书城社科美国期刊理论研究
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第114章 名家讲演(16)

鲍勃安排Rodale的发行部在一位名叫高登·格罗斯曼的顾问指导下工作。高登曾任《读者文摘》的发行部主任,他在任职期间推行了赌金独赢制、进行衰退原因分析,并且使发行由创造时代转变为计算机时代。高登教给我们的是不能仅仅考虑发行,还要有商业头脑:

·对所有的想法提出挑战

·如果不能从整体和细节两方面去理解发行数,不可能做出明智的决定

·获得成功时,一定要雄心勃勃地对它加以利用

托佛尔还让我负责单本零售的工作,当时Rodale还没有涉足于此。由于对单本零售一无所知,我便去参加了相关的会议,那次会上迈克·安德鲁斯是发言人之一。迈克是一位零售顾问,之前在《纽约客》杂志担任过发行部主任。

我从迈克那儿学到有关零售业的知识:

·零售业是注重细节的行业

·零售业就是要发现如何搞定一个城镇甚至一个零售商,然后在另一个城镇或相似的零售商处大胆地再次使用这一方法

在接下来的日子里,我接触了400多位批发商、做了400多次试验,几乎每次都有新的发现。随着发行系统的巩固和改变,一些重要的基本点仍应谨记心中。

作为发行人我学到了:

·经验教训

·编辑是主角

·定位的重要性

·推销的好处

·内容、质量和领导是销售的关键

·要生活在现实之中

·要理解模式和趋势的重要性

·在数量上要能通过普通意义上的标准

·数据太多和数据太少一样糟糕;马上开始行动

·大胆地不断追求成功

·关注两大成本:发行成本和生产成本

·好的想法在哪儿都有可能产生

目前我们公司正在处理新媒体、最近的发行丑闻、新的公司规则以及发行种类等事务,也正在积极改变读者和广告客户对我们的期望和要求。我想从以下几个方面表达一下看法。

杂志正身陷自己制造的麻烦之中

由于最近出现了一些卑鄙的发行行径——特别是将未付款的发行数算进已付款的发行数中——杂志在广告界已经遭遇到了信誉问题。虽然经过查证已经使美国广播公司的声明得以澄清,但我们还是把时间浪费在了摆平过去上,而不是用在了建设未来上。

应该更多重视广告收入的重要性

很可能广告带来的收入将仍然是杂志收入的首要来源。可能性更大的是,对于大型杂志,广告收入会占到总收入的一个百分点,特别是在我们不断提高网上广告的销售以及增加我们这一品牌能够带给广告客户的合作形式时。

比较的必要性

虽然广告客户对基于微观目标和反应的广告估价的热情会有所降低,但在媒体和为了达到广告目的而应负的责任之间进行比较的需求却将依然存在或者持续增长。

对速度的需求

广告客户们在付钱购买广告时总是希望越晚越好,但在评估有效性时总是希望越早越好——对速度的需求会大大增加。杂志在这方面总是处于劣势,而我们必须将这种劣势降到最低。我们有时把自己称做纸类杂志出版商,有时又把自己称为多媒体品牌的拥有者。在此种情况下,纸类杂志可能处于劣势,但网上杂志的处境不是这样。

经销商应该如何面对这些挑战

订阅发行和销售发行的数量与广告的效力大小没有任何关系。这两个数字与其他媒体也没有可比性。现在连报纸业也开始逐渐转向以读者人数并且还可能以网络版及印刷版的读者人数之和作为衡量标准。如果我们再不寻求变革,杂志业只能自己和自己竞争了。我们不会让这种情况发生,因此准备好以读者人数和读者质量来评判自己的工作吧,不要再遵循传统,只专注于订阅发行和销售发行的数量。

精确稳定而又快速地计算出读者人数需要花费不少时间,不过我们现在可以利用手头已有的技术更快速地通报发行数据——真实的发行量一目了然,快速的通报则能及时利用。

我在此号召大家致力于使发行量完全透明化——不仅要把一切有可能的滥用转变为真实,还要做到发行量的快速通报。如果我们能做到以上两点,我们就完全有希望让价值之讨论回归原处,即卖方和买方的谈判桌上,并以此打败美国广播公司和《广告时代》,让买方重建对我们的信心。如果你确实认为蝇头小利的销售发行比公共场合的免费发行具有更大的价值,把争论限制在销售环节,别让发行量滥报趁机抬头,也别让杂志业成为只注重发行细枝末节而不注重广告效力的行业。

我们需要的不是更多的准则。我们需要的是发行的透明、快速的通报,而且同时逐步转向以读者人数作为标准的衡量方式。

让我们创造优良的编辑素材,为广告客户提供积极的环境,同时享受这一过程。让我们把这样的过程展示在想要或者需要的人们面前,并且按照他们喜欢的方式——印刷的、数字的,或是其他的。

谢谢!

Jack Kliger

President&;CEO,Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.

DMA Circulation Day

Keynote Luncheon Speaker

February 12,2008

Marriott Marquis,New York,NY

Good afternoon,everyone,and my thanks to the DMA for inviting me here today.

Some of you may have previously heard me speak about the need for change in the U.S.magazine business.Much of this has focused on the advertising sales part of our business.But,magazines are an extremely interconnected business,where changes in one area have major impact on the other key parts of our business.

U.S.magazines have traditionally been viewed as being divided into three areas-editorial,circulation and advertising.Editorial being the creative side,and circulation and advertising the business sides.

I believe the magazine industry needs to reorder its view of its business so that the editorial and circulation departments are jointly focused on the consumer while the circulation and advertising departments are jointly focused on the business side.

To do that,we need a stronger focus and better understanding of magazine readership for both consumer and advertising strategy.

And this will make direct marketing a more strategically important element for the U.S.magazine business than ever before.

Unlike most magazine markets around the world,U.S.magazines can't work without direct marketing to acquire and retain subscribers,because our editors would have much smaller communities of readers to write for,our advertisers would have much smaller audiences to advertise to,and,very importantly,Tom Masterson and I would have to take big pay cuts.

The need to attract and retain readers,whatever the platform we use to serve them,will not change.

But,how we attract those readers,measure the level of readership,and manage the reader's engagement with our content,that can change,and I am here today to tell you that it must change.

The MPA has been working on changing magazine readership measurement.This change is one advertisers believe in,and in fact,are welcoming.The new readership measurement metrics will change the way advertisers buy magazine advertising,and the way we sell magazine advertising,and it will substantially change the way our consumer marketers and direct marketers attract readers and measure success.

Today,magazine publishers send out millions of pieces of carefully calibrated mail,and success is considered a three or four percent return.That's a business that is no friend of trees,or the people who hug them.And make no mistake;the magazine industry is committed to instituting environmentally responsible business practices.

We live in a world where consumer expectations about marketing are evolving and today's consumers expect to be able to control how they receive marketing messages both online and offline.We want to honor those expectations in a way that does not destroy the source.So therefore,Hachette and many other publishers are favorable to industry self-regulation that allows the consumer to choose the frequency of mailings he or she receives from responsible mailers.

Moving advertising to a readership measurement metric will be a big factor in enabling magazines and direct marketers to move closer to this goal.