Industry groups revamp training for trying times

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1991 by Liz Horton

When budgets are tight, one of the first things to go is staff training.

This doesn't set well with industry associations, which are being forced to retool their training programs to appeal to increasingly cost- conscious publishers.

Training in a recession keeps you sharp for when the market goes up, and it gives a psychological boost," says Marcia Appel, executive director of the Association of Area Business Publications (AABP). Training also lets employees know that their managers care about them when they may be worried about job security, she adds.

But industry groups today aren't relying solely on such arguments to keep attendance up at their conferences and seminars.

Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), for example, has instituted special reduced attendance fees for its 30 to 40 annual in-house events-and that, along with focusing events on hot topics, results in more attendees than ever before, says Russell J. Melvin, director of international affairs and the founder of MPA's education department. "We've added programs on how to keep staff morale up in tough times, how to get the most out of rate structuring-everything is pegged to the times," he says.

This year, MPA also figured travel budgets for many titles would be cut. Therefore, it rolled its annual circulation management and financial conferences into one assemblage in New York this past june. In this recessionary climate, "we felt people wouldn't want to go to a resort area," Melvin explains.

The Society of National Association Publications (SNAP) is another organization that has expanded its programs in the face of recession.

"If you provide appropriate education, people will find the money to go, " insists executive director Allison Parker. Her thesis may be valid. After extensive research to find out what type of training SNAP members need, the group's annual june conference was expanded. The revamped program attracted 313 people, compared with 93 who attended last year. "We gave them so many options they couldn't say no," Parker says.

AABP is taking a different tack. Travel budget cutting "puts dampers on centralized training, but encourages decentralized training," says Appel. "People aren't going to go to hotels where they pay $130 a night and outrageously high food prices[and, on top of that, have to] fly there," she concludes. And so AABP is working directly with member companies to help them develop local, custom-designed solutions.

For example, when Charlotte, North Carolina-based American City Business journals, with 25 business titles, put together a two-day management seminar for its own sales managers, Appel persuaded them to open it up to AABP members in exchange for administrative and management support.

Also, a group of AABP members in Northern California banded together to get their editorial training done locally, which saved at least a flight and allowed them to share the cost of an instructor-which can be up to $6,000 a day.

Appel has even been encouraging AABP members in the Southeast to take advantage of seminars run by the Florida Magazine Association. "Why reinvent the wheel?" she asks. "Whenever we spot good local training programs, we share them with members via our executive fax. I think we're all looking at ways of being more inclusive and sharing and creative about how we organize the modules of training."