You're the most interesting people in the room
Hello magazine people,
Is it just me or are industry conferences a weird conceit?
I am not for a moment questioning the value of industry events. They bring learning, focus and unrivaled opportunities to meet people facing the same threats and opportunities. I attend a fair number of publishing events every year and I’m actively getting ready for three right now - MX3AI in December and Magazine Street and The Audiencers Festival next month.
But the idea of gathering a group of professionals in a room to listen quietly to a much smaller group of professionals is kind of random. At the very worst conferences, the speakers don’t see the other people in the room, heads down, they are focused only on communicating their own glowing successes.
The ‘one singer, one song’ conference format is a necessary evil and a well-chosen lineup definitely mitigates the tyranny of limited stage time. But what about all the untapped expertise and experience in the room? Why are we wasting that?
Nikki Simpson and I are having a go at shaking things up a bit by inviting four audience members onstage at Magazine Street. The idea is to talk about their day-to-day, no metrics, no KPIs, just me asking them what’s going on in their lives. With MX3AI, we’re creating a ‘conversation-led event‘ for just 75 attendees to encourage proper audience participation.
We want to bring the same inclusivity to Grub Street. It’s early days, but getting the Grub Street Gang together is definitely on our to-do list, not so we can talk at you, so you can talk to us. After all, you’re the most interesting people in the room.
Speaking of getting together…
If Joanna and I were to hold an open house online one evening, would you pop in? We’re thinking about an informal meet up, maybe invite along some of the magazine people we’ve talked to in the first couple of issues, maybe ask your opinion for the features we have in the works.
Calling all commercial experts...
The Magazine Monkeys feature for issue #3 of The Grub Street Journal will focus on the age-old question... Are sales people just money monkeys?
The answer’s clearly 'NO!' but it would be amazing if you could take a few minutes to help us fight your corner...
What preconceptions of sales people do you really hate?
What do your non-sales colleagues ask you to do that is patently ridiculous?
What do you do regularly in your job that would surprise non-sales colleagues?
What unrealistic expectations have you faced in recent years?
What does a really great sales person bring to a magazine?
What does a brilliant magazine team look like?
Comment here or reply to this email. We don't attribute statements directly in the feature, but we do give contributors a shout out:
"With love and thanks to our sales pals. We took their insights and mashed them into this slightly arsey defence of the advertising sales craft. The wisdom is all theirs, the attitude is all ours."
Read our previous Magazine Monkeys features
Are designers just colouring-in monkeys? Are editors just typing monkeys? Get issues one and two of The Grub Street Journal to find out why not.
Steal this
Stealing ideas from the New York Times is a strange one. It’s huge, with loads of cash. But if you can ignore its colossal publishing power and focus on core principles there are lessons to be learned. This article on the mechanics of repurposing digital copy for the print newspaper is a proper insight into the importance of understanding the differences between the two formats.
Think about this
Jim Bilton says the shiny “new stuff” is not coming on-stream fast enough to replace the declining “old stuff” for many media companies. Print’s share of revenues ranges from 0 to 99% according to his annual mediafutures benchmarking survey, but the average is 46%. That might be smaller than it was and dropping, but print still brings in a lot of money.
Shout about this
Fashion journalist and podcaster Chioma Nnadi will be taking over from editor-in-chief Edward Enninful as the new head of editorial content at British Vogue. She will become the first Black female head of the iconic fashion title after 13 years as a writer and news director for Vogue, and co-host of the publication's podcast, The Run-Through.