Roundtable: What magazines can learn from the newsroom
The newspaper industry has already had to tackle many obstacles in order to reduce overheads, streamline the production process and embrace the plethora of publishing channels - at the same time as generating revenue and producing daily/weekly titles. Can magazine publishers learn from these experiences, adapting them to their own needs and challenges?
Join our expert panel (linked via webcams) to look at the advances newsrooms have been making and how lessons learned can be translated for the magazine industry.
Martin Wright, editor of The Shropshire Star explains how they have reinvented their newsroom to deal with tough times, whilst keeping content at the heart of their operation. A templated workflow has increased creativity whilst delivering efficiencies across the board, so can this do the same for magazines?
David Whaley, managing editor of Oldham Chronicle will demonstrate how collaboration with external partners in areas such as subbing and ad production can deliver major economies of scale.
Sean Briggs, former head of publishing systems and workflows at Hearst and now heading up independent publishing consultancy Creative Workflows, will highlight the need for centralising processes to streamline workflows. Insight will be provided on how this and the other concepts discussed can benefits magazines, especially the smaller independents.
What will be discussed:
• Current state of the market
• How the newsroom was reinvented
• Templating – friend or foe?
• How can partner hubs deliver the goods?
• The benefits of a centralised workflow
• What’s coming next for the magazine industry?
Who should attend:
Managing and publishing directors, along with senior editorial staff at magazine publishers, large and small.
This webinar was broadcast on 2.30-3.15pm (BST), Thursday 30 March 2017
Panellists: Sean Briggs, Dave Whalley and Martin Wright
Sean Briggs (top left) has worked in publishing for over thirty years accumulating a wealth of knowledge and experience. He worked for Hearst UK for twenty of those years as group publishing systems manager guiding their strategy and developing their publishing solutions and editorial systems, bringing pre-press in-house and establishing asset management, production and advertising workflows. Sean now runs his own company, Creative Workflows Ltd, which specialises in helping creative people and businesses improve their creative processes to become more productive and more creative.
David Whaley (top right) has been editor at the Oldham Evening Chronicle since 2010. David combined the role of managing director in 2014 and introduced a new editorial and advertising system that enabled efficiency savings through third-party subbing and advertising production with Newsquest and MNA. David has been in newspapers for over 37 years including 15 years at the Birmingham Post and Mail. He was the winner of a Special Award at the O2 Media Awards in 2014 for a series of articles written about his treatment for throat cancer.
Martin Wright (bottom left) has been editor of the Shropshire Star since 2013, having previously been associate editor at NWN Media, where he worked on the daily newspaper, The Leader, which covers Wrexham, Flintshire and Chester, along with the company’s weekly titles. Based in Ketley, Telford, Martin is responsible for overseeing the production of the three-edition daily newspaper, the Shropshire Star and is also responsible for the management of eight weekly newspapers covering Shropshire and Mid Wales.
Moderator: James Evelegh
James (pictured above, bottom right) has worked in magazine publishing since 1989, and has been the editor and publisher of InPublishing since it launched in 2003. He began his career with Trinity Publishing (now DMG) and was then group circulation manager at Centaur Communications from 1994 to 1996. From 1996 to 2003, he worked as a circulation consultant to a wide range of companies including Guardian Media Group, FT Business, Euromoney, WH Smith News and Wilmington.
Webinar sponsored by: PCS
PCS is a leading software development organisation that has been serving the publishing industry for more than 40 years. Its in-house developed portfolio of solutions facilitates efficiencies across editorial, advertising and circulation workflows for newspaper and magazine publishers.
Every day, PCS solutions support the creation of over 10,000 articles. Based in the Midlands, the company employs over 50 people, 75% of whom are dedicated to continuous software development. PCS also offers secure UK data centres where systems and content can be hosted.
PCS is part of the Claverley Group of companies who have an annual turnover of £120m; the group also includes leading regional newspaper publisher MNA Media, commercial printers Precision Colour Printing and Channel Islands news publisher, Guiton Group.
