"Publishers [need to] return to the key question: 'How does your product grow?' It's one of the most important questions to be able to answer. Growth is necessary for the very existence of most products and services, and it serves as evidence that you have a compelling proposition—especially if growth is driven by both new and loyal returning readers."

Last week at BIMS—after speaking for 30-plus minutes about the vital nature of digital design and the reading revolution that digital has thrust upon us—Mario Garcia, a Columbia professor and author of the new book, The Story, closed his well-received keynote by saying: "The takeaway is if you have a good story, people will stay with you... I don't sit here and lament what was. I celebrate what is. These are the best times to be a storyteller, but you have to explore all that is there."

How many of us compose, plan, design, write, edit, think and output on a laptop or desktop and then watch as others consume what we do on their phones?   That's the question that was front, center, behind and below in yesterday's BIMS Day 2 talk by Mario Garcia, a Columbia professor and author of the new book, The Story, designed to be read on—you guessed it—your phone.    "We are going through a transformation," Garcia said. "Six in 10 people now get news from their mobile device and it's going up every month. And 89% of people on mobile access news and information. We go to our phones an average of 114 times a day. [He tested himself one day recently and tallied 78.] And yet 75% of outfits plan, write, edit and design on a platform much larger than on what people will read it on."   So when Garcia wrote his latest book, he wrote and designed it for the phone— 1800 screens worth. When reading, people much prefer scrolling to s ...

"If I had to decide today on one platform to design for, with all the disruptions, it would be the phone." That's from a talk that Mario Garcia, adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and CEO, Garcia Media, gave recently at the famed Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. SIPA is very pleased to bring Garcia back to Florida for a Tuesday morning keynote at our Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS), Nov. 11-13 in Hollywood, Fla.