PPA Magazines 97 Conference – Day One
Magazines 97, the two-day conference dedicated to magazines, was held in the luxurious surroundings of the Grosvenor House Hotel. The conference kicked-off with a debate entitled ‘Making Markets Multiply’. George Bull, Grand Metropolitan, was scathing about new technology, he believes that the old tried and tested media is still the most profitable. His message is magazines are not dead, the medium will not wither away, well established quality will always stand out. Bull said that it is important to build on brand success; he sited the new GQ off shoot GQ Active as an example. The Internet, according to Bull, poses no real threat to magazines: “people won’t go home and put their feet up in front of their PC.”
The key to market success, according to Gerry Hobbs, VNU USA, is not to be solely dependent on one revenue source, for example advertising, and not to become encumbered with ancillary activities that fail to attract profits. Nicholas Coleridge, Conde Nast, was also quick to brush off the multimedia revolution as mere hype. “Magazines”, he said “are on a roll, they will not be swept away by the Internet. Magazine circulation’s are at an all time high and ad revenue is strong.” However, Coleridge stressed how important it is not to get complacent. He believes that magazines are becoming too uniform, features and design are too similar across market sectors. Coleridge claims that the way to make markets multiply is through diversity. He predicts that we will soon see magazine branded food and restaurants, it won’t be long before Cosmo comes on a stick!
The next session was entitled Magazines Work, once again it was time to pat the magazine world on the back and berate all other media. David Hepworth of EMAP Consumer Magazines, was the first to take the stand on this subject. He pointed out that the Sunday papers try to imitate consumer magazines, but fail because they have no reader focus. Magazines, on the other hand, are targeted at a specific group of people, they have to constantly hit moving targets. Mandi Norwood, editor of Cosmo’ said that the secret of the success behind women’s magazines was that they both create and reflect change. To do this, the teams behind magazines have to rely on intuition, successful consumer titles are, Norwood believes, governed by instinct.
Lunch was followed by a discussion on masthead TV. Helen Grattan the woman behind National Geographic TV, the title at the forefront of masthead programming, began with a few words of advice. She said that it is vital masthead TV maintains the integrity and quality of the print brand, otherwise the TV show will give the title a bad name. Terry Mansfield, the National Magazine Company, went on to say that there are many possibilities for magazines to develop branding; it, he commented, is “all about imagineering, turning ideas into businesses.” Mansfield said that the ITC regulations had not changed as much as he had hoped.
John Brown, of John Brown Publishing, continued this debate using his experience with Fortean TV as an example. The programme was based around the Fortean Times. Brown said that Channel 4 got around ITC rules by allowing the publishers a research only role, there was no co-producing and no cross promotion. This meant that the publishers had very little creative control. The general feeling seemed to be embrace masthead TV, but approach it with care.