Publisher Insomnia list

Mega-Conference program built by thinking like a publisher

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By Carol Hudler, conference program coordinator

Having spent 17 years as a publisher and working directly with other publishers for more than seven of those years, I sort of know how publishers think.

And as I discussed the 2015 Mega-Conference with its organizers, I suggested we create the program with the publisher's biggest concerns and opportunities in mind.   With help from a committee, we created a "Publisher Insomnia" list.  This was a list of pressing concerns and unsolved challenges – both good and bad – that keep publishers awake at night. 

From that list and other feedback I got from attending the fall conferences of LMA, SNPA and Inland, we identified several key themes:

  1.
    GROW DIGITAL: We need to continue to grow digital in order to be the "go-to" media operation in our markets.  And to do that, we need to continually improve our social practices, our inventory management, our sales team skills and update our digital marketing approaches to optimize new technologies and consumer trends. 
  2. BUSINESS MODELS MATTER.  Digital advertising on our newspaper.com sites won't cover print losses for most publishers, and small-market newspapers are not immune to these challenges.  
  3. SUSTAINING PRINT IS IMPORTANT. Print advertising still pays a lot of bills and we need to work to sustain investment in some of our traditional categories.
  4. BE REAL ABOUT RESOURCES – WE HAVE FEW. Few operations have the resources to experiment with technology, so our R&D partners are critical in helping us innovate.
  5. SHOW US DISRUPTION THAT WE CAN GET IN ON. We want to learn how the disruptors are changing the landscape, but especially want to know how we might capitalize on the opportunities of change.
  6. VIDEO, NATIVE, SOCIAL.  These topics are on most publishers' agendas.  There is a wide diversity of knowledge and expertise in these areas – some are far along and others need more info.
  7. MOBILIZE FOR MOBILE. Nobody feels they are fully prepared to optimize their fast-growing mobile audiences, and most know they need to.
  8. INNOVATION. Innovation is key, but with scarce time and resources, publishers often worry about which ideas to pursue and how to pursue them.
  9. GIVE US SMALL GUYS WHO THINK BIG. Best practices at smaller operations are highly valued because most publishers consider themselves too small or too poor to implement programs that big newspapers do, yet that may not really be true.
  10. GIVE US TIME TO INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER AND OUR R&D PARTNERS.  Longer breaks.  More time on the floor.

I've worked hard to curate the Mega-Conference sessions to address these common themes. 

  • Ken Doctor, media analyst and publisher of Newsonomics, will share the nine trends to pay attention to in 2015. Later, he'll interview Eric Harris from BuzzFeed and Jay Lauf of Quartz to learn how these publishers are building and monetizing their digital audiences, gleaning insights as to what approaches can apply to local media.
  • We have 33 break-out sessions lined up, to provide very practical "take-home" advice on how to improve your current operations or how to incorporate new approaches to transform your business. We took special care to find speakers who have worked with limited resources, addressing one of publishers' biggest concerns. For instance, if Jaci Smith of the tiny Faribault Daily News can develop a native content operation, why shouldn't you be able to?
  • For those who like breaking news, there are a number of "first heard here" sessions. SDS will release the executive summary of its State of Media Sales Survey. Jim Brady will share insights and outcomes of "Billy Penn," Philadelphia's first mobile-first local news site. A few other releases will be likely at this conference.
  • More than a dozen of our R&D partners will speak at the conference, sharing solutions for publishers. And this conference will feature one of the industry's largest Trade Shows with R&D partners showcasing their products and services.
  • We'll hear how mobile is working for marketers by Greg Stuart, CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association.
  • If you arrive Monday morning, you can hear from Kirk MacDonald, president of Ad Taxi, about how programmatic advertising has changed and how it can provide a higher value to publishers who use it correctly.
  • We'll not only hear about the three "Must-Do's" to allow innovation in your organization, we have a workshop to teach a framework for thinking through an idea to help it become a reality.
  • Finally, we'll discuss business models. Many have heard Jim Moroney talk about protecting our First Amendment duties by diversifying our revenue sources. We'll be revisiting where we are with that, and hearing from publishers who are doing things differently to make money in new ways. Hear how Calkins Media is capitalizing on "Over the Top" broadcasting or is pursuing new dollars by operating as a real estate agency in one of its markets.

Now it's time to join the discussion.  Register for the conference before Jan. 23 to get the best price and come prepared to share your interests, concerns and successes at the breakout sessions.   We can't wait to see y'all in Atlanta!

Carol Hudler is CEO of Hudler Success Strategies, Nashville, Tenn., and the conference program coordinator of the 2015 Key Executives Mega-Conference.  She previously served as group president for the Gannett U.S. Community Publishing Division for seven years, where she oversaw 13 local media operations in the Southeastern United States.  She served for 18 years as a publisher of daily newspapers in Nashville (The Tennessean), The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., and The Telegraph in Macon, Ga.

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