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The importance of talent

07Mar10

I watched this video of Rishad Tobaccowala (Chief Innovation Officer at Publicis) this morning and it really resonated with me.

Rishad discusses the important role talented people play in building and sustaining successful creative businesses. Talent is so critically important but seems so inexplicably overlooked and undervalued in the publishing industry.

I truly believe that the industry and the companies that have a disproportionate share of passionate talent will beat everybody.”

Rishad Tobaccowala, 2010

So do I, Rishad.

During these times when the publishing industry has the potential to enter a renaissance; brimming with new opportunities, it will only be the companies with a talented, motivated and inspired team that will taste true success.

How do you motivate and inspire talent?

The next generation (my generation of 20 something ambitious professionals) want wealth. As Rishad explains we want three kinds of wealth.

1. Experiential wealth
Give me an opportunity now and make it exciting.

2. Educational wealth
Surround me with good people and teach me.

3. Economic wealth
Pay me appropriately and allow me skin in the game.

If the next generation of talent are not given the opportunity to grow their wealth in these ways they will find somewhere else to build. This will be the death of the professional publishing industry. No builders, no products, nothing to sell, no money made, business dies.

The publishing industry is in flux, which makes it difficult to provide this triple play of wealth to the next generation of talent because it is predominantly tied up and focused at the previous generation who are motivated and incentivised by building and maintaining their own seniority.

Unfortunately the value in real terms of the previous generation during the renaissance is completely out-of-sync with their price tag when compared to the talent that will make the new business models, which are so frequently speculated on, a reality.

I’ll finish with another quote from Rishad, which perfectly sums up how I feel the publishing industry should be thinking.

Let’s get back to the audacity and the dreams, and you know what, the spread sheets will fill up beautifully.”

Rishad Tobaccowala, 2010

Every facet of the publishing industry stems from talent. Nothing else even comes close. If you don’t sit up and recognise that your business is a Dodo.

(Via Cultural Fuel)

Filed under Business and Publishing.  |Comments

Rewiring magazines

17Feb10

Wired US are going to be the first magazine on iPad. Not a big surprise, but a great move by them from a business and PR perspective.

The video above is brilliant. It pitches Wired and Condé Nast at the cutting edge of global magazine publishing, which they are. Their audience and advertisers are going to want to be part of this, partly because they are exactly the sort of people who are already planning to buy an iPad and willing to advertise on them but also because Wired are being so open, sharing so much and creating such interest in what they are doing.

The product itself doesn’t look finished or as good as it can be yet and it probably wont be perfect on day one, but it’s a great start.

We are at a point where technology is going to enable us to view and consume media in an entirely new way whether it’s on paper, mobile devices or iPhones or the iPad there are going to be a number of ways that people want to engage with that content.”

This is just adding one more avenue of communicating and connecting with the brand of Wired”

Scott Dadich, Creative Director, Wired

Scott puts it really well. This isn’t the only platform magazine content will be delivered through. People will access magazine content using a variety of different touch points. But this format is definitely a place the magazine needs to be if it has a future and one with which, certainly for Scott’s audience, will offer a valuable addition to their favourite brands’ product portfolio.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for… an opportunity to use all these visual tools at our disposal and tell these stories in a way that is efficient [and] multi dimensional, but we also think it’s an opportunity to reset the economics, for the first time people may value this experience so much that they’ll pay for it.”

Chris Anderson, Editor-in-chief, Wired

And they will pay for it. Why? It isn’t complicated and doesn’t need over dressed with meaningless jargon, which often spews out of some executive mouths like they’ve downed a pint of carbonated Cuprinol.

It will work because, as Chris Anderson says, it allows us to do all the things print publications are so good at and which their audience love so much, but now translate that to a digital medium in a way that is appropriate.

It’s not just a case of putting a PDF on a computer screen and asking people to pretend they are turning the page, something has been born here, which looks like it can evolve into a product that will deliver audiences a meaningful, high-value media experience.

Brilliant. Well-done Wired!

Filed under Publishing and Technology.  |Comments

One way the iPad won’t change magazine design

01Feb10

I was sent this article at work and also picked up on it again through Twitter, it’s on Pentagram’s blog. In my opinion one of the points made is wrong because it confuses what audiences want and expect from different types of publications.

The point I have a problem with is below.

The end of frequency
Say goodbye to the idea of monthly magazines, or weeklies, or dailies. Print publications, already under siege by the Internet and 24-hour news cycle, will have to learn to adapt to a world of instantaneous updates. This is most obvious for news and business publications, but it’s just as true for fashion, entertainment and specialized titles.”

Luke Hayman, 2010

I disagree with Luke, I would have written something like this.

The rebirth of frequency
Say hello to the idea of monthly, weekly or daily digital magazines. Print publications, which have seen their audience decimated by the unbundling of content on websites can take control of their content once again. News publications by their nature require instantaneous updates the feature led niche subject matter found in magazines doesn’t. The iPad may provide a consumer platform for a digital equivalent to a monthly, weekly or daily magazine.”

Me, 2010

Putting news, business, fashion, entertainment and specialized titles in the same bracket confuses the issue. Newspapers and magazines are fundamentally different platforms, which are consumed in a very different way by their respective readers and in turn deserve different digital platforms.

Luke comments himself that “Print publications [are] already under siege by the Internet and [a] 24-hour news cycle” the modern news cycle isn’t part of the way modern magazines need to operate. While touching on topical issues magazines are predominantly feature led and nowhere near as time or location sensitive as a newspaper.

I also have a problem with Luke referring to the Internet like it is a medium (“under siege by the Internet”). It isn’t, the Internet is a place, print publications are under siege by websites.

Websites by their nature make bundling content rather difficult. The iPad as a medium may be able to deliver bundles more effectively in a fundamentally different way to websites. As Jony Ive comments in the iPad launch video though “In many ways this defines our vision, our sense of what’s next”. It isn’t the final solution, but it is a start.

When Bonnier published their Mag+ research at the end of last year they commented that audiences like “an editorial package” and “an infinite, endlessly expanding RSS feed” makes it difficult for an audience to really engage and relate to a content provider. Audience like a package they can “read through and finish”. I agree.

Audiences like a bundle of content, it’s not a bad thing for them to want and it’s not a bad thing for us to want to provide. The birth of the iPad does in no way whatsoever signal the imminent death of monthly, weekly or daily magazines, it signals their renaissance.

Filed under Engagement, Journalism, Publishing and Technology.  |Comments

Lessons from my mum: Socks

31Jan10

It’s Sunday night and I am getting myself in order for the week ahead. The dishwasher is on and some bread is baking. How domesticated, mum would be proud.

The only thing left to do is put the washing machine on, which I’ve now done.

All fascinating I’m sure.

While loading the washing machine I was pleased to see my favourite pair of socks (yes I have a favourite pair of socks, deal with it) and was looking forward to perhaps wearing them later in the week. To my horror I found a hole in the heal of one of them.

Aghast at this discovery I felt incredibly disappointed but remembered my mum telling me to  ‘just chuck them away’ (I’m not sure of the circumstances in which she has previously had to tell me to throw away socks but as you can tell I do get fairly attached to them) so they’re in the bin.

So what did I learn from this? Yes, socks can teach me things.

If something you are attached to and really like fundamentaly breaks beyond repair, get rid of it. Don’t try and fix it. It will be a waste of time and effort, ultimately resulting in having a second rate version of something you previously loved for being perfect.

Sometimes you’re infinitely better off finding yourself a new pair of favourite socks because they’ll probably be even better than the last ones.

Filed under Notes.  |Comments

Avatar: Disruptive storytelling

19Jan10

I’ve just got back from watching Avatar in 3D at the Imax. It was an incredibly immersive experience and the effects were brilliant. Having said that, as a story it’s really no better than any other well made blockbuster. So why has it taken so much money at the box office and why are audiences all over the world so excited about it?

It’s already the second highest grossing film of all time and will soon topple Cameron’s last outing, Titanic, from the top spot after its 12 year stint at number 1.

Avatar has done so well because James Cameron is a master at disrupting the market in which he operates and always improves his product in a way that the audience do not expect, but which is of benefit to the experience of it. This excites the audience and gets bums on sets in the cinema.

Cameron has raised the bar yet again for special effects blockbusters to meet. His competitors, while being impressed with the splendour of his work, must be wondering how they can compete. That’s simple, make a better film, and they will, but they’ll need to use the technology he has invented and use the studios he has built to do it. That is until they come up with their own disruptive innovation.

Filed under Business.  |Comments

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I'm David Williams, a Digital Product Manager working at Bauer Media in London on FHM.com and zootoday.com.

This blog is my take on the media and technology issues that matter to me. I am particularly interested in user engagement, brands and social technology.

You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Delicious, Netvibes, Last.fm, Flickr and Friend Feed

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The views in this blog are those of the author alone and not of Bauer Media.