"Two months ago, we asked, 'Where do we go from here?'" said Caysey Welton, content director, Folio:, Access Intelligence. "The pandemic will have long-lasting impact. It will be important to have conversations with your audience. Those who have diverse portfolios, have managed cash well, have good digital DNA and are nimble and creative with product offerings will do well. You can't rely on too few products. Legacy products will go on but we should probably lessen our dependence on them. Look at your data."   One common theme during SIPA 2020 this week was the increased need for products. "Continue realigning your product portfolio with the client input that you get," suggested Krystle Kopacz, CEO of Revmade. Because many publishers relied on events, the need for products and the revenue they can bring is crucial now. As Welton said, data could be the new buzzword.   Elizabeth Petersen of Simplify Compliance stressed the need for a diverse revenu ...

"People don't want to be marketed to; they want to be communicated with." As I look over my notes for today's again-excellent SIPA 2020 Day 2 sessions, that quote from Jeson Jackson, audience development manager, Education Week, stood out. Because even though so much of what we are doing now is in response to the pandemic, there will be a carry over of successful ideas and methods.   And that will be one of them. If a theater I like simply asks me to buy a 2021 subscription, I might hesitate. But if they communicate with me and engage me in a conversation between four or five of their diverse actors and directors for next year, I'm probably in.   Day 2 keynote speaker, Krystle Kopacz, CEO of Revmade, talked about "echoes for the long term" that she is hearing now. "Overall what I'm seeing is we're heading to some type of reordering. How can we be more important to buyers so we're not cut off? In my mi ...

You've converted one of your premier events to a virtual event. How do you keep your sponsors? Do you adjust their pricing? Change the time period? Give more guarantees?   The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University had their Collaborative Journalism Summit set for Charlotte, N.C. on May 14–15. Then, of course, they had to go virtual. "We let our sponsors know that several of their packages would have to change since we weren't hosting in person," they wrote on NiemanLab. "Every confirmed sponsor stuck with us, even our North Carolina-based sponsors—a testament to their commitment to collaborative journalism and knowledge sharing. The new sponsorship package included showing on-screen sponsor slides and messaging during the conference, and sharing links in the chat."   But in the end, they said that if they do another virtual conference, they would do some things differently. "[We would] completely recreate sponsor packages. We mostly f ...

There is something really good to these virtual conferences. I just watched the director of strategic initiatives for The Washington Post and he was great. (I will report on it here next week.) He even told a funny Jeff Bezos story.)   It doesn't work for everything. Theaters have tried to put some productions online and it's tough. (Although, Bryan Cranston and Sally Field doing A.R. Gurney's Love Letters tonight at 8 could be different. See it here free.)   Sitting at home, we can focus on speakers online—even with the occasional pets, kids and laundry disruption. SIPA 2020 June 1 motivational keynote Don Harkey told me that he likes the idea that he can mention an article and people can bring it up, or they can comment as he goes along, and he can play off that energy   "The more that we can mimic the one-to-one ...

"Do business owners value the power of storytelling?" I asked Dan Grech, founder and lead instructor of BizHack Academy, last year.

"I think emotion is underrated in any kind of marketing, particularly with websites," Rick Wilkes, OPIS director of marketing, told us last year at SIPA Annual 2018 during a session titled Transforming Your Website into a New Prospect Magnet. "On the new OPIS site [and still today] you see a refinery at sunset, and that's the best a refinery is ever going to look. You'd be amazed in stock photography how many fuel places are within sunsets. It's very soothing. So it's a big bold image [and the words,] 'Buy & sell oil & gas products with CONFIDENCE'—and the confidence is the emotional hook there."

Last year the Atlanta Falcons started a move called Fan-First Pricing in their brand new Mercedes Benz Stadium, significantly lowering concession prices at their games. These included $2 for a Coca-Cola in a refillable cup; $2 for a hot dog, pretzel or popcorn; $3 for waffle fries, a pizza slice or nachos with cheese; and $5 for a Bud Light or a cheeseburger.

"The top skill is curiosity. You want people who are not just going to stay in one place and [want to] adapt. So people need to be curious about new things, excited about innovation, and ultimately they really need to be open to shifts in the future, and be ready to work together to make a company that can adapt to those shifts."

"We also had a big argument about the price point: Some people in the business thought it should be 50p to get a big sale," said Matt Kelly, editor of the print paper The New European, in an interview this week on the FIPP site.

It has been close to a month, but ideas from the SIPA Annual 2017 Conference still ring in my mind (save the date for SIPA Annual 2018 - June 5-7 in Washington, DC). One concept that particularly resonated was when Brian Cuthbert, group vice president for Diversified Communications, said that he insists his editors speak at industry events.