Beginning with a dramatic reading of Cashmere If You Can, HarperCollins‘ collaboration with Saks Fifth Avenue, NYU‘s “Custom Publishing: State of the Art — and State of the Business 2005” kicked off on November 17 at its midtown campus. Co-hosted by the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) and the Center for Publishing, the day-long seminar brought sixty devotees together to drink the custom Kool Aid. The industry stats provide ample justification for the excitement: With 107,000 custom publications produced in 2004, custom publishing is the second fastest growing media sector, behind the internet and far ahead of cable. More than $35 billion was spent last year, making it a larger industry than either consumer magazine publishing or book publishing.
Ironically, despite Harper’s pride of place and promises that books would be referred to throughout the day, the emphasis was on magazines, with passing reference to newsletters, online content and ‘magalogs.’ Books and “book content” came up occasionally, as in the example given by Michael Hurley, former publisher of Hearst Custom Publishing (the behemoth in this field), who described how Georgia Pacific used content from various Hearst books on their website to create a relationship with their users.
While custom publishing is defined by the CPC as “the delivery of editorial content from a sponsoring company to a targeted audience” in order to move “the perceptions and behavior of the audience in a desired direction” the CPC includes in its definition association and alumni newsletters, virtually all controlled circ magazines, even the Williams-Sonoma catalog, with its useful advice and tasty recipes.
According to the speakers, at some point most custom publishers find themselves in unusual relationships with their clients and even, their product: The Magazine Group, which produces 65 custom publications including ones for AARP and WebMD, was hired by the State Department to produce “hi,” an Arab-language magazine for teens. It hired Arab-speaking editors and produced the requisite magazine, but realizing none of its own editors could understand what they had produced, they then had to hire Samir Husni, the U. Miss. professor who tracks new magazine launches and is a fluent speaker of several Arab dialects, to vet it.
The audience, rapt for most of the day, did occasionally query the speakers on finding the balance between the client’s desire to meddle and the publisher’s desire to provide editorial quality (all the speakers laughed whenever it came up). But most speakers — while acknowledging the difficulty of arguing with those paying the bills — defended their ability to both bring a magazine or newsletter to the market on schedule and budget, and then to measure its effectiveness once there. Many discussed how clients could be prospected and upsold (think books, e-newsletters, websites), and why custom publishing often follows failed advertising efforts. For the cost of a $250,000 ad, said one publisher, a manufacturer can create a quality magazine aimed at the target audience.
But the most persistent argument of the day — mirroring the discussion that took place the previous week at the ABPA conference [see page 7] was that opportunities abound in multiple media and markets, for publishers of all sizes and expertise.
For more information go to custompublishingcouncil.com.
