Folio: plus: ideas! Ideas! Ideas! and more ideas for successful magazine management

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 1998

* How well are we serving our readers on the Web?

Not very, at this time, according to Kelly Conlin, president of IDG Communications. Readers can't find what they want and they don't necessarily trust what they find, Conlin told colleagues at the American Business Press 1997 Top Management Meeting. "We have the notion that the Web changes everything, but it doesn't change the need to create value for readers. We find readers have a very hard time even getting close to what they need. They frame very poor searches. They do not have Ph.D.'s in library science. They do not know link terms or logical sequences. As you all know, we're not in the business of publishing or information services. We're in the business of time and trust -- commanding people's time with information they can trust. And both of those things are scarce commodities and getting scarcer. The predominant Web model today among media companies is print on the Web. We've taken our content and put relatively crude search engines on top of it. And readers are largely dissatisfied with print on the Web. That makes sense. What's the most common thing people do on the Web today? It's print documents. Print on the Web doesn't respect the benefits of carving time out. We have to think of the computer as a tool. You go to your computer to do an e-mail or a spreadsheet, or ideally to help you make a decision. The role that business-to-business publishers need to provide is that of a decision support tool, not just making content digitally available. That is where the large opportunity exists in this emerging digital economy. A support center saves people time, which translates into customer value, and it's what we have to do to build a compelling business model."

* Reader research: Target fresh, enthusiastic readers

In the "business of editorial," the editor creates the product the publisher sells, David Pecker, president/CEO, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, pointed out as keynote speaker at The Folio: Show. "We have all seen magazines that were once leaders become followers," he said. "This happens because editors and publishers no longer value their readers. The business of editorial means we cannot assume that we know what our readers want. Ongoing reader surveys are an invaluable source of feedback." Hachette has developed a cost-effective monthly subscriber and newsstand reader-survey procedure for every issue that answers key questions about what readers liked and disliked, and what they would like to see in future issues. Responses are broken down by sex and age as well, so the company is able to get a true picture of all the readers -- not just a select group. "Most important, we target only those readers who have come to the magazine via subscription offers in the newsstand copies, not through agents like Publishers Clearing House," Pecker said. "That's what makes this information so extremely valuable to us -- it comes from men and women whose interest in the publication was totally unsolicited. They are fresh, enthusiastic readers. You model your future subscriber based on them."