Mr. Magazine

By Lisa Scott, Executive Director, PBAA

Today we witnessed that the “TM” after Mr. Magazine™ doesn’t only mean he’s trademarked his name- it clearly describes his passion and expertise- as a teacher and mentor to his graduate and undergraduate students of the past 30 years. Successful graduates demonstrated their talent and insights and skills, and were a testament to the value of the service journalism program at Ole Miss. The program closed with a short recap, and a conversation between the students and the recap “team” about career, passion, personal branding, and professionalism. Thanks to Samir, his staff, the students, the graduates, the speakers and the attendees for the best “Experience” yet.

Jonathan Graham (HP Graphics & Solutions, Germany):
• We are at an “event horizon”- the beginning and the end of everything
• You can’t escape the sheer mass of the web- there are now over 1 billion websites
• 76% of Americans still prefer reading on paper
• Human natural tendencies are attracted to print
• Germany has a strong “slow media” program- strong culture of reading
• We’ve gone through the hype- looking at better ways to go
• Direct marketing on email- open rates are incredibly low
• Print is the new 1:1
• Sustainability is the intersection of environment, social, economic… the same is true for sustainable communication but content is at the center of these three, a holistic approach

Clinton Smith (Editor, Veranda Magazine)
Garreth Blackwell (Digital Magazines and Commercial Printing)
Alex McDaniel (Alabama Media Group):
• All graduates of the service journalism program at Ole Miss
• In college, learned:
o How to destroy things on purpose: change is a powerful thing, provided you have a good reason to do it
o How to write a business plan that doesn’t suck: thriving in the business needs understanding of all aspects of it so you have something to add to the conversation (you can’t be naïve)
o How to adapt when everything goes to hell: getting set in your ways or expectations will only serve to hold you back
• Love print
• Build business focus on the things you need to have happen, not the medium itself
• Made experiences: connections that people can be a part of
• Shamelessly self-promote

John Harrington (Publisher, The New Single Copy)
Bob Sacks (Precision Media)
Lisa Scott (Executive Director, Periodical and Book Association of America):
• Recap thoughts
o Diversity of opinions, lots of useable information, no one answer to challenges, but celebrate
o Spread your horizon, invigorated, impressed with our leaders of tomorrow
o Students are the best part of the conference for all the attendees and speakers
o A different kind of digital/replica product will emerge in the future
o The progression of media has gone from Radio to TV (radio with pictures), etc. The transformative process will be to find the things that print can do best
o Anything done well will work
o You don’t need to know everything about everything, but you need to know enough to understand the process of our work
o Need to break out of silos but still need to know the rest of the business
• Advice to students re: career, work, passion, preparation, networking, self-promotion
• Follow up with the people you met here- on paper!
• Attitude is critical- never have a bad day, be authentic
• THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING TIME TO BE IN THIS BUSINESS!