Audience. Strategy. Production
The three pillars of publishing success
Welcome to Publishing & Media Expo (P&ME) and our new-look seminar programme for 2015. This year we are focusing on the three pillars of publishing: audience, strategy and production.
I'm honoured to be working on the seminar programme for P&ME 2015. I previously worked for an international media association in Germany for almost 10 years and P&ME was always in our diaries as a must-attend. We were always impressed with the range of exhibitors, the calibre of speakers and breadth of topics they focused on.
So, what do we have in store for you at P&ME this year? Breaking though the conference-noise of our industry, content (and by that I mean extraordinary live content) has never been so important. We took a look at those three pillars of publishing and applied them to our 2015 programme. We've listened to you, our audience, to understand what trends and issues you want to explore; we've talked to our industry advisory board on the best strategy to deliver this content; and for the past few months, we've worked very hard to produce the best programme we can.
One of the key strategical differences this year has been to move away from the call for papers model and adopt a curated approach to our live content. We've done our topic research and made sure to include experts from all areas of publishing: vendors, consultants and publishers. Each expert brings different perspectives, along with passion, to the table that you'll definitely walk away having learned something new.
In the Audience theatre, the on-going debate about Native Advertising will examine the blurred lines and changing roles of publisher, agency and brand. With the emergence of native ad teams in some publishing companies, it's apparent that change is already happening. But what challenge does this present and what new skill sets are required?
Everyone's talking Programmatic. Getting your ads in front of the right audience is undoubtedly the way to go, with some forecasting as much as 70% of online advertising being programmatic in the next two years.
And once you've got your ad in front of the right audience, who actually sees it? Enter 'Viewability'. Recent figures from comScore shockingly revealed that up to 54% of ads go unseen. Scary stuff. So what do we do? Another challenge for the industry!
Hear our speakers from IAB UK, The Drum, Time Inc, Dennis, Guardian News & Media, AOP UK, and many more get to the heart of these discussions during what promise to be very engaging debates.
Also under the umbrella of our Audience theatre, is Data. But what does data mean for Publishers? Our speakers will look at how to create a data roadmap within your organisation and how to leverage audience data to develop new products and services.
In our Strategy theatre, we'll look at trends in Revenue Diversification. I'm really looking forward to hearing from Sarah Schantin Williams, co-founder of the Institute for Media Strategies who will be looking at paid-content. While we've heard from many large nationals about paid-content models on the conference circuit, it's not often we hear about regional news media companies. Sarah spent two years working with a Swedish regional news organisation, helping them with their move from free to fee. She'll be giving us a candid insight into the company-wide challenges they faced and their results to date.
Continuing with our international theme, Mark Challinor, CEO, Media Futures and vice president of INMA (International News Media Association), will give us a snapshot of mobile strategies that publishers around the world are adopting.
This year, we're very excited to deliver a new feature in our Production theatre: The techPitch.
At busy exhibitions, when you're time-strapped, have exhibitors to visit and conference sessions to attend, it can be hard to get a snapshot of the latest tech out there and how it can ultimately benefit YOU. That's why we've put together the 100 second techPitch, where seven companies have the honour of telling you why their product will change the way you do business in 2015.
Publishing Futures Live from the PPA
The PPA's influential Publishing Futures 2015 research will be unveiled on 25th February at P&ME in a series of panel discussions and presentations. Chaired by Wessenden Marketing, the sessions will examine how publishers are tackling areas such as subscriptions; retail; live events; and digital publishing culminating in our CEO panel - A View from the Top.
We hope that P&ME 2015 will be an accurate reflection of our industry's challenges today and that this snapshot has been enough to whet your appetite. So what's the next step? Go ahead and register online, it's free of charge and the live content is great (yes, I'm probably slightly biased).
We look forward to seeing you at the show!
