Deloitte, in its TMT Predictions report for media in 2009, noted that ‘the challenged state of the print industry in developed world markets does not signal the demise of the sector. Rather, 2009 is likely to mark the emergence of a range of new business models, including shared backroom infrastructure and online-only delivery.’

With the communication and interaction style of Web 2.0 offering a standard that readers are now firmly engaged with, current thinking seems to be less focused solely on achieving higher print circulation for traditional magazines. More, how readers hungry for content and connection opportunities can be attracted by brands meeting their needs via new and print/digital-collaborative business models.

It begs the question: as readers, what do we get from print magazines that we can’t get online, and what do we get digitally that we can’t replicate in print?

Will we see more magazine publishers diversifying their revenue streams and seeking to make digital publishing more than just companion sites to their print publications? Print publishing has always had to pay its own way, digital should be able to do the same. Does the consumer expectation of free online content ensure that the only way to make money is via a traditional ad-supported content or are there new models to be explored?

And what can we learn from newspapers? New and revisited print publishing models such as free-to-consumer are looking at traditional ad revenue opportunities via the achievement of low-barrier mass circulation in both newspapers and magazines. At the same time, more and more news content is available, and consumed, online.

"While I do think online content could overtake newspapers, I believe that print magazines - because they are less ephemeral and more enduring, because they are more beautiful, because they offer perspective and amplify what people get elsewhere - will not be overtaken in the same way as newspapers,”

-Richard Stengel, Managing Editor, Time Magazine. (2007 Chicago Tribune, via Innovations In Newspapers)

Are readers still attached to the beauty of ‘the object’ when it comes to magazines? What makes an online magazine a 'magazine' rather than a collection of pages of content? Are blogs the magazines of the future? What’s the situation with B2B titles versus consumer? These questions and a whole lot more will be addressed by our panel of industry experts.

Panel

Andrew Davies, Co-founder & Managing Director, idiomag

Mike Soutar, Founder & Managing Director, ShortList

Louise White, Group Marketing Director, Incisive Media

Ashley Norris, Director, Shiny Media; Chief Executive, Anorak Publishing 

Simon Wear, Chief Operating Officer, Future UK

Sarah Clegg, Chief Executive Officer, John Menzies Digital

Chair: Kathryn Korrick, Digital Media Consultant

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Speaker Biographies

Andrew Davies is the co-founder of idiomag, a personalized publishing platform that allows publishers and brands to automatically create personalized digital publications for each reader based on their unique taste delivered via web, mobile and desktop download. Andrew previously founded thruSITES, a social-media development agency serving clients such as Universal Pictures, No. 10 Downing Street and Primark. He has also worked with Deloitte Consulting, focusing on large technology and media clients.

Mike Soutar is founder of ShortList, the market-leading British men’s lifestyle weekly magazine launched in 2007 with a current audited ABC in excess of 500,000 copies per week. Mike is also a founding director of Crash Test Media, a development company working with leading media organisations to create, research and launch new products, specialising in print and digital development. In 1994, under Mike’s leadership, FHM grew from sales of 50,000 to 500,000. He left to become Managing Director of Kiss 100, then Editor-in-Chief of Maxim USA, then joined the Board of IPC Media. He became MD of the men’s lifestyle and music division, ignite! and, following the acquisition of IPC by Time Warner, also became Chairman of Wallpaper*. In 2003 Mike became Editorial Director of IPC, overseeing editorial strategy for the group. He also led the development of four new weekly launches – Nuts, Pick Me Up, TV Easy and Look - which quickly became commercial and critical successes.

Louise White is group marketing director at Incisive Media and has been with the company in various marketing positions for the past 7 years. Louise is part of the management team who has seen the company grow from 20 to nearly 200 staff in the last 5 years. She has overall responsibility for the company's centralised marketing function, including the telesales, renewals, customer service, list research, circulation, product and event marketing teams. The team looks after a portfolio of over 100 B2B magazines, newsletters and online products and 300+ events in the risk management, capital markets, insurance, investment, IT, legal and private equity markets. Louise is sits on committees for many industry associations, including the PPAi, AOP and SIPA and is a regular speaker at events.

Ashley Norris began a gadgets blog called Tech Digest in 2003 after half a decade in freelance journalism mainly writing for The Guardian and The Daily Mirror. Now one of the UK's most read blogs, Tech Digest is part of the Shiny Media stable of which Ashley was a founder and original CEO. As the UK's biggest and most successful commercial blog network Shiny Media now boasts 30 blogs which attract over three million readers each month. As well as his continued involvement with Shiny Media, Ashley is also a founder and director of social media marketing and communications agency Shiny Red and a consultant with online video specialists Simply Media. He also spends time working with Anorak Publishing, the men’s lifestyle media network with three digital titles.

Simon Wear, who has been at Future at since 1992, moved to take up the reins of the licensing department in 2000 and, since then, has brought the international business sharply into focus and to the heart of Future’s company strategy, rising to take a place on the Future Publishing Board in early 2004.  Together with his International responsibilities Simon also took on the role of Group Publishing Director in October 2005 responsible for all publishing in the UK.  In May 2007 Simon stepped up to the role of Chief Operating Officer for Future UK. Beginning in 1985 with one idea for one computer magazine in the UK, Future plc now publish over 150 specialist consumer magazines each month through wholly-owned businesses in the UK, US and France.

Sarah Clegg is Managing Director of John Menzies Digital, a joint venture between John Menzies Plc and Largardère Services of France. It provides a digital magazine service for some of the UK’s largest publishers and retailers, replicating printed editions in their entirety. Sarah joined Menzies late last year to take the helm of its digital operation. She began her career in regional press and later moved into trade and specialist press. Sarah spent over 11 years at Emap Consumer in advertising, marketing and publishing with a spell in customer publishing at Emap Australia. In later years, Sarah marketed UK events for the multi-million pound promoter Live Nation (then Clear Channel), and ran the commercial and publishing side of Popworld before moving into the digital magazine space.

Kathryn Corrick is a freelance digital media consultant and strategist with over ten years experience in digital media. She combines her knowledge of online publishing, advertising, event management and PR with an understanding of trends, business and technology development. As a consultant her clients have included McCann Erickson, Handbag.com, the London Development Agency and New Media Age. Kathryn is a visiting lecturer for the University of Westminster, on the International Committee of the Online News Association, a member of Women in Journalism and was a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Local Media and Citizenship steering group. Previously Kathryn was online manager of the New Statesman magazine.