Media executives whose brands have always been anchored by traditional print and TV models must reinvent themselves on a continual basis to remain competitive within the digital space. That was the consensus of three executives on the Ad Age 360 Degree Media conference’s morning panel: draw the traditional publishing and new media units closer together to drive multi-disciplined thinking.
Those were some of the thoughts behind the relaunch of Martha Stewart Omnimedia and the roll out of a number digital editorial projects lately like the Blueprint site and its connected Bluelines blog earlier this month. Susan Lyne, MSLO’s president and CEO said the company is ever-vigilant when it comes to maintaining the individuality of its respective properties and the sharing of content. “It was visionary of Martha to ensure that we own all our content from the beginning. Everything we own has been re-indexed and tagged, But we’re careful about not just replicating the TV and magazine content on the web, even as we try to have all properties relate and inform the others.”
Another panelist, Playboy chairman and CEO Christie Hefner told the audience Playboy will be unveiling a gaming website as well as an e-commerce site aimed at women this quarter.
Summing up the issues, Meredith president Jack Griffin brought up a Harvard Business School article he read a few years ago called The Customer Has Escaped (fee required): “Readers do business on their terms, not ours. The article said that if a customer escapes, you’d better find out where he’s going. And as the customers move, we continue to follow. That essentially has driven us to centralize content. That’s a blueprint for the future.”