising, Elliott said to do in print what you would do online. But Thomaz Souto Correa, editorial vice president of The Abril Group in Brazil, said the correct focus should be on the future of the reader, not the future of the magazine. Correa asked the most provocative question of the event: Given the changing rules for content online, “Will credibility matter in the future?”

The conference closed with a presentation from Bob Guccione, Jr., who kept his commitment to speak even though his father, Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, had died the previous day. Fear and mystification of the Internet, Guccione, Jr., said, is unfounded. “The Internet is a railroad track, an infinite number of railroad tracks, carrying other people’s cargo,” he said. “And we’re the other people. To think otherwise is like a farmer saying to his tool: ‘Command me.’

“I have no insights into digital media,” Guccione said. “None! And I’m starting two Web sites. I think it’s still about, ‘How do you make it interesting?’ It’s all going to come down to the quality of the content. Don’t be scared. Be excited. Wake up excited.”

From time to time I will be posting selective quotes from top magazine editors and other media pundits regarding the future of the magazine industry. Today’s Quote Unquote comes from the November 2010 issue of Esquire magazine. David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief writes in his Letter from the Editor,

… I lose patience with pundits who prophesy and lobby for the demise of all traditional media in favor of newer forms. Newer media perforce create more ephemeral “content.” And the reality is that all of these forms of expression — new and old, digital and analog — are going to continue, and they are going to continue to prosper. The things we create in print and in digital are so completely different from each other that they appeal to fundamentally distinct needs.The war between old and new is a false construct. Nothing goes away. The human need to create is too great, and the human desire to be entertained is too intense to allow any form, whether books or oil painting or even blogging, to disappear.

They who have ears, let them hear.

First came the magazine, now the television show. Wild Animal Baby is going 360 and anyone who doubts that children and their parents can multitask have to think twice. Ten years after publishing the magazine for the 2 to 4 years old, Sammy, the explorer skunk, moves from the pages of the printed magazine to the television screen where he and his friends star tomorrow (Oct. 2) in the premiere of Wild Animal Baby Explorers television show on the PBS stations. The goal is to go where the “the kids and their parents are.” The pages of Wild Animal Baby magazine which will also sport a new look starting with the December 2010 issue, will jump, move and explore on the television screen the same way it is doing in print. The goal is one according to Lori Collins the magazine’s editor, “giving children a foundation for a lifelong love of wildlife and wild places.”

I had the opportunity to ask Ms. Collins few questions regarding this evolution from being a print publication to a 360 brand. The Mr. Magazine™ Interview with Lori Collins follows:

Samir Husni: Why television and why now?

Lori Collins: Historically, we’ve grown our subscription base via direct mail. But direct mail has become more expensive and less effective for today’s busy parents. The reach of television is far greater than anything we could achieve through traditional marketing means. By going where kids—and their parents—are, we hope to grow the Wild Animal Baby brand, including magazine sales. By the way, Wild Animal Baby magazine is just one of four children’s magazines published by National Wildlife Federation. As these new Wild Animal Baby subscribers get older, we hope they will move on to our other print publications: Your Big Backyard (ages 4-7), Ranger Rick, (ages 7–14), and Just for Fun (ages 7–14).

SH: How do you see the future of print in this digital age? Is the future all digital or is there print in the future? What are you doing to ensure a print (and do you think it is necessary for kids) future in a digital age?

LC: I think print will continue to play a vibrant role, at least in the near future. Both kids and adults love technology, no question about it. They like the bells and whistles. But kids, especially young ones, love the simple magic only a print product can provide. Our readers look forward to getting mail each month that is not only addressed to them, but also made just for them. It makes them feel special.

More importantly, young children like the quiet time they spend curled up with a parent, mostly at bedtime, going through the pages, looking at the pictures and reading the stories. Most parents cherish those hours with their child as well. Perhaps someday the iPad will allow parents and children to have that cozy, shared experience, but I don’t think we are there yet.

That’s not to say our publications staff isn’t keeping a close eye on where technology is headed. Like other children’s magazines, we’re dabbling with how our wildlife content can be applied to media such as phone apps, software games, and a more interactive website. But for us, it’s a little too early to draw up a specific roadmap. We’re still trying to figure out how to make digital experiences that are as necessary, sufficient, and relevant as the experiences kids already have reading our print magazines.

SH: Launching a magazine for two- to four-year-olds in normal time has been seen as crazy; how about it in digital times?

LC: Our experience is that publishing a magazine for two to four year olds really isn’t that crazy. You have to remember that preschoolers have been enjoying Wild Animal Baby magazine for over 10 years. We aren’t launching the television series because we think the magazine has run its course. Quite the opposite. We don’t have any reason to believe young children won’t continue to enjoy Wild Animal Baby magazine. We’re launching the television series because it allows us to create an experience for preschoolers that is different, but just as valuable as the one created by reading the magazine. We expect our current readers will watch the show and believe viewers will want to read the magazine. Both media offer unique opportunities for us to share our wildlife message.

SH: Will the television show be a lot like the magazine?

LC: As we developed the television show, it was important to us that there be clear connections between the TV series and the magazine. We didn’t want to create another sub-brand for NWF. We wanted to build on the existing Wild Animal Baby brand. So, like the magazine, Wild Animal Baby Explorers introduces preschoolers to the world of animals and helps them develop important observation and problem-solving skills. But we also wanted to make sure that we took advantage of all that television offers. So the series features a unique mix of loveable 3-D animated characters and stunning high-definition wildlife footage that will keep young children engaged and having fun.

Sammy, a young skunk in red overalls, has long been a fixture in Wild Animal Baby magazine. Each month he hides among the pages, and our readers love to find him. (We get more comments about Sammy than any other aspect of the magazine.) So Sammy is one of the five animated characters in the television show. And like in the magazine—Sammy hides at some point during each episode, and the viewers are encouraged to find him.

“I Can” is another favorite feature of the magazine that we incorporated into the television show. At the end of each episode, viewers are encouraged to get up and move to imitate an animal that has been featured in the show.

But we didn’t just want the magazine to inform the show. We also wanted to include elements of the television show in the magazine. So starting in November, each issue of the magazine will feature a cartoon-style story based on Sammy and his four new friends—Skip, Izzy, Benita, and Miss Sally—that appear in every episode of Wild Animal Baby Explorers.

SH: Are you attempting to be a 360 publisher? TV, print, web, apps, products, events, etc.

LC: NWF is a conservation organization that has a long-standing commitment to educating people—especially children—about wildlife. We view our children’s magazines as educational tools—but not the only possible tools. Our goal is to share our appreciation of the natural world with as many people as possible. That means we need to meet people where they are—watching TV, surfing the web, playing with apps, attending special events, or reading magazines. We’re really just trying to share our love of wildlife and to nurture children’s inherent love of animals.

SH: Five years from now, where do you want the Wild Animal Baby brand to be?

LC: I’d like Wild Animal Baby Explorers to be in every preschooler’s home in the United States—and in homes in several countries overseas as well!

I’d also like for Sammy to have become a beloved character to millions of children, much like Big Bird, Barney the purple dinosaur, and our own Ranger Rick. If that were to happen, it would mean that we were successful at a lot more than selling magazines and producing TV shows. It would mean we were successful at giving children a foundation for a lifelong love of wildlife and wild places.

SH: Thank you.