The Joss Group

Our April Conferences

They are coming up quickly!

The Seybold Report Reunion is April 18

The Seybold Report Conference is April 19

Digital Publishing Report Day is April 19

All of the events are at the beautiful Skytop Lodge Executive Conference Center in Skytop, PA. Please click on the event name to be taken to the event site for more info and to register.

See you at Skytop in April!

Keynote Speakers Announced for the 2012 Going Digital Conference

While launching a new conference in this odd/sad/troubling economic times is a bit of a roller coaster experience and has lead to some sleepless nights for the Joss Group team, we are steaming ahead, people are signing up, and we are putting the finishing touches on the agenda and the speaker list. We are very pleased to announce our Keynote Speakers for the event:

On November 8 Bryan Yeager, an Associate Director with InfoTrends and leader of the research organization's Digital Marketing and Media practice, will speak on emerging trends in short-form (magazine) digital publishing and how these trends will affect all publishers. Yeager provides guidance to technology firms, practitioners, and service providers across the marketing and media value chain on how technology, business processes, and best practices can be aligned to enhance marketing and publishing effectiveness. His current research coverage focuses on interactive digital publishing workflow, cross-channel marketing automation, offline-to-online engagement strategies, and personalization. For more than four years, he has helped companies and government agencies make smart technology investments, map out strategic product development plans, and create effective business development initiatives.  

On November 9 David Renard, Principal of MediaIdeas, will talk about how publishers can take advantage of the possibilities in reader and tablet technology to improve their success in digital publishing and avoid potential pitfalls. Renard most recently founded and built Netcirculation, the largest nationwide distribution network for high-end boutique fashion, art, photography, and design titles. He also co-created Stare, a publishing and advertising agency, which produced magazines that included Stare and Critic Eye. Renard was the author of the recently published The Last Magazine, a visual anthology of the stylepress and a commentary on the future of printed periodicals. Previously, David was at the Gartner Group, spearheading a new European subsidiary that developed research-driven decision support tools which he grew into a multi-million dollar business.

Tell Us How Much It Costs to Make an App

We are looking for speakers for the Going Digital Conference coming up this November. We want speakers who are doing publishing in digital formats to speak. If you are interested, please check out the site: http://www.goingdigitalconference.com and read through the agenda. Use the Speaker Application on the site to tell us your story. We want to hear from you!

Introducing the Going Digital Conference: November 8 and 9, 2012

In May we launched the Digital Publishing Report, but we kept working on something else behind the scenes: a new conference we are calling the Going Digital Conference. It is for anyone who has content they want to publishing in digital form. More details later, but the site is up, so take a look. We hope to see you there!

What is Fun, Lively, Educational and Well Attended?

Well, it is not most graphic arts conferences these days, I can tell you that! Most are poorly attended and downright boring.  And I went to one last spring in NYC (name withheld out of consideration for the sponsoring organization) where everyone seemed to walk around in a stupor like well dressed zombies.

But, no zombies at PePcon (the Print and ePublishing Conference), held at the end of May in Alexandria, VA and included including David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción, co-hosts of InDesignSecrets.com.

Everybody (and there were lots of people) had fun learning about cool stuff you can do with InDesign including very specific details about publishing e-books. There were signs (literally) indicating how much the attendees were into the conference--the conference managers had to put signs on the ballroom doors saying the doors would open 10 minutes before presentations started! Apparently, people were so keen to get a good seat they were coming early for session. Now, that is enthusiasm.

I got to attend and had fun along with everybody else, and I learned a few new things, too. I also picked up some article ideas for future TSR articles.

No details yet on when and where the 2012 conference will be, but check out the conference session details from the 2011 event by clicking here.

 

"Users? That sounds like a methadone clinic."

I do not usually get a chuckle out of reading trade material. Maybe a frown once in awhile, but a laugh? Not so much. So, I was pleased to find myself amused at some of the remarks reportedly made at the recent American Business Media gathering. Bill Mickey of Folio shared on his blog the following,

"In his opening remarks, after having the gavel officially passed to him from past board chair and Vance CEO Peggy Walker, Charlie McCurdy was uncharacteristically bemused over b-to-b media’s state of transformation. “We don’t even have a vocabulary for our business anymore,” he said. “We’re not building our business around brands anymore in any sense of the word, we’re building it around customer insights. There’s no one word to describe what we produce. What do we call this?”

McCurdy added that it’s equally difficult to define an audience. “If they’re not ‘audiences’ anymore, what are they? ‘Users’? That sounds like a methadone clinic.”

You really should read the entire blog post. You can do that by clicking here.

The Year of Experimentation

Last Friday I attended the Wharton School's Future of Publishing Conference held at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. I could write several articles (and may well) about what I heard there, but I wanted to share here my general impressions.

First, it was all very well done. Good venue, great speakers, and it was well worth the time to attend. What I heard, over and over, from the various distinguished speakers and panelists, was that publishing has to change. Publishers have to change. The days of business as usual are long gone. I agree.

They also said that the future holds tremendous opportunity for publishers smart and nimble enough to grab hold of the variety and plenitude of opportunity available. I agree with this and applaud it. Change must happen in the publishing industry and will happen whether or not specific publishers embrace and engage with it. Much of the change involves smart use of technology, but that is a post for another day.

One speaker said several times that this year must be a year of experimentation for publishers. New approaches must be developed and attempted, and without question many experiments will not succeed. Yet, there is no substitute. The old ways do not work any longer and new ways must be developed.

But, what I did not see or hear from any of the attendees was a feeling of excitement about these opportunities. Most of the attendees, seemingly primarily senior executives at large publishing firms, seemed tired and conversation between sessions was often quiet and subdued. Most of the time people milled about checking their smartphones and calling in for messages.

Surely, this is a reflection of how lean the staffing levels are at most publishing companies are these days. It is difficult to be excited about experimentation and opportunity when you are so tired you cannot see straight, much less dream dreams. I hope, though, that at least some of the attendees took the admonitions to heart and will find time to experiment at least a little in the coming year.

You can read more about the conference by reading the Publishers Weekly take on the day (click here).

The Future of Publishing

I am looking forward to attending the Wharton School's Future of Publishing Conference this Friday in New York City. Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and co-founder of Journalism Online will present a keynote address. Martin Nisenholtz, Senior Vice President for Digital Operations at the New York Times Company will also present a keynote address.

The list of speakers is pretty impressive, so I will probably be too busy listening to them to post or tweet during the event. I will be happy to share a few of the statements or predictions that pique my interest most later in the day or during the week-end. Watch this space!

If you attend the event, please keep an eye out for my badge and say hello.