Specialist Media Show * Exhibition * Workshops * Conference * Intelligence * Networking * 24 May 2012 ThinkTank Birmingham

In the Specialist Media Insight research earlier this year, we asked 130 publishers what they saw as their biggest opportunities and challenges.  This provides a unique insight into how specialist media owners see the world right now.  

Whilst they can glimpse the potential of digital platforms, online interaction, repackaging content and enhanced ad propositions, there is still a fear of new competitors, making the wrong technology choices, and traditional revenues evaporating before digital grows to replace them.  Plus a real skills gap especially in sales and technology. 

The interactive Barbie app, published by Panorama Publications of South Africa, is the highest selling children’s mag in the App store, with international reach and 60% of sales coming from archive issues.

Dawid Venter, Digital Head at Panorama Publications of South Africa, tells the story…

Digital platforms are transforming how publishers can distribute their content, and they are opening up previously inaccessible international markets even for small publishers. Now you may have a replica of your magazine on Apple Newsstand, but that is just scratching the surface. 

The speakers in the mobile platforms panel at the Specialist Media Conference on 24 April will stretch your thinking and show the opportunities even for smaller publishers to reach new audiences.  They'll also share some practical ideas you can implement straight away.

Here's a sneak preview of the content of the session, based on a meeting with the speakers this week.

Lusso Magazine is a Luxury Lifestyle title published bi-monthly by SWR Media (Magazines) Ltd and, following a successful relaunch in March 2012 and always quick to try new things, the publishers took the bold step of moving away from print to an entirely digital format for online, tablet and smartphone apps.

Their use of social sharing to extract reader data and gain deeper understanding of reading habits has helped the story for advertisers, and gained Lusso a place on the 2013 Media Pioneer Awards shortlist.

Could your niche b2b or b2c publication find a new market in India?  A recent report from East West Relations shows that the Indian Media market is packed with potential for publishers, across print and mobile, with the b2b sector growing fast.

The Indian market could be an important one for your company’s growth. East West Relations has put together the most in-depth, comprehensive report on media sectors including TV, Internet, print, digital media TV and radio among others.

Here’s 11 reasons for looking at Indian media:

Imagine Publishing was an early adopter of Apple Newsstand, and has now taken an approach of “everything everywhere” by putting all their magazine titles onto Zinio, Google Play, Kindle Fire, Nook and Magzter.

Flagship titles like “How it Works” are now reaping the benefits, with over 22% of their circulation via digital channels in the July-Dec ABCs.  Imagine's pioneering digital strategy has earned them a place on the 2013 Media Pioneer Awards shortlist.

How are other publishers tackling digital media?  There’s some fascinating insights already from the 2013 Specialist Media Insights research.  The survey is still live, but here are key findings from the 140 publishers who have completed so far.  You can still take part and receive a free copy of the results:

Take part in online survey now

What’s the secret to making progress with digital editions?  Behind all the swagger and PR, who’s quietly selling browser and mobile magazines to customers – and what can other publishers learn from this knowledge?

With the second round of Digital Edition data reported by ABC, we now have a much better idea of what is actually happening across a level playing field.  134 titles published digital edition figures, compared to 61 back in August 12.  There is a slight bias to larger publishers who have made a strategic decision to publish all their titles, but the ABC Consumer Magazines report is still the best source around.  

With business publishers expecting over half their revenues to be outside print by 2014 ,and consumer publishers expecting about 40%  - according to the Specialist Media Insights research -  we are already in the era of multi channel publishing.    Media owners now need to juggle print, web, mobile, social, live & online events and increasingly e-commerce.   

This challenge was the main theme at Publishing & Media Expo this year, and there were some interesting case studies of how publishers are now starting to work out how to get the different channels to work together well.  Carolyn Morgan picked out five stories of media owners who are successfully combining channels to build a community and sell more services to them:

How are digital magazines changing?  Carolyn Morgan was a judge for the 2012 Digital Magazine awards, and over the last few weeks she has read - or is that viewed? -  twenty different digital magazines from around the world and seen how inventive publishers have been using the potential of tablets to inform, amuse and engage their readers (or should that be audiences?).  

While many smaller publishers would do well starting out with simple replicas for mobile devices, once you have a little more confidence – and budget – there’s so much more that can be done when traditional magazine content meets mobile devices.  Here’s Carolyn's top 16 tips for the ambitious digital magazine:

Google is actively targeting new services to publishers, creating opportunities to share content freely on the web and also package publications for sale via mobile devices.  This can only be good news for publishers, providing an alternative mobile distribution channel to Apple and access to 500m owners of android smartphones and tablets worldwide.

Luca Forlin, of the Google Strategic Partnerships News & magazines team, took part in an expert Q&A session at the Specialist Media Online Event on 7 November, and shared some interesting insights about how these services are developing.