Just under 150 magazine publishers, writers, faculty and students took part in the opening reception for the ACT III Experience at City Grocery on the Square in Oxford. The reception is part of a three-day conference that focuses on re-inventing print publications in today’s digital world.
You can view the reception on MCast.
Reimagining the Future conference offers a mosaic of opinion and perspective.
BY TONY SILBER
That phrase was the title of one of the presentations at Samir Husni’s recent conference, called “Reimagining the Future (While We Still Have Time),” and held at the Magazine Innovation Center in Oxford, Mississippi. The presentation was made by Thomaz Souto Correa, the vice president of editorial at The Abril Group in Brazil. And while Correa discussed many things, there is a particular idea in that title worth thinking about.
Perhaps the future doesn’t exist because no one, and I mean no one, knows what it’s going to look like even two years from now. Think about one of the biggest debates of the last few years—whether to charge for online content.
When Steve Brill and Walter Isaacson and Rupert Murdoch and others suggested that thestatus quo was unsustainable, the purveyors of the conventional wisdom came down hard. The cat’s out of the bag, they said. Stop thinking like it’s 1997. Start building a business for the Google economy. There’s no other choice.
Well, one thing none of those wizards thought of was how mobile apps and iPads would change the equation. Now, suddenly, there’s a path to paid content online, because there’s a significant migration away from the free Internet and in the direction of apps you have to buy. Or apps from which publishers sell subscriptions to their content.
The point here is that as the media world changes, what seems dominant today may turn out to be yesterday’s news in short order. Remember CompuServe, AOL, etc.? I could go on, but you get the point.
So while the “Reimagining the Future (While We Still Have Time)” conference provided no real visionary solutions, because that’s impossible, it did offer a mosaic of opinion and perspective, when combined into a whole, provided a good look at where the industry is now and where it needs to go.
The future doesn’t exist because we haven’t built it yet.
And even more important, the students at the University of Mississippi were full participants. Anyone who spent a few days with the young journalists at that conference couldn’t help coming away with a new confidence about the future of the profession. These people are bright, energetic, savvy and ready to take the reins. Here is a list of some of the student participants. I wanted to acknowledge each of them by name, because they were all so impressive.
Undergraduate Journalism Students:
Natalie Dickson
Kirby Sage
Elizabeth Pearson
Alex Pence
Maggie Giffin
Markus Simmons
Katie Williamson
Ja’juan McNeil
Rashell Reese
Addison Dent
Houston Cofield
Ren Turner
Nick Toce (also event photographer)
Alex McDaniel (also event coordinator)
Courtesy of Folio Magazine
Re-imagining the Future While We Still Have Time
Is there a future for print? Is there a future for digital, or is digital the future? Can the advertising-driven magazine publishing model survive? What role will design, marketing, branding and distribution play in the future of magazines?
These questions and many others will be answered at “Reimagining Our Future While We Still Have Time,” the first Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT Experience taking place at the Magazine Innovation Center located at The University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media in Oxford, Miss. on Oct. 20, 21 and 22, 2010. The experience, which will be conducted by some of the very top leaders in the media industry worldwide, will have a very limited number of participants and very high concentration on the future of the magazine and print industry.
The Experience Makers include Thomaz Souto Corrêa, Editorial VP, Editorial Committee, Abril Group, Brazil; Baird Davis, Circulation Consultant and former Ziff-Davis Executive; Stephen Duggan, President, Athlon Media; James G. Elliott, President, James G. Elliott Company, Inc.; Roger Fransecky, CEO, The Apogee Group,; Bob Guccione Jr., Founder, Spin and Gear magazines; John Harrington, Partner, Harrington Associates; Lisette Heemskerk, Managing Director, Mood for Magazines, The Netherlands; Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Director, Magazine Innovation Center; David McDonald, CEO, Sunshine Media Group; Bob Sacks, Founder & President, Precision Media Group; and Haines Wilkerson, Chief Creative Officer, Morris Visitor Publications.
Dr. Fransecky will give a welcoming keynote on Wednesday, October 20, titled “Re-imagining the Future While We Still Have Time.” The first ACT Experience will include five tracks, and will be divided into three days of think-and-do activities. The experience will continue Thursday with presentations by all keynote Experience Makers, followed by a tour of the Mississippi Delta, which will include authentic Delta blues music and food.
The focus will shift to tracks dealing with the participants’ interests on Friday, October 22. The five tracks featured are editorial, consumer marketing, successful magazine launching, advertising and marketing, and the digital future. Participation is limited to 18 individuals per track.
The three-day experience will include a visit to the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the Blues and a visit to Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner. The price of registration includes all the Experience Making events and meals for the three days.
Those interested in registering, please visit www.maginnovation.org/actexperience_registration.html.
To become a sponsor of the event, contact Dr. Samir Husni at samir.husni@gmail.com.
