Tony Blair gave his support to the magazine industry yesterday when he addressed the PPA’s Magazine & B2B 2000 conference. He said that his Government is committed to working together with the industry over e-commerce issues, and urged those within to welcome and embrace the current moves towards an online world.
“The changes in technology today are bringing about a different way of communication and managing the process of change is one of the most important challenges your industry faces,” he told delegates from all areas of magazine and B2B publishing. Comparing the challenges New Labour faced on first gaining power, he said that there are two reactions to change – to resist it or to embrace it – and called for his audience to take the latter route.
New technology dominated the conference as a whole. In a session entitled “Harnessing brand strengths – to drive our businesses”, Sly Bailey, CEO at IPC magazines, spoke of the future “digiverse” as a converged world in which strong brands are well-placed to be successful. “Magazines are well-aligned to make the shift to new media as they are already interactive”, she said, and emphasised the unique and personal relationship magazines have with their readers.
The challenge they face, however, is to make the move from being magazine-centric to media-neutral. They must embrace new communities of interest and develop partnerships with other platforms to build on their brand strengths and interests. In this media-neutral world flexibility is all important and the ability to market vital.
Tom Toumazis echoed her viewpoint later on in the day as he spoke at a session which discussed ways in which advertisers can do more for editors. Toumazis, director of UK consumer advertising at EMAP Group Ad Sales, demonstrated how previous rivals such as IPC and EMAP had begun developing partnerships to market and enhance both their positions in an increasingly converging world. A recent Parenting exhibition united the two group’s baby and parenting titles.
Smash Hits was another example of how a brand can develop on a number of platforms. “Brands now need to live and breathe, rather than being constricted to one medium.” The group’s teen pop magazine, now runs the annual Smash Hits Poll Winner’s Party, which is branded on the group’s radio stations, has a compilation CD, and links with the group’s music TV station, the Box.
Such integrated campaigns painted a rosy future for the magazine world: “The competitive nature of magazines gives them a good placing for the future. Brands need to forge new partnerships and alliances, even with rivals, they cannot be media specific, and need to evolve deeper relationships with advertisers.”
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