Mr. Magazine

“We did a reader survey last year and I was convinced that digital has been around for a long time, we have mobile apps, digital editions, social media; I thought for sure more of our membership was really going to express a preference for those digital platforms as a way to get their information. And it was almost 40% of the members who said that they really just wanted print.” Erin Pressley

Membership and content are two very important facets for the new president of Association Media & Publishing, Erin Pressley. The AM&P is the premier membership organization that serves the needs of association publishers, business operation executives, communications professionals, designers, and content generators and the media they create.

And while digital is an important part of their business, Erin is extremely pleased by the love and loyalty their members have for their print products, especially since she pleaded ink on paper’s case in front of her CEO and the board of directors.

And her entreaty for print has really paid off since a large part of their membership still revel at the feel of a magazine in their hand and the investment for that tangibility is proving most successful.

So get ready to learn a lot about association media and the points that make it tick as you enjoy the Mr. magazine™ interview with Erin Pressley – President of AM&P.

But first The Mr. Magazine™ Minute with the newly installed president of the Association Media & Publishing Erin Pressley and listen to her dream and mantra for AM&P.

And now the sound-bites:

On the current status of the Association Media & Publishing: Association Media right now I think is really undergoing an evolution. There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity that’s out there, but there’s also a lot of choices to be made.

On the platforms Associations prefer when it comes to their content: It depends on the association. I think some are a little more thoughtful and progressive than others. I know some have experimented by dropping print altogether. We still invest in our print and we still believe it’s a valuable member benefit.

On her most pleasant surprise when it comes to her career with the AM&P: I thought for sure more of our membership was really going to express a preference for our digital platforms as a way to get their information. And it was almost 40% of the members who said that they really just wanted print.

On her biggest stumbling block: A stumbling block? I think it’s the same with many associations; it’s resources. It’s financial resources to invest in new innovations and properties, it’s human resources to have the team to really execute on a lot of what we need to really get done.

On what keeps her up at night: I’m well aware of the resources that we have at our organization and that gap seems to be getting wider and wider. And so my struggle is to figure out how I can lessen that gap.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine interview with Erin Pressley, President of the Association Media & Publishing…

Samir Husni: You’re the new president of the AM&P and your background is in editorial. Can you briefly tell me about the current status of the Association Media?

Erin Pressley: Association Media right now I think, as I’ve heard many people speak today at the conference, is really undergoing an evolution. There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity that’s out there, but there’s also a lot of choices to be made. And I think that most associations are headed in the right direction, but there are too many tools to choose from and too many paths to go down and I think what most association publishers need to do is really sit back and think more strategically, develop a content eco-system, learn who their members are and what they want, do an audit of the communication resources that they have and really be more strategic before they continue to go down the road.

I think a lot of associations are just so used to doing the work, getting the work done, pumping the work out; it’s all tactics. And I think when you have few resources, whether it’s budget or human resources, you just get in this mode of status quo and whatever is the easiest. And it’s just hard to sit back and think more strategically about what you need to do. But I think that’s the only way associations are going to stay relevant in the years ahead.

Samir Husni: Is there a divide in the associations about whether they should go print, digital or both? Or is there a united front when it comes to platforms?

Erin Pressley: It depends on the association. I think some are a little more thoughtful and progressive than others. I know some have experimented by dropping print altogether. We still invest in our print and we still believe it’s a valuable member benefit, but I had to get up in front of our board of directors and in front of my CEO and really defend that proposition.

There are so many options out there and I think the breadth of membership that we have in our association and what we call the male-stale-and-pale, the old guys who have been around a long time and who still their love print, is strong. But we want to be in business for the next hundred years, if not more. So we want to make sure we’re bringing these millennials and these other folks in.

So there is a sense that you need to be on all platforms, be everything to all people and I think again it goes back to the strategy of really thinking through what your members want and where you want to go. It might mean a lot in print and a little in digital, it might mean a little more in digital and I think it’s different for every association.

Samir Husni: What has been the most pleasant surprise in your experience when it comes to Association Media?

Erin Pressley: For my association we did a reader survey last year and I was convinced that digital has been around for a long time, we have mobile apps, digital editions, social media; I thought for sure more of our membership was really going to express a preference for those digital platforms as a way to get their information. And it was almost 40% of the members who said that they really just wanted print. They knew that we had digital options; they knew we communicated that way, but they really loved having the magazine in their hands.

That’s very heartening to me and I’m also talking to advertisers, it’s good information to share with them. We’ve had advertising growth over the last few years, small, but it’s growing. And we’ve actually had circulation growth with our print publication too.

So there’s a lot of organic growth and loyalty around the print publication. And it’s really easy to fall prey to the myths that are out there or colleagues who are in the publishing sphere who talk about the death of print, advertisers who say they just want digital, but to have that kind of concrete numbers showing that our members still really love print, I think was really surprising. And I was very thankful to see that too.

Samir Husni: What has been the biggest stumbling block and how did you overcome it?

Erin Pressley: A stumbling block? I think it’s the same with many associations; it’s resources. It’s financial resources to invest in new innovations and properties, it’s human resources to have the team to really execute on a lot of what we need to really get done.

The way I’ve tried to overcome within the organization is just to really get more people to understand what we’re up against and the importance of content. And I think more and more if you can draw that content up to the strategic level: how it can help drive membership, how it can help influence events, how it can advance advocacy in legislative things that you’re doing; I think then more people in your organization see the value of that content and then they’re willing to kind of join you in the content crusade. So I’ve really tried to work on that internally.

Samir Husni: What is your Association? What is NACS?

Erin Pressley: NACS is formerly the National Association of Convenience Stores. But over the years we have developed an international presence and we’re also fuel as well, so we’re the Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing and we’re also convenience stores and gas stations.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Erin Pressley: What keeps me up at night, again, is really resources. I know who my competitors are; I see them as these for-profit publications and websites that are out there and I know even though we’re an association publication that’s where I want to be. And that’s very far-off in the distance.

I’m also well aware of the resources that we have at our organization and that gap seems to be getting wider and wider. And so my struggle is to figure out how I can lessen that gap.

© Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Jeff Stoffer, American Legion Media & Communication Director and Editor of American Legion Magazine.

On Memorial Day we honor our veterans who have fought in the battles our country has faced to retain the wonderful freedoms we Americans enjoy. Their needs and priorities may have changed since they donned their uniforms, as many of them have aged with the passing of time. But there is one organization that continues to fight for their ever-changing concerns and remains a loud and clear voice for each and every one of them.

From the growing concerns of VA healthcare with the controversial 40 who died in the Phoenix VA Hospital due to delays in receiving care, to using every channel available to get that message and many others out; the American Legion Magazine stands strong for veteran’s everywhere.

I recently spoke with Jeff Stoffer, American Legion Media & Communication Director and Editor of American Legion Magazine, about the Phoenix controversy and the growing concerns of vets and what his organization is doing to help.

Passionate about his members, print and the many channels the American Legion uses to promote and be an advocate for veterans all over the country, Jeff has a deep and abiding affinity for the men and women who have and still are defending it.

I hope you enjoy this very moving and uplifting interview with Jeff Stoffer and to everyone out there: Happy Memorial Day!

But first for The Mr. Magazine™ Minute with Jeff Stoffer and how The American Legion engages with the members it serves:

And now for the sound-bites:

On the role the American Legion organization plays in controversies like the Phoenix tragedy: We recently reorganized our whole communications program to run the gamut between digital, from social media, from Intraday, social media messaging, all the way through to print product, every piece in between and we’re all driving at the same holes.

On whether the gamut of channels his organization uses adds to or detracts from their print product: They all drive to the print edition. The print edition brings, as a completely separate identity, in a use in these different media.

On his most pleasant surprise in his career with the American Legion: Media-wise, I would say that the most interesting phenomenon is that we started an E-newsletter with a very small Alpha population of 86,000 subscribers and now we’re at 509,000 subscribers.

On his biggest stumbling block: Certainly the issue of silos. We’re a multi-faceted, broad organization with many different divisions.

On what keeps him up at night: I think what keeps me up at night is the infinite nature of today’s media. It seems like whenever you open up a door, there is another door down the hall and another door. You never know what is going to happen next.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Jim Stoffer…

Samir Husni: You are currently in the midst of one of the most newsworthy and controversial situations ever. Everyone is talking about the veterans; everyone is talking about the 40 who died. What role does The American Legion play in all of this and how do you differentiate from having a print magazine, a website, the blog; how are you integrating all of this and what is the benefit to the veterans?

Jeff Stoffer: As the nation’s largest veteran’s service organization, there is kind of an expectation that we would be the voice of the veteran stakeholder in VA healthcare. In this case, this is not an issue that is new to us. We have been tracking preventable deaths at VA Medical Centers for the past couple of years because a few have popped up. We’ve been following the VA since the 1930s when the American Legion was instrumental in its formation. Now comes the time when a lot of people have a stereotype or maybe even a negative stereotype or a misunderstanding of what the American Legion is and does.

We recently reorganized our whole communications program to run the gamut between digital, from social media, from Intraday, social media messaging, all the way through to print product, every piece in between and we’re all driving at the same holes.

This reorganization did not really complete until March, 2014 and a month later we have CNN breaking the news of at least 40 preventable deaths in Phoenix. So it turned out that this would be a good opportunity for us to see how our reorganization was going to work. And it began with our social media program, tweeting about it; it was followed by our Facebook messaging where we received a great deal of market response, our audience responded to it. We got a lot of activity, we had a press release and stories started going onto our website.

So we created a branded web platform that wasn’t just “here’s the story,” but was interactive, it asked veterans to step into that site and actually type in and tell us their stories of waiting for care at VA health centers.

So at the end of the day what we ended up doing was we were already engaging the market essentially by sort of interviewing veterans across the country about their experiences with this big issue, using social media and the website so now as the story unfolds and more people learn about it and network news becomes involved, we become part of a Senate committee hearing on veteran’s affairs that is nationally televised and aired.

And now as this arc of media sort of continues to flow, we have reconfigured our editorial land so that the American Legion Magazine’s cover story in July will bring perspective, interpretation and analysis to all of these different hits.

And think about this, it’s almost like a reporting tool because we were able to get so many people to respond to it, provide us their voices. We turned our writer on to voices that came through Facebook that came through our interactive web platform, and the national media: the NBC’s, the CNN’s and the Washington Posts’ of the world were coming to us and asking what were veterans saying.

So we fulfilled our tried and true role as the voice of the stakeholder in veteran’s advocacy on this issue. And this extends beyond, quote-unquote, media channels. We had a town hall meeting in Phoenix, Arizona which was actually a physical presence by our national commander to step up, we coordinated media and veterans, and we brought 200 people into one American Legion post and 60 veterans got up and talked about the problem and it was aired on local and national television and it was aired on our website.

So it’s not about so much the channel; channels have their unique identities and they have different purposes, but it’s about the message and how we use the different channels to deliver the message efficiently. And I think we have done so in this way.

What we’re trying to do now is find a way to measure what this whole gamut of media mean to the American Legion. We’re going to talk about how frequently our brand was delivered to our audience and to external audiences. And then what is the number of that audience; we’re talking about network news and tens of millions of people; if we’re talking about Twitter, we’re talking about 250 million Twitter followers. But what is real about that and how do we measure the media impact in this era. We know the magazine has a fundamental baseline audience, we have metrics on our readership, so we can put a number on our magazine, but what we can’t put a number on is what does a Facebook “like” really mean. What does a “retweet” really mean? Are those real numbers? What does it mean when NBC Nightly News says that they might have 8 million viewers a night, or whatever it might be; I just made that number up, but ultimately that doesn’t mean they all just jumped on the bandwagon for the American Legion. Or maybe they just tuned completely out on it.

But what we want to do is develop some sort of a model that would identify what all this experience, this issue, our coverage of this issue, using all of our multiple channels did in terms of total impact and we’ll measure impact by visits to our website, by membership, acquisition via online or not and donations; we have a fundraising program in merchandising, our four big revenue streams. And so our plan is to say what our coverage of this issue means to the association or the organizations.

Samir Husni: Are all these channels that you’ve used going to help the print edition or detract from it?

Jeff Stoffer: They all drive to the print edition. The print edition brings, as a completely separate identity, in a use in these different media. From Twitter, which is a 140 character message to a big cover story within a feature well of a magazine, to everything in between; all of these electronic media blasts are like little fireworks that shoot off and they go and filter out, landing on the ground, and then at the end of this experience somehow, some way we have to put it all into perspective and into one overarching analysis, even if it’s for posterity to say what this experience was, what it meant, what about it helps define our organization. That’s the purpose of a magazine feature in my opinion is to bring context to multiple issues perhaps.

So I think that they all have separate related interests, they all feed one into the other and they cross pollenate each other. We will have in our magazine feature a sidebar, a capsule sidebar to say, tell us about your experience waiting for your VA appointment or your VA community visit at legion.org.

And that’s not read more on legion.org; we’re saying act on legion.org and there’s a big difference. I’m with you when you say if you want to read more, go on legion.org and read more. I’m not going to go to the next movie theater to watch the rest of my movie.

But if they say I just watched a movie and now I want to go do something about it, I will go to that next building and do something about it. So it’s an idea of mobilizing our audience and activating our audience, because I think there is value when you’re a member of something. You want to feel that you’re not just a member in name only. You want to feel like you’re a part of something that’s happening and doing something and functioning to correct a problem, to be an advocate on behalf of your fellow veteran in our case.

Samir Husni: What has been the most pleasant surprise in your tenure with the American Legion?

Jeff Stoffer: It’s completely off base, since 2006, when I first went to Normandy, France I got to know many D-Day veterans and I wrote a magazine article about Sainte-Mère-Église , France and how that community rebuilds and reconstructs itself every first week of June, every year. And this is kind of a fun experience with media to, because I write a feature story and then a documentary filmmaker fights my story and he says, “Hey, I would like you to write a treatment for a documentary film.” So I wrote a treatment for a documentary film and a script and a screenplay and I get to meet and interview multiple World War II D-Day veterans and these were incredible people.

Then I ended up writing a book about a particular figure in Normandy that was really important. And now I take the national commander back and in two weeks I’ll be going back to Normandy with the national commander for my 8th straight year, this time for the 70th anniversary. And what makes me smile is I know that I’m going to meet some of these guys that I’ve known, even though many of them have passed since I was last there.

When I talk to these guys and I come to understand this important moment in world history, the Normandy Invasion, and to have actually helped tell their story and be a part of this developing and understanding of it brings me pleasure.

Media-wise, I would say that the most interesting phenomenon is that we started an E-newsletter with a very small Alpha population of 86,000 subscribers and now we’re at 509,000 subscribers and sometimes they’ll open this up at 56%. It is an email opening audience and it’s fun because every week we have the opportunity to kind of produce a best-of what’s in our digital media and a little bit to our print. It’s a weekly promotional thrust that has been just so successful that I get excited for Thursday to come. It’s fun.

Samir Husni: And what has been the biggest stumbling block that you’ve faced and how did you overcome it?

Jeff Stoffer: Certainly the issue of silos. We’re a multi-faceted, broad organization with many different divisions. We work in jobs and economics, business development for veterans. We work in healthcare and benefits; all of these different areas of Americanism, American Legion baseball is housed in the American Legion National Headquarters, we have Jr. Shooting Sports, Boy’s State, Boy’s Nation, oratorical and a big gamut of legislation.

So all of these things that were spread out across all of these multiple landscapes, we previously did not really treat in our media, or not much, it was just kind of what we did on the Hill or in the community. And the magazine was more of a general interest magazine.

So what communication that was done in support of those programs was usually done in each of those divisions. What we had to do as we got the website and we started to break down some of those silos was to try to move some of the divisions out of the kind of thinking like I’ve got be my own public relations person and my own media person when they’re really program managers or policy people, they aren’t communications people.

And through time, slowly and painfully, we have broken down the silos, integrated some divisions, gotten other divisions, other areas of the organization to work with us to best brand and deliver the American Legion’s message. So it’s been a multi-faceted breaking down and I know this is true of a lot of associations, but it’s a lot of different departments and a lot of different communications people. Now we’ve standardized our brand, made for a more coherent and cohesive message for the whole organization.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Jeff Stoffer: I think what keeps me up at night is the infinite nature of today’s media. It seems like whenever you open up a door, there is another door down the hall and another door. You never know what is going to happen next and you have choices and you are not confined by the amount of paper you can afford or the size of the sheet. You are only confined by the priority of the messaging. Because electronic media gives you infinite opportunities and that can be a lot; when there are no restrictions on the space that you can use.

What keeps me up at night right now is that I have many, many divisions because we have been very successful in our media program. Many interests in the organization are at the door knocking, saying hey, I need you to do this, or we need to develop this, can you help me with our social media program. You want to do it all.

Samir Husni: Thank you.
© Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Sustainability, Audience Awareness And A Love Of Print – Three Things Ogden Publications Foster & Promote Unashamedly – The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Bryan Welch – Publisher & Editorial Director, Ogden Publications

“For most of the last ten years, Mother Earth News out of all the MRI measured magazines had the best and most consistent rate of growth…” Bryan Welch

There are few left in today’s publishing industry that actually put their money where their mouth is, but Bryan Welch – Publisher & Editorial Director – Ogden Publications, is one man who does. His love for print and magazines is second only to his love for Mother Earth and sustainability. And there is a reason for that.

Bryan’s first job was herding goats, so he has a good and compassionate feel for the Earth and all its inhabitants. And the second training ground that prepared him for the job he has now was taking a shot at being a stand-up comedian. The lesson he learned from that job, adapting and refining jokes based on the instantaneous reaction from the audience, made him more aware of how important audience awareness is and how vital adapting to their changing behaviors can be for publishers and magazine media.

The printed product is also very important and significant to him and he continues to place a very high value on his ink on paper products and in the people who buy and read them lovingly and loyally. He is a man close to the earth both professionally and personally. I asked Bryan about the things that are vital to Mother Earth News (just one of many Ogden magazines) and to him, such as sustainability and engagement with his audience.

His answers will engage and surprise you as you sit back, relax and think “green” and enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Bryan Welch – Publisher & Editorial Director of Mother Earth News.

But first The Mr. Magazine™ Minute with Bryan Welch on his secret of success in the magazine media world today:

And now for the sound-bites:

On whether the world is getting closer to actual sustainability or farther away: We are continuing to accelerate toward a bad outcome, unfortunately and mainly that’s driven by population and by prosperity. I’ll start by saying that I am very optimistic. I think we are going to solve our problem.

On how the focus of sustainability and service is helping his magazines: For most of the last five years it has been the MRI measured magazine most likely to be reader’s favorite; it’s often had the most time-spent-reading number, so we have both engagement and audience growth.

On whether he believes print is dead and it’s an all-digital future: Every time this question comes up I just mention that there’s this print magazine that has a 750,000 rate base and is an inch and half thick and weighs about 2lbs and it’s called Wired. And it’s about the digital media. Why is there a magazine about the digital media?

On why we should focus on the audience instead of the platform: That’s such an interesting question. I think one reason is most magazines are run by people who are not passionate about the subject matter. As a result, I think that they are psychologically reluctant, or rather, reluctant for psychological reasons, to analyze the problem in terms of engagement.

On the most pleasant surprise in his career: In my career it was the acquisition of Mother Earth News because I had a stack of Mother Earth News underneath my bed when I was nineteen years old.

On the biggest stumbling block he has had to face: On a very mundane level I’m deeply dissatisfied with how we’ve communicated the value of our audience with advertisers. I think that we’ve, by and large, failed to acquaint them with the value of engagement, we have failed to acquaint them with the value of influential audiences, of profoundly passionate people.

On what keeps him up at night: You know every day I can enumerate several dozen things that I could have done better, so if you’re asking that question in the traditional sense, as in something negative that keeps me up at night, I do count off and review the things that I didn’t do as well as I could have done.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Bryan Welch – Publisher & Editorial Director – Ogden Publications

Samir Husni: My first question to you is, are we getting closer to Mother Earth News with all these new technological developments or are we going away from Mother Earth News?

Bryan Welch: We are continuing to accelerate toward a bad outcome, unfortunately and mainly that’s driven by population and by prosperity. I’ll start by saying that I am very optimistic. I think we are going to solve our problem. The question is how big of a catastrophe do we need to create before we come to grips with the essential problem.

The human population has doubled in my lifetime and that’s compounded when you have the two most populace countries in the world increasing their prosperity to an unprecedented rate. I’m very happy that the people of India and China are more prosperous than they’ve ever been, but as people become more prosperous of course, they buy more stuff, and they burn more fuel; they do everything more and all of those things compound the growing problem with the habitat.

Now psychologically, every day we’re a little closer to the realizations that need to be made. And that’s the most promising sign for me, is that the awareness is growing as quickly as it is. And of course, it’s a great source of satisfaction to those of us who work in the areas where we focus on sustainability; it’s gratifying to see awareness growing and the audience growing.

Samir Husni: You publish a group of magazines that are aimed at that awareness and service; how is that helping the magazines?

Bryan Welch: For most of the last ten years, Mother Earth News out of all the MRI measured magazines had the best and most consistent rate of growth over the last ten years, averaged out. For most of the last five years it has been the MRI measured magazine most likely to be reader’s favorite; it’s often had the most time-spent-reading number, so we have both engagement and audience growth.

So today, I believe we’re at a million and a half unique visitors to the website every month. The audience total for the magazine is approaching seven million. And all of these are unprecedented numbers for us. Mathematically speaking we’re having a brief significant success and I think that grows out of people’s increasing awareness.

One of the numbers that I find most promising, last year I just started asking people about their political beliefs: do you consider yourself very conservative, somewhat conservative, neutral, somewhat liberal or very liberal. The Mother Earth News reader’s index for being very liberal is about 195 and the index for being very conservative is about 185. And because so many more Americans are quote – unquote very conservative that means about 9% of our readership said they’re quote-unquote very liberal. And about 20% of our readership said they are very conservative politically.

What that looks like to me is a social overhang. It looks to me like a harbinger of a very significant change in how we behave and how we view the world if all these very conservative people are subscribing to Mother Earth News. And the mass media doesn’t recognize that any very conservative person has deep feelings about sustainability. But there you have it. They have very deep feelings about Mother Earth News and pay us money to tell them about sustainability.

Samir Husni: How is the shift taking place? Are we still talking about print is dead and the future is all digital? Where do you see yourself, your colleagues and your publishers on this issue?

Bryan Welch: Every time this question comes up I just mention that there’s this print magazine that has a 750,000 rate base and is an inch and half thick and weighs about 2lbs and it’s called Wired. And it’s about the digital media. Why is there a magazine about the digital media? Well, I can’t explain that, but as long as there is one I’m not all that concerned about the print future of Mother Earth News or Grit. You know there’s something about print.

One of my friends, a very smart person, says that the print product is an artifact. Not a historical artifact, but an artifact of your value system and you want to own a physical object because it reflects your value system. You want it in your home, on your table and within your reach. Even if you’re reading mostly on your mobile device in a completely different format, you still want the physical object and certainly we’ve not seen significant erosion of the value of our print subscriptions; we’ve not seen any erosion in the value of our print subscriptions over these last ten years and I would have expected to see it.

So I think the right posture for us is to be completely agnostic about platform and focus on engagement; to focus all of our efforts on being more meaningful to the audiences we choose to serve and deepening the relationship with those audiences and of course being there with the product in the format that they want.

But the relationship with the magazine brand and the relationship with the media brand is the fundamental unit of value in our business. And I try to get my colleagues to focus on that above and beyond all other things.

Samir Husni: It seems so just common sense for us to focus on the audience instead of the platform. Why do you think we’ve not done that and why do we avoid common sense?

Bryan Welch: That’s such an interesting question. I think one reason is most magazines are run by people who are not passionate about the subject matter. As a result, I think that they are psychologically reluctant, or rather, reluctant for psychological reasons, to analyze the problem in terms of engagement. Engagement is a complicated question and deep engagement with an audience requires deep empathy which is easier to achieve if you share their value system and their passions. But most people who wind up running magazines do not share those same passions of their audience. So I think as a result many are reluctant to analyze the problem in those terms, because that’s a more difficult way for them to solve the problem than a new consultant, a new gadget or a new platform.

Samir Husni: What’s been the most pleasant surprise for you in your career?

Bryan Welch: In my career it was the acquisition of Mother Earth News because I had a stack of Mother Earth News underneath my bed when I was nineteen years old.

And for me, I’m a business person, but I’m in the particular business that I’m in because I’m a storyteller by nature, my vocation is probably storytelling. So for me it was always important to be emotionally engaged with the subject matter and it always seemed to me, as a personal goal, that that should be paramount. And every day is very exciting.

And the acquisition of Mother Earth News for me was very lucky. It just really felt like a dream come true for me.

Samir Husni: What has been the major stumbling block for you that you’ve been able to overcome or not?

Bryan Welch: On a very mundane level I’m deeply dissatisfied with how we’ve communicated the value of our audience with advertisers. I think that we’ve, by and large, failed to acquaint them with the value of engagement, we have failed to acquaint them with the value of influential audiences, of profoundly passionate people. Because there are many categories of products: natural foods, energy-efficient automobiles that are points of really deep engagement with our audiences. And the advertisers in those categories have almost ignored us altogether.

And so that’s a disappointment and a stumbling block that we’ve not overcome yet and that we continue to work on.

Other than that, you know I suppose that I’m, like most entrepreneurs, optimistic by nature, so the vast majority of the obstacles that we face, I feel like we’re in the process of crawling over them, whether that’s the case or not. But I tend to feel that we are.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Bryan Welch: You know every day I can enumerate several dozen things that I could have done better, so if you’re asking that question in the traditional sense, as in something negative that keeps me up at night, I do count off and review the things that I didn’t do as well as I could have done. I think like a lot of people do probably.

But I’m more likely to be up at night or particularly early in the morning more often because I have something exciting that I want to do. I’ve been lucky to have had that kind of career that’s given me a lot of work that I want to get to. So it gets me up.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

© Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

“You can talk to someone about the differences; listen to the words they use when they describe online versus magazines. They say, “My magazine” and “The website.” It’s just the words they use, “My Magazine,” because of the actual touch.” Gary Rubin

Courage. The one word that comes to mind when I think about my recent interview with Gary Rubin, Senior Vice President Publishing and E-Media, at the Society For Human Resource Management. As SHRM’s Senior Vice President of Publishing and E-Media, Gary Rubin leads the Publications and New Media division, which publishes HR Magazine, produces the editorial components of SHRMOnline (the Society’s website), is responsible for SHRM’s member facing social media initiatives such as HR Talk and SHRM Connect, directs book publishing operations, leads SHRM’s retail sales SHRM, E-Learning, video &multimedia production, SHRM’s virtual/on-demand conferences, organizational design production and business development via mergers and acquisitions, and a man who’s about to chuck it all and go sailing around the world.

But I’ve always believed that in order to succeed in the world of media, we have to be experience makers first. And I’d say that Gary is definitely about to make another new experience that may wind up bringing him back full circle someday to the media business.

After all, you can’t sail around the world and not tell someone about it and what better way than through the tangible presence of print media. But before we consider that possibility – sit back, grab your globe and give it a spin and enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Gary Rubin…

But first The Mr. Magazine™ Minute followed by the sound-bites and the lightly edited conversation.

The Mr. Magazine™ Minute:

The Sound-bites:

On why he’s leaving the world of business media for the sea: It’s really because life is short and greedy. I’m more interested in experiences than money.

On any similarities between sailing the world and publishing: After going through this brief recession, there’s nothing that the sea can throw at me that’s going to frighten me more.

On any lessons publishers should have learned from the recent recession: Don’t panic. The fundamentals of our business during the good times and the bad times are the same, that readers, whether they’re on the BtoB side or the consumer side, have either a need for content if it’s BtoB or a want for content if it’s consumer, and sometimes on the consumer side need and want intersect.

On any words of wisdom he might impart before he sets sail: Don’t give up. Because you look at the total patterns of our business going into the recession, BtoB suffers first, and then consumers get hit. And then coming out of the recession, consumers recover first then BtoB recovers second and this happens every single time.

On the best platform for branding: Print.

On the reasons why print is the best platform for branding: Because an advertiser has as many pages as they want to tell their story. And a print ad evokes a feeling in addition to providing information.

On the most pleasant experience he’s had throughout his career: There are so many things. It’s just such a wonderful business. It’s a people business. The business of media is so great because you work with so many super smart, interesting and dedicated people to create these products that people you don’t even know benefit from.

On the major stumbling block he’s faced: I’m not sure that I’ve overcome most of them. The business changes faster than you can learn it. And so I’ve always been slightly behind; there’s just so much more to know than you have time to learn and understand.

On the comparison of people in the media from ten years ago with today: I don’t know, things look different to me because I’m older. And I think that I’ve screwed more things up over the years that helped me learn more about people and business and myself, so things look different to me now because I’m different.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Gary Rubin….

Samir Husni: You’re leaving this business behind and sailing around the world; what’s your gut feeling about doing this? Do you feel like you’ve done everything you can do with the business or you’re leaving it in a better place or a worse place? Or this is it, there’s no future, let me go sail?

Gary Rubin: Oh no, neither of those things. It’s really because life is short and greedy. I’m more interested in experiences than money. That’s why I have been interested in publishing for all these years; it’s that you learn new things and every day you realize how little you know, plus just the process of learning new things and discovering new interests and trying to constantly chase after some things with competency.

The problem is that I love the business and I think this is the most interesting time in the business because we’re in this brilliant transition between print and digital and how the two play together and the tool kit of things that we have as publishers to create incredible content that’s visual and really takes print into places it hasn’t been before. I’m really sad that I’m going to miss out on a lot of that, but on the other hand we all have limited time on earth and there are things that I want to experience and I want to try and sail around the world and I can’t do that when I’m 70.

So, this is the time. I have enough experience as a sailor and wisdom as a person, but enough ignorance that I don’t know what I’m getting into and if I did I probably wouldn’t do it. This is the right time for me to try it and I’m afraid if I postpone it I won’t do it and I’ll always have that regret.

Samir Husni: Being in the publishing business; do you feel it prepared you for this adventure? Are there any similarities, do you think, between publishing and sailing around the world?

Gary Rubin: After going through this brief recession, there’s nothing that the sea can throw at me that’s going to frighten me more.

Samir Husni: As we’re coming out of this recession, you’ve experienced the good times and the bad times; what lessons do you think publishers should have learned from it?

Gary Rubin: Don’t panic. The fundamentals of our business during the good times and the bad times are the same, that readers, whether they’re on the BtoB side or the consumer side, have either a need for content if it’s BtoB or a want for content if it’s consumer, and sometimes on the consumer side need and want intersect.

You know, my DNA didn’t change as a reader in a recession or in a boon. The only difference was the ad revenue, the advertisers got scared, but the readership never went down depreciably, people’s interests in learning things and doing things never went down.

So, some publishers started doing stupid things, corroding the value of their brand because they were going through some negative times, instead of thinking they’d recover when the economy came back, so their competitors who had confidence in the basic value composition of their media thrived when coming out of the recession and those that panicked died.

Samir Husni: And what advice or famous last words would you impart to BtoB magazine before you set sail?

Gary Rubin: Don’t give up. Because you look at the total patterns of our business going into the recession, BtoB suffers first, and then consumers get hit. And then coming out of the recession, consumers recover first then BtoB recovers second and this happens every single time. And now we’re seeing the consumer media recovering and to me this means BtoB will recover and marketers ultimately.

The problem that BtoB is having is that marketers are shifted away from branding to regeneration, putting money into the web, LinkedIn and other places like that. And they haven’t been investing in branding. And without branding, you know you put a button, a banner or a contextual ad up, but without understanding the value of a marketer’s brand, what good is it?

And particularly at BtoB, where a number of products are poorly differentiated from one another; how do you know what product is better than another? And so the pendulum is going to switch back and there is going to be a greater emphasis on branding and I don’t think it’s that far away. And ultimately, that’s where the juice is.

Samir Husni: Which is the best platform for branding?

Gary Rubin: Print.

Samir Husni: Why is that?

Gary Rubin: Because an advertiser has as many pages as they want to tell their story. And a print ad evokes a feeling in addition to providing information. No one’s heart has ever jumped seeing a skyscraper or a banner, but you look at a gorgeous print ad of a Porsche and it makes you yearn for that car. A button or a banner helps direct you to where to buy it. And the web does a very poor job of that. And the web only delivers information that you know you don’t know. Print tells you every time you turn the page that you’re discovering something new and different, something that you didn’t know you didn’t know.

And print advertisers that create beautiful and enticing ads get the benefit of discovering that whatever happens in a person’s brain, when they’re learning through exploring, that happens in print. I’m not being negative about online at all; I love online. But print is special. And perhaps it’s because people can hold a magazine in their hands and so there’s a physical connection between a magazine and a reader.

You can talk to someone about the differences; listen to the words they use when they describe online versus magazines. They say, “My magazine” and “The website.” It’s just the words they use, “My Magazine,” because of the actual touch. People are sensual to a certain level and there’s that intimate connection with a magazine that doesn’t happen on the web.

Samir Husni: What has been the most pleasant experience you’ve had throughout your career?

Gary Rubin: There are so many things. It’s just such a wonderful business. It’s a people business. The business of media is so great because you work with so many super smart, interesting and dedicated people to create these products that people you don’t even know benefit from. So the reach and the benefit from your activity with your team affect hundreds and thousands of people and so I’ll miss feeling like I’m doing something that matters on a bigger scale.

And I’ll miss a lot of great friends that I’ve made in the business. I mean, I’m not going to lose them, but going to conferences and just the act of doing business, there’s a connection because you’re sharing a common goal or interest.

And it’s sinking in that I’m really on the precipice of leaving the business. You just don’t appreciate it as much when you’re in it as when you’re about to leave it.

Samir Husni: And what was the major stumbling block that you faced during your career that you had to overcome?

Gary Rubin: I’m not sure that I’ve overcome most of them. The business changes faster than you can learn it. And so I’ve always been slightly behind; there’s just so much more to know than you have time to learn and understand. And now it’s harder even when you feel like you’ve got some great level of understanding and insight.

In the old days you’d just write it and you’d have the tools; you’d have the word processors, the printers and the paper and ink. And now so many of the really cool and interesting things require technology which is so much more difficult to implement.

So I think in the future we have to work this out. It’s so hard to bring ideas into action because it’s so expensive and the technology is much more difficult.

Samir Husni: Because of your role in human resources; have you noticed any change in people in the media business? If you wanted to compare people in media today to ten years ago; where do we stand?

Gary Rubin: I don’t know, things look different to me because I’m older. And I think that I’ve screwed more things up over the years that helped me learn more about people and business and myself, so things look different to me now because I’m different. But I suspect people are still the same; it’s just that I’ve grown a bit.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Gary Rubin: My wife. She keeps waking me up because I’m snoring.

Samir Husni: Thank you and Bon Voyage…