Greetings fellow ABM Custom Media members and other interested visitors! I’m writing today from American Business Media’s Spring Meeting in Palm Springs.
The buzz here is, of course, the rapid, nearly astronomical growth of digital media and its effect on traditional print business publishing. Clearly, the tone here is one of concern. Advertising revenues are down due to the mortgage crisis, rising fuel and food prices and an economic slowdown. But there’s more to it than that. There’s a tangible fear in the air over what the seemingly unending desire by marketers for anything digital means to their businesses.
Some want to ignore it and seem to think it will go away. Others want to embrace it but aren’t sure how. David Calhoun, CEO of Nielson issued his warning in his keynote address that this time “you’re not going to be able to budget your way to success. Today, we live in a world where customers and your readers are totally in control because of the Internet.”
The message is clear: we need to open our minds to the possibilities offered by the digital age. We need to join the conversation, embrace it fully, add value and expertise as expert content providers and be ready to change course at a moment’s notice.
Years ago, before I started Imagination, I worked as senior vice president for the __Chicago Sun-Times__. I once heard a senior newspaper editor say, “Our job is to give the readers what they don’t know they want and what they need to know.” That notion struck me as shortsighted then—today it strikes me as downright ridiculous!
To all of my fellow ABM members, I can offer only one painfully obvious piece of advice. It’s time for you to join the conversation!
