Mr. Magazine

President and CEO of MPA – The Association of Magazine Media, Linda Thomas Brooks and President and CEO of FIPP – The Network for Global Media, United Kingdom, James Hewes, were two of the keynote speakers on the opening evening of the ACT 8 Experience, April 17, 2018. The gala was a glittering event filled with good food, great conversation, and amazing overtures about the positivity of print and digital together, putting their adversarial roles toward each other to bed once and for all.

Linda’s presentation began with a conversation about the power of magazine media. Linda came to her job as president and CEO of MPA after having been immersed in digital media for about 15 years, so as she eloquently put it, she knows what digital does well. But she also knows what magazines do well. And she totally understands what the two can do together, because as Linda put it that opening evening, “Magazine media lives in multiple formats.”

Her stellar presentation continued as she talked about how magazine media builds brands and sells product in a safe and transparent environment with demonstrable results and more rigor to prove it than anyone else. Trustworthy information is of paramount importance today to marketers and to consumers. Linda presented, from research done by the Edelman Trust Study, that customers are beginning to differentiate between platforms and media brands, showing consumer trust in platforms going down and their trust in journalism going up. Consumers are really thinking about where they’re getting the information that they’re using in their lives.

Her discussion was both eye-opening and well-received as industry leaders, journalism and marketing students, and academics gathered in the beautiful ballroom at the Inn at Ole Miss and listened to one of the first Print Proud Digital Smart moments of the ACT 8 Experience.

To hear Linda Thomas Brooks’ entire presentation, please click the link below.

James Hewes, president and CEO of FIPP, the network for global media, took the stage that same evening right after Linda Thomas Brooks. FIPP is an organization that empowers its members to build market-leading international businesses through intelligence, solutions and partnerships. Its members include: Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Elle, Wired and many, many others. James opened his presentation on 8 Industry Trends with a powerful statement about the magazine media industry’s diversity and vibrancy.

The 8 Industry Trends that FIPP’s research has uncovered and that James discussed are both interesting and developmentally important as they represent current industry challenges across the board:

1. Talent & Culture
2. The Elephant in the Room (referring to social media, platform specific marketing & content, and the renewed importance of the Google algorithm)
3. Print Matters
4. The State of Advertising
5. Subscriptions and Reader Revenue
6. The Power of Platforms & Platform-Focused Content
7. Blockchain – Betamax or VHS? (a discussion on the pros and cons of this emerging technology)
8. The Coming AI Revolution (artificial intelligence and looking at its potential)

To listen to James Hewes talk about these 8 Industry Trends in depth with wisdom and well-placed humor brought those of us in the audience much food for thought. (pun intended, as we dined on our delicious meal). James humanized these complex topics and left us with a hopeful curiosity that was exceeded only by an immense hope for the future and the technologies to come.

To hear James Hewes’ entire presentation, please click the link below.

To relive all the presentations of the Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT 8 Experience go to http://www.mrmagazine.me and search for ACT 8.