min day summit 2007 Wake-Up Call

BY Lynne d Johnson | 04-19-2007 | 9:50 AM

Here at the MinOnline min day summit in New York at the Grand Hyatt Hotel where George Janson, managing partner, director of print, Mediaedge:cia, stood in front of a room full of magazine and advertising professionals to share insights and suggestions on magazines' "next practices" online from a media buyer's perspective.

Some of the highlights of his 15-minute talk focused on magazine's creating integrated plans that truly offer value to both the reader and the advertiser. He said that people in the magazine industry should stop focusing so much attention on booking banner ads on their sites that interrupt the reader's experience, and start thinking about bringing clients into their sites in a manner that enables the reader to get involved -- such as sponsoring content like polls, quizzes, contests, and mobile messaging programs. But one caveat -- the program has to make since for your site and meet the client's needs.

Janson also stressed that when creating content, editors should focus on the reader. In the end, the advertiser will only be interested in supporting content that's going to be successful on your site. This brings me to another point that Janson made -- that advertising be contextual. Not just text and banner ads that are contextual, but also video ads. He suggested that pre-roll video may not necessarily be the only and best solution for video advertising and that there's room to be more creative and innovative about making this work.

The rest of the day here at min day summit looks like this...

8:45-9:30 a.m

Creating Community & Better Social Networking

While many print brands rode the second Web wave to profitable shores, the new and improved Internet poses unique challenges to the magazine industry. Readers are spending more time networking with one another than with branded content. Can magazines make their famously tight "relationship" with their readers a genuine social exchange online?

You'll learn:

How to use your editorial crew and their blogs to cultivate relationships with users

Leveraging ad clients and promotions as ways to engage audiences

How to give visitors leadership of your site with personal pages, their own blogs, etc.

Strategies to extendi the lifecycle of your customers through better engagement

Investments you need to make in social media tools, and in staffing

Speakers:

Jay Bryant, director of online products, TVGuide

Lynne Johnson, senior editor, Fast company.com

Jason Kint, vice president, GM Online, SportingNews

Gus Venditto, vice president and editor in chief, Jupitermedia

Marta Wohrle, director of digital media, Hachette Filipacchi

Moderator: Steve Smith, digital media editor, min & min's b2b

9:30-10:30 a.m.

What Advertisers Want

If your advertisers are looking for a "return on engagement," not to mention, "on investment," why aren't more magazine sites giving them what they want? For one, this metric needs better definition and polishing, and second, that’s not all they're looking for. What exactly are your clients and prospective clients looking for from you? What types of integrated programs are they buying, and why? This media panel will share, no holds barred, what makes them tick, which programs stick, and what you’ll need to do to win more ad dollars for your brand.

Speakers:

Vickie Szombathy, vp, media director, StarLink

Steven Fredericks, president, TNS Media Intelligence

Ted Moon, director of media, Sprint Nextel

David Brown, Senior Vice President, Director of Media Services, Marsteller Advertising New York

Eric Bader, senior vice president, online, managing Director of Digital Connections, MediaVest Worldwide

Moderator: Steven Greenberger, executive vice president & media director, SLG Advertising

10:45-11:30 a.m.

Growing Your Online Audience & Monetizing Content

What are the new rules of engagement with your readers and your online audience? Are you giving them both choice and voice? Are you creating content that syndicates effectively across your media partners and portals and that leverages the new content ecosystem of blogs and RSS feeds? Are you leveraging your magazine's editorial franchises with online packages that maximize ad revenue and pull readers to your brand from everywhere online?

In this panel, you’ll hear how to:

Make (more) money from your content online

Develop new vertical niches & tap into new audiences

Create content that’s read (and forwarded) online

Maximize your eletter offerings

Create content packages that brands want to sponsor

Customizing the online experience

Determine the natural size of your Web property

Syndicate your content, through RSS and aggregators

Speakers:

Martha Connors, VP, General Manager, Computerworld

Fran Hauser, general manager, People Group Digital

Chris Johnson, content director, Hearst Digital Media

Jamie Pallot, editorial director, CondeNet

Moderator: Michael Daecher, senior vice president, About.com

11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Building Your Digital Dream Team

With your organizational structure in flux to accommodate for dizzying marketplace changes, now is the time to re-engineer many of your departments, re-work how your sales team sells, and re-think how you hire -- and who you hire.

In this panel, we'll showcase what a magazine brand's Dream Team should look like if you're positioning yourself for online success.

Speakers:

Todd Anderman, president, Dennis Digital

Chris Lambiase, VP, publishing director, Rodale

Greg Schwartz, vice president, advertising sales, CNNMoney.com

Lauren Wiener, vice president, Meredith Interactive

Moderator: Steve Cohn, editor in chief, min

12:30-2 p.m.

Best of Web Luncheon

Keynote Speaker: David Liu, CEO & Co-founder of The Knot

Hear from one of the most important success stories in online media. David Liu is one of the founders of online content company, The Knot, with a monthly membership of millions of unique visitors, five lifestage brands, the new owners of WeddingChannel, Inc., 90% of the online wedding audience and a $611 million market cap. Liu will share the secret to building an organic community, his triumphs and trials with broadband programming from his early venture into pay-per-view programming, to the success of The Knot TV. And he’ll share how he’s taken two strong online brands (The Knot and The Next) into magazine, books, TV and other products.

2:15-3 p.m.

Making Magazines Move: The Video Challenge

In the offline world, magazines and TV comfortably share consumer attention spans, but online they compete head to head for the same users and the same advertising on the same platform. Media buyers clamor for video pre-roll inventory, and so many print brands are scrambling for a video strategy. Turning a magazine into a broadband video provider not only requires deep pockets but a wholly new workflow and skill set. How do magazines make this shift in investment and thinking? Do your visitors really come to the brand to watch or to read? This panel will explore both the “how to” of bringing video to magazine brands and the even larger question -- "whether to."

What video content is working best for magazine brand sites?

Should you partner with video aggregators or viral video providers?

Can multi-platform distribution and syndication widen the potential revenue stream from video?

How you prepare your budget, your staff, and your workflow for the unique demands of video production?

Speakers:

John Davison, senior vice president & editorial director, Ziff Davis' 1UP Network

John Byrne, executive editor, BusinessWeek

Michael Smith, VP, General Manager of Operations, Forbes.com

Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager, NYTimes.com

Gary Armstrong, chief marketing officer, Wenner Media

3-4 p.m.

HOT TOPICS Breakout Sessions:

Ask Google and Yahoo

Isaac Taylor, Sales Operations Manager, Print Ads, Google Inc.

Chris Rogers, Business Development for the Yahoo! Publisher Network Group

Maximizing the Value of Your Company

Charlie McCurdy, ceo, Apprise Media

Scott Peters, managing director, The Jordan, Edmiston Group

Media Buying Secrets

Robin Steinberg, Senior VP, Director of Mediavest Print Investment and Activation

Steve Greenberger, executive vice president, SLG Advertising

Eric Bader, senior vice president, online, managing Director of Digital Connections, MediaVest Worldwide

Metrics & Research Untangled

Debbie Solomon, senior partner, group research director, Mindshare

Bibhash Das, Sr. Manager, Strategic Accounts, Omniture

Top Digital Platforms: From Mobile to Digital Magazines

Steve Smith, digital media editor, min & min's b2b

Scott Williams, director, business development & mobile, Time Inc.

Boris Fridman, CEO, Crisp Wireless

User-Centered Design & Interactive Advertising

Erwin Catellanos, executive director, Eyeblaster

Peter Rivera, vp, group creative director, AOL

4-4:45 p.m.

Digital Gold: 15 Great Ideas to Bring it Home

Hear from the innovators in print/online integration on how to move eyeballs back and forth across your print and Web properties. Learn how these magazine brands built a better mouse trap through innovation, creativity and engagement. And hear proven success stories on innovative partnerships -- from Google to Facebook to others under-the-radar -- that have boosted exposure of magazines content, increased traffic, and improved the bottom line.

Come away with at least 15 smart ideas you can take back to the office and implement.