Jack Kliger
President&;CEO,Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.
ABC 90th Conference&;Annual Meeting
November 11,2004
Toronto,Canada
Thank you,Brian.Good morning,and thank you for inviting me here today.
I want to thank the ABC for its important role in our business.I appreciate the conscientious commitment and hard work that many of you contribute to keeping ABC's process up-to-date and relevant.The role of the ABC is a good and necessary one and your organization is known for its high standards and credibility.And part of your strength is the two points of view represented on your board by members from both the publishing and advertising industries.
I am a passionate believer in the power of magazines,and I am optimistic about the future of our business.I want to talk about some of the reasons why,and why I think we need to evolve some of our traditional practices,in order to take advantage of changes in the media landscape and make the most of magazines competitive advantage.
Now I can't think of a time when there have been more high quality magazines being produced by magazine publishers.Their content spans our culture.At Hachette,Car and Driver and Road&;Track create content for enthusiasts who love to read about high performance and design in the automotive world.Unlike most cable TV shock news shows,Time and Newsweek provide us with expertly edited news and analysis each week-GQ and Maxim report on style,substance and humor for the male reader.And long established brands like Atlantic Monthly and Esquire have re-invented themselves and are celebrated for excellence in writing and reporting.Isn't it great that 75-year-old brands revitalize their business newer magazines like Oprah and Real Simple have made themselves known and successful in just a few years.And this week,I'm proud that Hachette has launched For Me and Speed-two titles targeted to younger readers in their twenties and thirties.
The magazine industry's ability to design,redesign,produce and distribute magazines has been greatly enlivened by technological advances in production and distribution.So,technology has really benefited our business.And we now have,what I believe is the best content and production quality this industry has ever had,and I'm proud of it.This is happening at the same time that other media are frequently dumbing down to reach the broadest possible audience to maintain eroding audience levels.That's a competitive advantage.
Magazines are,in so many ways,at the top of our game when it comes to putting out high-quality consumer products.I still believe content is king and our titles are strong brands beloved by consumers with content that is trusted,valued and credible.The portability of magazines,the tactile experience,the beautiful images are all qualities that are highly valued and help make magazines an engaged“lean in”experience.And,that's a competitive advantage.
If one of the most valuable commodities that people have is their time,then the time a person spends with a magazine is really prime time.Most people feel time slipping away.We are all trying to do six things at once and that includes the use of different media at the same time-like keeping the TV on while browsing on the computer.We all know that multi-tasking of media is becoming a big issue.And not surprisingly,of all consumer media,magazines are the least multi-tasked when used by their consumers.I guess when a person has their minds,eyes and hands occupied with a magazine,there's not much attention room for anything else.At least that's what I tried to tell my daughter's boyfriend.
So with all these strengths of engagement,how do magazines do better with and for advertisers?
One thing I believe strongly is that brand strategy should incorporate media channel planning at a much earlier point than it currently does.One medium doesn't do it all.More than ever,what McLuhan said was right-the medium is part of the message.Audience fragmentation,the rise of many new media options and the increasing control of media use by consumers have all made the media buying agency more important in brand strategy and I believe media channel planning will become a bigger part of brand strategy and come in at a much earlier point.
Currently magazines aren't seated at the main table when clients are carving up their budgets to various media segments,we don't get the entrée;we end up fighting for the scraps.It's not surprising that magazine reps have done so much negative selling against each other.They don't believe magazines compete with any other medium but their own.
But,going forward,magazines have,I believe,a golden opportunity to increase the value placed on our medium and,as a result,to increase share of investment.One important difference is that our readers have been proven,over and over,to actually like the ads in a magazine.
As Donny Deutsch said recently at the AMC,the magazine industry should have our chest stuck out because magazine advertising is bulletproof.And,it's hard to say that about another other medium.
Does anybody know a TIVO or dvr owner who doesn't skip the commercials.Perhaps as some have said,the 30-second spot might rapidly be coming the advertising buggy whip of the new millennium.
Magazine readers are engaged while most other media advertising interrupts.So,this past January,the Magazine Publishers Association formed the Magazine Marketing Coalition consisting of 22 magazine companies and our supplier partners to promote the effectiveness of advertising in magazines to improve advertising ROI.