The Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr and so I am re-linking to the article in case you want an update.

Steve asked me to help out by chairing the three fabulous presentations – each one answering the question "What Happens Next?" for TV, book publishing and newspaper publishing.  I love doing this stuff… and being in the front row for three articulate and very persuasive presenters was a blast. 

I will summarise their arguments below – but for the New Biz Development readers of this blog, here are some short sharp actions

1 – Have you got any clients in publishing or broadcasting… send them here to read about what key organisations think will be happening in the future

2 – Do you ever put out campaigns on TV, newspaper or book publishing?  Send your account teams and planners here to think about what you will do in the future when those campaign methods no longer work. 

3 – come to the next event.  They are due monthly.  The sign up for this one is here … presume it will be updated.

Jeremy Ettinghausen is Head of
Digital Publishing at Penguin

The publishing world is polarising, books online and videos are leading the charge for technology versus traditional methods.  The scientific/technical/academic press is further along than consumer fiction. 

E-books started in 2001 and they still haven't really taken off 7 years later… but it may happen this year that they join the mainstream.

Books in print are not redundant yet.  But paid for digital content is increasing – the question is how much people will pay.  What is clear is that if your content is entertaining, valuable and drives a good user experience, there is an audience who will pay for it. 

However, reading habits are changing and how we view web pages affects our reading habits.  This is a non-linear process.

Looking forward, what is a publisher? Are they book makers and marketers and book distributors?  No more they are disseminators of entertainment and ideas.

A quote from Chris Heuer of the Conversation Group (at SXSW) "the Best stories will win". 

The vision is for the "integrated" book delivering image, sound, vision in multiple media.  I read, I get into my car and continue the story in audio….

Kevin Anderson is the Blogs Editor
at The Guardian

We are taking the tools that are disrupting our business model and applying them to our business.

New media does not support the traditional business model for newspapers because the young do not read newspapers.  We are not replacing old readers.

A news company needs a new vision and positioning and new audiences – not just for newspapers.

Industries need to identify their core market and focus on new markets in order to survive,  Open source tools enable editorial experimentation.  This is really important because at present it takes us 6 – 12 months for new product development.  We need to lower the cost and time of innovation. 

The business model is eroding advertising and uses outdated distribution and delivery methods.  WE need to innovate frequently and fast and 'fail forward' when the innovation cost is £0. 

Delivering into a community with connection is possible future for newspapers.

Matt Locke is a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 

Befreo the mobile phone device we had more divisions between our public and private spaces.  Compare a phone box (private) with a mobile phone conversation (private or public?).

ATMs are the ultimate – a private transaction within a public space.  We develop body language to communicate our intention to be private while outside at an ATM.

The personal and social have replaced the private and public.  These are more fluid and the gestures and etiquette is different.  We need to understand this in broadcasting.,

What young teens find hard to understand about the world in 1990 is not the paucity of channel choice, it is the fact that in order to speak out publicly in 1990 you needed permission.  This is not needed today.  Talking in public is easy now.  

Key issues:

Data – being misused or mis-released.

Playfulness – find how technology can help your life and find play within it

Vernacular – what is the new language of who our relationships are with?

The goal for technologies that allow us to make the shift to personal and social.  And do it simply.l 

The brief was that Sport England wants to educate its members (sporting organisations) on how to join Sport to the communities that participate in it.  Social Media is the answer.

Panelists include Mark McGuinness ; Gi Fernando ; Ed Mitchell and Antony Mayfield .  Detail below about each of their pitches.

My job was to summarise and (self-appointed) make suggestions to the attendees about areas they might investigate further afterwards. These include:

• Collaboration – learning in groups and with co-operation rather than traditional teacher/pupil.
• Long tail – who are the long tail groups in your community and how to differentiate them
• Monologue versus dialogue – assess your current communications (paper, email, web) and see how many are one way and how many facilitate / enable two-way conversations
• Where are your audiences – which platforms, digital spaces, real spaces/places do they hang out in?  Can you 'be there' too?
• We are all guests in the new digital world – takeout from Mark McGuiness talk – act with social gestures that would be appropriate in a party setting.
• There are no strings attached to content and membership online – is registration really necessary?  Why should audiences pay to take part? Don't have member only parts of your website – these exclude rather than include browsers and lurkers
• Social media is now mainstream.  Use it to amplify the conversation you are having with your audiences.
• Conversations and campaigns have to be pushed – takeout from Gi Fernando's talk.  Push appropriately; allow others into YOUR space and let them make connections and manage that themselves without your intervention
• Create ande sustain long term local heroes.  Make them aspirational role models – and make lots of them.
• Data = database – takeout from Ed Mitchell's talk .  Collect email addresses, build profiles of your users, segment them, communicate and learn and customise the online experience to suit their needs.
• There is no online copyright worth having – takeout from Antony Mayfield's talk.  Anythingyou post online is public, its impact is measurable and it can drive revenues to your organisation.  Think about offering a matching service for coaches and athletes (this could be low level revenue generation).  If you can measure anything, you can prove its value and so fulfill funding requirements from your funders / Government.
• Consider the "user journey" for your audience.  What happens before an
  event, during and after and what about the absents – those who can't be
  there, can they also participate in the event experience?

The day kicked off with John Gisby, Director of New Media and Technology C4 talking about the context. 

C4 is 25 years old and its new focus is a creative, explosive 'train smash' incorporating on-demand, social media and its track record in broadcasting.  

Looking at the fragmentation of audiences that is happening, the viewer now has a different expectation of content from a broadcaster and they are expecting participation, personalisation and community features as standard.  Add this to the 'cognitive surplus' free time we have and emotional space that we spend with friends / on passions / on our interests (all more interesting than watching TV) and this leaves a huge opportunity to set up new partnerships for delivering content in a new context.

Technology is the new delivery platform and in John's view software is as important as journalism in terms of the development of this new meme.

Funding – advertising plus a range of new partners and audiences to (with?) whom brands want to communicate.  Plus the Government, who has always been keen to spend money to reach audiences.

C4 sees itself with a role in other peoples' websites being part of the web.  It's set up 4IP with £50m to invest in public service, innovative, big audience projects. 

Mark McGuinness – notes from his talk

Social media is mainstream and by 2012 it'll be ubiquitous.  These conversations are normal and as real as meeting someone at a party.

Behave as if you were in a physical place and don't do anything exhibitionist that you'd be ashamed of in real life. 

Gi Fernando – notes from his talk

Social network fact – active user numbers are continuing to accelerate.  

Engagement is deepening – website visitors are spending more time there and go into more depth

In the near future, most things will be socially enabled.  This movement will enable you to find your audience already logged in (i.e. registered) and ready to participate.  Now the question is "What do you put through the social media sites?"

Privacy – this is an industry (undermining and exploiting user identities) and education to overcome ignorance is a real issue.

Gi suggests Facebook as a tool for event management, user/customer acquisition and retention. 

Ed Mitchell – notes from his talk

Using social media to self-organise – let's get joined-up with online free tools that are easy to use.

Use the data you collect to achieve something bigger and create a platform to engage your community of interest.  

SUpport groups of people and trainers / coaches.

Hold data responsibly.

Be an effective facilitator of conversations oneline

Create localised business models e.g. for coaches.  Creating intra-community collaboration, research, marketing and meta-community development (for your whole sport /audience)

Antony Mayfield – notes from his talk

Measuring success is important (you can use it for funding justification)

First – understand your networks

Second – work out how you can be useful to those groups

Third, be live in the community and active in the networks

The participation ladder (Forrester Research) [thanks to Steve Rubel for the link]

As home broadband take-up in creases this will increase participation.  Consider the "user journey" for your audience.  What happens before an event, during and after and what about the absents – those who can't be there, can they also participate in the event experience?

Consider a network publishing model getting useful links into one place and acting as an aggregator of digital content for your users.  This could include user-generated content, editorial, activities (NetVibes), mass distribution methods (email, RSS, search, social media)

Design your website for netowrks – make it useful, findable, portable and sharable.  [note to self- this is SO important]

1. understand your users
2. make sense for your sponsors
3. show how you will measure engagement

 Put editorial and agile developers (web tech people) together from the start – make them work in the same physical room and see how they learn from each other!