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

This Wednesday, 24 April, we’ll be hosting this year’s Specialist Media Conference at The British Library in London.

It’s going to be an action packed day with 19 conference speakers, 18 roundtable discussions, 4 workshops, bookable 1-1 advice consultations, and the Media Pioneer Awards taking place at the end of the day.  

Are you still sat on the fence?  Not sure if it’s worth a day out of the office?  Here are 17 reasons why we think it’s unmissable. 

Successful specialist publishing businesses are built around a niche community.  Both consumer and business publishers have always run live events for their readers, and many have had lively letters pages or forums.  But as digital media bring communities of interest closer even across geographical boundaries, so publishers have become more focussed on nurturing their online communities and developing live events. 

In b2b in particular, events are one of the revenue streams expected to grow in the next two years, potentially exceeding print circulation, according to the 2013 Specialist Media Insights research.  Even consumer publishers are developing more live events, and social media is becoming an important source of web traffic, data and insight.

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.

Traditional display advertising is in decline, and standard digital ad rates are falling, so what are the alternatives for specialist publishers searching for new commercial revenues?   And as marketers and agencies have more media options available and are under increased pressure to prove ROI, how must media owners change how they pitch and deliver ad solutions?

Our advertising panel at the Specialist Media Conference on 24 April 2013, will address these questions, with a focus on the practical issues facing niche consumer and b2b publishers. We got them together recently, and discussed the topics they will be covering in their session: here’s a quick preview.

As news stand sales fall and advertising yields struggle, subscription revenues have never been so important for publishers.  Yet subscription marketing has never been more complex, with print, web and mobile products to juggle and a bewildering array of marketing techniques available.  For specialist publishers with niche markets and small budgets and teams, it's difficult to work out how to price, where and how to promote and how to manage the data...

This week I held a meeting with the speakers in our subscriptions panel at the Specialist Media Conference.  While they certainly don't have all the answers, they do have some interesting experiences to share across a wide range of consumer and b2b titles.

As all good marketers know, it’s easier and cheaper to keep a subscriber than get a new one.  This was true in the old days of print and it’s just as crucial for online subscriptions.

But how exactly do you go about keeping your hard-won online subscribers? Especially when there’s so many free and noisy distractions competing for your readers’ attention?