Business News

digi:media specialist programme – the very latest: new business models in the digital publishing age

Monday 17. January 2011 - Akademie des Deutschen Buchhandels, Forum Corporate Publishing and kressköpfe live with exciting lectures

digi:media has come calling – and (nearly) everyone is coming: at the beginning of April associations, publishing houses and sector initiatives from the entire communication and publishing industry will be setting the course for the future with numerous events. We are delighted that in times of such extreme structural change the sector is pulling in the same direction as us”, says Ralph Scholz, Account Manager at Messe Düsseldorf, underlining this commitment. “Exhibitors and visitors alike are benefiting from our competence, expertise and multifaceted event programme, which we owe not least to our strong partners.”
They are benefiting for example from the conference, which the Akademie des Deutschen Buchhandels (Central Institute for the German Book Trade) is organizing on the first day of the fair:
Digital product innovations in publishing houses
E-Readers, Smartphones, Media Tablets – the new equipment innovations are both an opportunity and challenge for the publishing houses and media companies. On the one hand they are offering an increasing number of possibilities to enhance the own portfolio with new digital product formats and to reach the readers with immediate value added in a more direct approach. On the other, it must now be decided which digital content ranges purposefully complement the classic publishing house range and which ones could even replace it in future. And: which form of preparation is suitable for which content?
The one-day conference on the theme “Digital product innovations in publishing houses”, which will be held on 7 April at digi:media, will provide competent, expert answers to these questions. The organizer is the Akademie des Deutschen Buchhandels (ADB). In addition, the workshops will also show how digital and mobile formats can be efficiently implemented and marketed within the publishing house-internal workflows. “With the new technical developments such as Media Tablets the publishing houses are presented with a real opportunity to turn their digital content into a very lucrative business”, explains Bernd Zanetti, Executive Director of the ADB. “Because there is a great willingness to pay for E-Content on mobile appliances. A precondition for this is however a genuine value added for the product – for example through multimedia, interactive or locally-based mobile formats.
The first part of the conference will present digital business models and developments in the future. Following this, under the motto “Online, Mobile, Interactive”, the theme will be digital publishing house products and business models. The conference day will be brought to a close by workshops on the themes “Sales and marketing for digital publishing house products”, which also include “Legal general frameworks in E-Business”. The event is addressing specialist and management staff from specialist, Special Interest and trade publishing houses and also from media companies.
Networking at “kressköpfe live”
Kressköpfe, the “who-is-who?” list of the media industry, is a database on the Internet and is also published as a year book in printed form. The files contained therein include a photo, occupational and personal information on the respective “head” along with their contact data. On the afternoon of 7 April at digi:media there will be an opportunity to meet a large number of “kressköpfe live” – at the renowned sector meeting point of the same name. The central theme of the afternoon is the digitization of printed content. Personalities from the media scene such as media old master Thomas Koch or Dr. Bernhard Mischke, Executive Director of the new online kiosk, Pubbles, will report on their concepts and experiences in lectures and interviews.
Newcomers will also get their money’s worth: Christian Gaiser, founder and Executive Director of the Internet platform kaufDa, which posts local advertising brochures on the Internet thus threatening the big sector players such as Deutsche Post, will be reporting on his service range and then be on hand to answer questions from the audience.
Following the lectures, interviews and panel discussions, the usual message will be “get together!” because: “once again in 2011 our networking event will offer a good opportunity to meet other kressköpfe live and be inspired”, says Eckhard Müller, Editor-in-Chief of the “kressreport”.
Powerful customer communication on FCP Solutions Day
More than 250,000 video views a month – this is the proud record boasted by the Freshmilk agency for its “BerlinFashion” communication concept. On top of this, there is the win in the “Best of Corporate Publishing 2010” competition, organized each year by the Forum Corporate Publishing e.V. (FCP). “From printed media through to Online-TV, IPTV and mobile appliances – BerlinFashion creates a genuine Print-Digital cycle” – that is the jury’s assessment. Just how important this will be exactly in future for corporate communication, is emphasized by FCP President Dr. Andreas Siefke: “Contemporary customer and employee magazines must prove that they can also span the gap to the mobile Always-on-Generation, in other words to the predominantly younger people for whom print no longer automatically belongs to the media repertoire. We Corporate Publishers in particular must intelligently control and orchestrate the many different media forms, be it printed or digital.”
Current analyses such as the basic study on digital Corporate Publishing (CP) or the CP barometer underline his statement. Almost 70 percent of the German-speaking companies see multi-media communication strategies as one of the most important developments in the area of CP. And 90 percent of the clients as well as service providers agree: the significance of Social Media as a communication channel will grow in future. One more reason for the FCP to present cross-media case studies during digi:media on the first Solutions Day, state the factors for successful CP and present ways of measuring efficiency. “We know that Corporate Publishing media are now well received by customers”, explains Michael Höflich, Managing Director of the FCP. “However the types of efficiency measuring are very different, comparisons are hardly possible. On 8th April at Solutions Day we would like to pick up this theme and open up a debate on efficiency-measuring solutions.”