An attendee to the 40th World Magazine Congress consults about the digital products of PressReader at an exhibiting booth.

 

From Oct. 13 to 15, the 40th World Magazine Congress, organized by the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP), took place in Toronto, Canada. Widely recognized as the most influential conference in the journal industry, the meeting gathered more than 1,000 elites from the publishing industry around the world, including representatives of the Social Sciences in China Press and other Chinese media.

A focus of the meeting was innovative transformation of the publishing industry in the digital age. In his keynote speech, Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp mentioned the great changes brought by the rise of handset ownership. He pointed out that of the 7.2 billion people in the world, only 4.5 billion have access to safe drinking water and indoor plumbing, while 6.1 billion have mobile phones. Each user looks at a mobile phone 100 times a day on average, and people’s attention spans continue to shorten. He said only by innovating corporate culture can we realize further development.

Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, chairman of the Kadokawa Corporation in Japan, said the publishing industry faces difficulties arising from fundamental changes in the way people read magazines. He gave an example that nowadays, 50 percent of people do not buy a single book in a year, and only 5 percent buy a magazine every week. Following the new trend, the Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango Co., one of Japan’s largest online video platforms and systems companies, integrated.

The transformation, he said, can better protect the value of the content itself and make our company more competitive. Rules have changed in this field, and publishers must adapt in order to succeed, he added.

Peter Kreisky, chairman of the Kreisky Media Consultancy, also emphasized the importance of cultural innovation in media companies at the meeting.
 

He visited 14 companies from seven countries and interviewed 16 senior managers to evaluate the importance and challenges of cultural transformation. According to his investigation, 80 percent of interviewees think it is extremely important, but most of them think it is very difficult, while all think there is still a long way to go.
 

His advice was to engage audiences in the process and encourage co-creation. Continued innovation is the key to the vitality of media, he said.
 

Nevertheless, many still believe  printed media continue to have significant influence for a long time in the future. James Oseland, editor-in-chief of US magazine Organic Life, said that though his publication has a digital version, it still relies on print to convey the complexity and diversity of the content.
 

Joyce Nieuwenhuijs, brand director of Flow in the Netherlands, said paper publications are increasingly regarded as a gift rather than just a kind of commodity and even more like a luxury. Paper media has begun to produce added value and will never die, she said.
 

In addition, outside the meeting hall, PressReader, Woodwing Software, Tansa and other well-known digital publishers and providers set up booths exhibiting their digital products of technological innovation, which attracted attention from the attendees.
 

The next congress will be held in Warsaw, Poland, in 2017.

 

Lü Sha is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.