FMA Panel Discusses New Trends in Partnerships, Renewals, Agent Business

Publishers are still exploring how to mix the older sources with the new.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

At the latest FMA luncheon held today at the Princeton Club, a panel of experts on various sources of circulation—from DTP and partnerships to agency and renewals—discussed what’s working for publishers in traditional marketing today and how it lines up with newer sources such as social media and e-marketing.

The panel, which included Carole Ireland, president, Quality Circulation Services; Andrew Degenholtz, president of ValueMags; and Brian Knowles, VP, publisher relations, Subco Inc., expressed that publishers are continuing to change with the times, but that traditional strategies are holding their own.

DTP and Social Media

When moderator Bridget Wells, president/CEO, Periodical Watchguard, asked the panel what was working in terms of direct mail and email marketing, Ireland stressed that on the consumer and paid b-to-b side, at least, direct mail is still viable. “Direct mail hasn’t and won’t go away anytime soon,” she said. “We’re still in the midst of exploring what the digital world has to offer.”

In terms of publishers’ increasing use of social media, Ireland pointed out that two years ago, she predicted that the industry would go from having circulation directors to audience developers and then community organizers. Companies like Toyota, she said, have already hired community managers and publishers will most likely be next. “But the question is, how does building an [online] community translate into people paying for your publication or Web site?” she asked. “In the b-to-b world, there are more opportunities to offer paid Web material.”

But will consumer publishers be able to take advantage of paid sites in the future? “The consumer world is still exploring,” Ireland said. “But I think they’ll have more success monetizing with phone apps. ABC is now looking into auditing phone apps, which should be a fun audit to go through. I can also see them expanding their brands into memberships.”

Partnerships and Agents

Whether partnerships are seeing more or less success in terms of publisher use depends on how you look at it, according to Degenholtz. “I think a lot of people say that ‘flat is the new up,’” he said. “It’s not like publishers are increasing [partnership] volumes at a rapid pace, but it’s not really slowed down that much either.”

What the industry has seen, Degenholtz said, is price pressure from the publisher side as well as a better understanding and trust of how the offers work from the customer side, especially now that they know that their credit card numbers aren’t being passed along without their permission (as a result of recent FTC rule changes). “There’s also a lot more synergy between the product that they’re buying and the editorial content of the magazine, so it’s still strong source,” he said.

The conversation quickly moved to the agent side of the business where publishers are still asking their agents to provide “100,000 subscribers a month that are going to renew at 80 percent,” according to Knowles.

He did express, however, that publishers are more willing to try different tactics all at the same time. “Right now they’re looking for rate base—that’s the crux of the issue,” he said. “They’re looking for consistent reliability from the agents and they’re expecting us to hit our estimates. What I haven’t witnessed in the past though, which is happening now, is that more publishers want to form strategic partnerships with us. They’re suggesting new programs and ideas for us to try.”

Renewals

E-renewals are growing in popularity based on the panel’s comments as well as a quick census from the luncheon’s audience. Most are using a combination of e-renewals followed up by paper renewals with notable success. “Sending an e-renewal out first has a sense of urgency,” Ireland said. “And I find that it’s more appropriate when you’re dealing with subscriptions that are about to expire or have already expired.”

Ireland won’t, however, give up on paper renewals because most of her clients don’t have email addresses for all of their subscribers. “With the emails that I send out, I get comparable or better results than paper renewals as far as response, but I don’t have 100 percent of email addresses on my files,” she said. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t give up my paper—not yet.”

The fact that most consumers are already receiving a large amount of emails hinders publishers from completely relying on e-renewals, Ireland added, especially for those companies that have multiple titles. “The problem is not just an oversaturation of emails from one publication,” she said. “If you are a publisher with multiple titles in the same space, one person may be getting seven or eight emails a week from one company. There has to be an overall corporate strategy where everyone is aware of each other’s schedule.”