Some takeaways from our Sep / Oct issue

The September / October issue of InPublishing magazine was mailed out at the end of last week. Here are some of my takeaways from it:

1. In hindsight, during the early days of the internet, there should have been a quicker realisation that it’s not about the paper and ink, it’s about news and journalism.
2. The best of ‘teen & tween’ magazines can be enjoyed by adults too.
3. When faced with a mega-news story, like the Queen’s death, the go-to fallback for editors of specialist B2B media is the ‘industry reaction to…’ piece.
4. Armed with a passionate, dynamic, hard-working and imaginative team, small publishers, like The Review of Religions, can punch way above their weight.
5. For news media, with regards to ad revenue, the big opportunity that lies ahead is in partnerships and more cross-publisher collaboration.
6. Experimenting with the metaverse and Web3 at an early stage can help companies upskill teams, understand how the spaces operate and test approaches with little risk.
7. The onboarding process is one of the most important touch points you have with new subscribers and a key determinant of likelihood to renew.
8. Recruitment is one of the most important things we do. Like a football coach, you are only as good as the people around you.
9. In the case of TikTok, it’s most certainly a good thing to have an intern helping with the account.
10. For news media, indeed all media, competition comes not only from the social media giants, but also Spotify and Netflix and everybody else taking up people’s time and attention.
11. The majority of commercial programmes bought are bought in three-month bursts. Smart B2B publishers are trying to move away from that, through the adoption of account based marketing techniques.
12. It is a peculiar industry that allows its most critical resources (journalists) to serve as public punch bags, risk imprisonment for undertaking their work, and to be remunerated so poorly that many are embarrassed to disclose their incomes.
13. Audience underpins everything; you have to be your audience’s best friend. This means being on the platforms they are using and offering relevant content on those platforms.
14. Below the £1m turnover mark, there is a seething mass of highly creative, innovative, but largely unprofitable activity in content creation in three key areas: hyperlocal news, indie micromagazines and individual influencers and content creators.

If you want to read the full issue, then please register here. Once you’ve completed your registration, you’ll be provided with a link to the digital edition.