Conde Nast Reinvents its Business Model - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBloggers

1. Chuck Townsend's recent promotion of Bob Sauerberg, former Consumer Marketing Chief, to President signifies a major commitment by Conde Nast to change the outdated existing business model that most major publishers currently rely on.  

 

2. Townsend's comments in the New York Times on Saturday are exceptionally focused in identifying what the company wants to achieve with the restructuring: "We're entering a period where the handcuffs are off in terms of our ability to monetize the content we deliver to consumers. We've had handcuffs on us for years. We could not break the stigma of a $12 subscription. I've got to morph out of that business."

 

3. Townsend is both a brilliant business strategist and corporate executive. He is a keen listener, observer and a tenacious problem solver. "He envisioned eventually selling packages of content that included for example, a print product, a mobile product and a digital product, all for one price." (NY Times 7/24/10)

 

4. Conde Nast has some of the strongest magazine brands in publishing i.e. Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, etc.. The challenge will be how quickly Conde Nast can turn itself around, bring down the silos, integrate marketing efforts to consumers and create better and more video editorial content.

 

5. Creating "Easy Pass" packages for content across multi-platforms is great idea the execution can be a challenge. One solution could be allowing the consumer to create their own content packages.

 

6. Better research is needed to track and identify consumers who use different platforms i.e. Apps. Will there eventually be one content group per brand/magazine? Or will Conde Nast try to integrate the content across multi-platforms? To date there has been a lack of synergy at all magazine companies in integrating content across multi-platforms to create innovative and different content that is ideally suited for each platform.

 

7. The opportunities are endless and mind boggling. Could my Conde Nast subscription become similar to a cable companies offerings i.e. basic subscription, premium, pay per view, etc.

 

8. The consumer will pay more when there is more perceived value. The challenge will be to not disappoint the consumer and to deliver content packages that are dramatically different than from what exists currently. Just as advertisers are demanding multi-platform packages there is a similar opportunity to do the same with consumers.

 

Read JackMyersThinkTank - Is Conde Nast the Most Important Media Company of the 21st Century?

Steve's new book You Can't Fall Off The Floor - The Insiders' Guide to Re-Inventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King, Cathie Black, Chuck Townsend and 28 others; Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt & Blacker Solutions, LLC. His web site is blacker-reinventions.com and e-mail address is blackersolutions@aol.com

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