Multimedia Is Already Here, Publishers Told

Ian Locks, Chief executive of the PPA, told delegates in the opening speech of the Magazines 94 conference that they have to find a way to co-exist profitably with the new multimedia, or end up “dinosaurs” of the media world.

First to speak was John Mellon, chief executive of Reed Publishing Europe, who began by highlighting the differences technology has made to current day magazine publishing; desk top publishing software means that a magazine dummy issue can now be done in a few weeks, compared to the two years it used to take; he pointed out that new technology means that there will be no need for physical copy or film to be sent; this technology is already in place at IPC and Reed Business Publishing. Multimedia will be here sooner than later.

John Mellon’s main point however was that the technology will always be secondary; the quality of publishing is what sells. “Change is a certainty and emerging technology will be a major catalyst for change. While publishers must be flexible and ready to adapt to succeed…the underlying strategy for success will not change – that is, delivering quality information that consumers want.”

One important area for publishers to remember when planning for a multimedia future is that the ownership of copyright is vital, and will become more so. He also warned that many multimedia experiments underway today will never become reality, issuing a warning to publishers to beware. He does not see traditional paper media disappearing, however good or effective, because of the low cost and highly flexible, easily transportable magazine or newspaper.

He ended his speech by listing 3 key things that will determine the face of information publishing: editorial content, editorial content and editorial content.

Bob Phillis, Deputy General of the BBC predicted a slightly more modest futurewhere there will be clusters of channels forming specialised niche markets, much as magazines do today.

Bob pointed out that the top Sky programme is watched by less people than read Just 17; however, the viewing of the young suggests that in the future, cable and satellite will take a much larger share, as is happening in the USA.

Demand for these services will be led by the consumers; if there is no quality programming, they will fail. Britain’s place in these superhighways of the

future will be to provide such programming, and yet again who owns the rights to such material will be the winner.

At the session dedicated to multimedia in the afternoon, Paul Godfrey of Oracle likened the current multimedia revolution to the industrial revolution; the changes in networks, computing platforms and information management mean that,as in the C19th, many things are changing simultaneously.

David Worsley of EPS reiterated a theme of the conference, which was that the owners of the intellectual property have to act if they do not want to lose out. David believes that existing media players can take advantage, and join the multimedia race, but that changes will be slow, unless new rich players who already have global marketplaces join in.

Paul envisaged a multimedia future of “shopping malls”, where consumers will be able to browse at leisure; David however envisaged a more specialised service, where the consumer indicates which services they are interested in and whether they want updates, rather than a casual shopper.

The technology is in use already; this is happening now, and the fully interactive service will be fully available in 2 years, David predicted. He concluded, “It is not a tremor underneath us but as an earthquake.”