I am in Konstanz Germany attending the challenging, exciting and motivating Small Giants International Summit. It was a thrill to discover that the Editor and Publisher of, Dumbo Feather, a terrific independent magazine out of Melbourne are attending the conference as well. Talk about a small world.
The Small Giants organisation grew out of a book, Small Giants, by Bo Burlingham. I read the book when it was first published and highly recommend it. While all the case studies used are US companies, their situations relate to Australia.
Part of Bo’s contribution during the first day of the conference was to discuss, from his perspective of being a journalist working for a magazine (Inc.), the challenges to the print model and how the business needs to react and is reacting to this for its future and the future of the community in which it serves.
What makes this conference different to so many other business conferences is that participants are expected to contribute as much as speakers. We are all learning off of each other … about leadership, business and mojo – what makes a business attractive to others.
The conference is relevant to the challenges newsagents face for it is all about being accountable and stepping into challenges rather than denying their existence.
Having sold every copy of Dumbo Feather I can get my hands on for the last several years, I am very interested by this comment. The purchasers as far as I can gather are under 30’s, and we are a rural area often discounted by the mainstream – I am constantly surprised by the breadth of mag titles I can sell. My gut feeling is that there is an underground demand for alternative print media building, not unlike the desire for alternative film and/or visual media, which can often (but not always) be obtained now via Iview etc etc. Thanks for the interesting post Mark, I will be ixquick’ing on the weekend to investigate further.
Thanks for the kind words, Mark – it was great to meet you. What a fantastic conference! Much to learn both within publishing spheres, and also from people across a broad range of industries. There are great things we can learn from metal fabricators…
h, I’d love to hear more about your experience selling Dumbo Feather – we’re in an interesting space of selling out quickly in a lot of newsagents, but not moving at all in others. We’ve been trying out little bits of promo and positioning through Network, which have certainly helped (our sellthroughs were significantly higher for the last issue), but the question of how we alternative/niche pubs can effectively match the underground demand you speak of with the current business model of the newsagent is a big one.
The three-month on-sale is also a big question – this works well for bookstores and indie retailers (with a mindset of restocking), but not so much for newsagents.
You’re welcome Patrick.
This conference was a wonderful experience, inspiring and practically valuable.
I can see it having a positive impact for the long term on my businesses.