Bauersustainability2

‘Ignore Sustainability at Your Peril’; for Publishers, Action Has to Replace Words

by Media

“Reduce, reuse, recycle is no longer enough,” said Pum Lefebure, co-founder of Design Army and jury president at Cannes LIONS—an event focusing on key advertising trends and innovations that publishers need to know about. “We have to rethink, repurpose, reinvent and reimagine. We have to constantly set new standards for creative solutions.”

When it comes to playbooks—especially this time of year—football comes to mind. But last year, Bauer Media published its Sustainability Playbook. Included in the 15-page document are ways they will be “Influencing Sustainability” in their Lifestyle publications, Outdoors, B2B Automotive (pictured here), Fashion & Beauty, and Audio Brands.

“Sustainability has become a key strategic focus for us because we recognize the leadership role media plays in driving sustainable behaviors,” Kaushala Ratnayake, head of strategy, Bauer Media, told What’s New In Publishing. “Shifting towards a sustainable publishing industry is not something any company can do alone so we really invite this movement towards working with publishers that have clear sustainability goals and targets.”

Number two on WNIP’s post-Cannes list of five takeaways was this: Ignore sustainability at your peril. “The largest media buying groups are beginning to select publisher ad inventory using a checklist of ‘sustainability criteria,’” they wrote.

“[Young people] want to align with brands that share a vision and a mission with them and they’re willing to pay more for that—and that’s where sustainability comes into play,” growth strategist Robyn Duda said last year. “If we don’t start doing it now, there’ll be a disrupter that comes in and turns things upside down.”

Here are more sustainability initiatives among publishers:

The American Chemical Society’s Scientific Advancement division is leading the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future Initiative. The multifaceted initiative will include a campaign promoting sustainability, increased advocacy for sustainability research funding, and expanded efforts to modernize the chemistry curriculum for 2- and 4-year colleges to include a focus on sustainability. There will also be a prize for international collaborations.

“The impact that we’ll have is creating a future chemistry enterprise workforce that’s trained in sustainability concepts,” ACS COO LaTrease Garrison said. Such a workforce “will help to revolutionize chemistry as a discipline and to increase the amount and pace of chemistry-related sustainability innovation research.” Adelina Voutchkova is their new director of sustainable development.

Recurrent—their publications include Popular Science, Field & Stream, Saveur, etc.—has three pillars on their website: Editorial First, Audience Obsessed and Sustainability Focused. “Coverage across Recurrent brands emphasizes products, technologies, and policies that could shape a more sustainable future, for the longevity of the planet and its ecosystems.” In June they established two new sustainability-focused roles to solidify the company’s commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives. Sam Dagirmanjian has joined as the new VP of sustainability, and Amber Nolan moved in as sustainability commerce editor, after contributing to Treehugger for five years.

Conde Nast announced new advertising guidelines as part of its sustainability commitments. It will now only accept ads from energy companies that promote renewable energy products. The company also aims to be entirely carbon neutral by 2030 and use only renewable energy in its offices globally by 2025.

Bloomberg Media has made the commitment to bring its Net Zero plans forward to 2025. Half of the firm’s existing energy already comes from renewable sources. Only 12.5% of its emissions come from publishing operations, but it is seeking a further 10% reduction in energy use across its offices and 5% in its data centers.

The Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN) is a new program at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Its mission is to help journalists and editors develop their coverage of climate change, and support leaders in identifying the issues involved in reporting on the climate crisis. The network is free to join and is open to working journalists, employed or freelance, covering any beat, not just environment and climate.

“We know that the journalism and information space as a whole is looking for spaces for sustainability, so if we don’t have unique and diverse voices in these rooms, how do we know what to solve for?” asked Sherrell Dorsey, founder and CEO of The Plug, an AM&P Network member. “How do we think creatively about the solutions on the table? We decided to go subscription and create these revenue-generating platforms in order to ensure our survival.”

 

‘You Need Enough Time to Get It Right’; Longform Articles Take Prizes, Clicks and Time

by Media

“From the data, it’s clear to see that there’s positive correlation between high performing pages within organic search and word counts of over 2,250 words,” wrote HubSpot’s Matthew Howells-Barby. “The sweet spot seems to be 2,250-2,500 words.” Barbara Spector, our 2022 Grand Neal winner, went well beyond that.

In our summer editorial council meeting last Thursday (which you can view here), Barbara Spector of MLR Media and Rachel Engel of Lexipol spoke about their 2022 Neal Award-winning articles, and the benefits to taking the time and effort to write longer pieces.

Writing earlier this year, Christian Cappoli of The Hoth also cited the benefits of long-form content—including more keywords—adding “if it’s done right.” He noted a study by Pew Research showing that “users spend twice as much time on articles over 1,000 words. They found that short and long articles both attracted the same number of visitors, yet people would actually keep reading the longer pieces versus navigating away to something else.”

HubSpot also found that “higher word count is correlated with more social shares,” something Engel expressed concern about. She praised her colleagues and the new voices she was able to amplify.

“I have a great team that is very encouraging of these types of articles,” Engel said of her story, titled Modern Day Rosies, about a paramedic/illustrator who embarked on a project spotlighting diverse, female essential workers. “But I also feel like it’s important to showcase the people and the demographics that aren’t typically seen and thought of.

“It’s good to be able to pull in those voices when there is a gap in our coverage. We want to make sure we include all the kinds of people that are working in our industry so we are reflective for audience members.”

The article by Spector—titled Reckoning: Family Businesses Confront Race, Racism and Inclusion— put the long in long-form, with riveting sidebars, photos and pullquotes. She did it right and won the Grand Neal.

Spector offered six takeaways from her experience with the story:

  1. Get the support of top management.

2. “When tackling a big project, you need enough time to get it right, including a lot of time for a major rewrite if needed,” she said. “…If possible, wait until the editing is far along before committing to publish it on a specific date.”

3. It’s important to be known to your readers “as a trusted resource that is sensitive to audiences concerns. It will be easier to find sources and get them to open up to you. That being said, of course, I had many people just declined to take my calls and I had to just keep pushing.”

4. “Back up your assertions with quotes, facts [and] statistics from trusted sources. This is especially true for controversial topics.”

5. “If you have a complex story to tell, break it up into parts and make ample use of subheads, pull quotes, illustrations and sidebars to avoid the old wall of text,” Spector said. “Link to sources where readers can go to research and learn more.”

6. “Everyone needs an editor, and you also need a talented creative director and web designer for projects like this. David Shaw, our publishing director, talked the story out with me, read my drafts and gave me great advice on structuring. And Monica McLaughlin and Richie Madden made it easier for readers to navigate all the various parts and made it all visually interesting.”

BioPharma Dive’s Ben Fidler, another 2022 Neal Award winner for a longer article, added that a cooperative staff is also much needed.

“There are always trade-offs when someone has to cycle off of daily coverage to do something bigger,” Fidler said. “In our case, because we have a small team, it means others have to pick up the slack quite a bit. But we all know that and aspire to write great stories. So when someone has an idea in the works, we come up with a plan to give them the time they need to execute efficiently. And I think that goes for other publications at Industry Dive, not just BioPharma. Many journalists I’ve spoken with here want to write standout stories, not just daily churn.”

Engel said that her piece took about two months to write, but she was able to work on other things during that time such as daily newsletter articles and social promotions. “So it was a relatively straightforward process.”

“Today’s online culture, along with the pressure to control costs and the competition for reader’s attention, has created a trend toward shorter articles,” Spector said in conclusion. “But there can be great value in doing a deep dive into an important topic. You can still save on print costs and hold readers’ attention if you publish a report like this as an online series, but the reporters still need support from management and the freedom to put in the work.”

For Rebrands, Instruction, Humanity and Reaching New Audiences, Video Wins Out

by Media

In their 2022 Neal Awards Best Use of Video finalist—titled The Economic State of Black America: What Is and What Could Be—McKinsey & Company used one-minute, one- and two-person interviews to drive up the stakes of the report. It’s just one way that organizations are pumping up the volume of their articles, reports and mission.

Pauline, a real estate agent, talks eloquently about the lack of opportunity. Armond, a Los Angeles lawyer, speaks about the limited entrepreneurial paths. Alonso, an Atlanta store owner, said he had to give his people a place to go for healthy food. Ehren and Noella talk about creating pathways to generational wealth.

The videos personalize the data and numbers of the report. In Reuters Institute’s Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions 2022, they predicted that short-form video would make a comeback off the back of creator innovation in social networks. They were right.

“Expect publishers to adopt more of these techniques in 2022, along with the growth of streaming platforms such as Twitch, contributing to a new ‘pivot to video.’” In addition, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube were named as where publisher efforts would be most going socially this year—meaning more videos. Instagram topped out at a +54.

Here are other Neal and EXCEL award-winning video uses in the industry:

Inform about your mission. For its 2022 EXCEL Gold award-winning video for Single Entry (Promotion), the ALS Association’s Whatever It Takes uses just a minute to go through the many faces of the disease and talk about future hopes and access to treatment. “How do we turn ALS from a fatal disease into a livable one?…ALS takes everything from people and their families. So it’s going to take all we’ve got to stop it.” Added Washington Post head of editorial video Micah Gelman: “Most video consumption happens off platform, whether that’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and so it’s very much about reaching people who may not be familiar with the Post at the start but will come to sample other types of our journalism.”

Instruct your audience. “Join the AOPA Air Safety Institute as we follow the Bonanza’s likely encounter with high density altitude—an inherent hazard in high terrain significantly degrading aircraft performance. Deceptively upsloping terrain would leave no escape for the flatland pilots facing the canyon trapping them.” Thus begins their 12-minute EXCEL Gold award-winning video—titled Accident Case Study: Into Thin Air—in the category Single Entry Education. The video provides huge lessons for that audience—and what went wrong with this undertaking—telling a story that would have been hard for text to do. Industry experts emphasize that insights from the video can also be applied to platforms like Coinpoker’s crypto casino, highlighting the importance of comprehensive risk management in high-stakes environments. Members also get credit for watching the video, which “uses FAA ATC radio communication transcripts, NTSB documentation, and video animation to recreate accidents and share critical lessons, so we can recognize and avoid similar mistakes.”

Bolster a story or report. For his 2022 Neal Award winning story, Industry Dive’s Ben Fidler found a powerful video of his subject, Sek Kathiresan, winning the Curt Stern award—an honor given to pioneering human geneticists by the American Society of Human Genetics. In his acceptance speech, Kathiresan recalled the journey that took him from a small town in India to an awards stage in San Diego. While the story’s personal photos added context, the video added so much more.

Announce a rebrand. “You want a brand that reflects a diverse community and a more flexible, responsive and modern association. You wanted the AABB initials to remain iconic and essential to our identity, but with meaning. It is with great pride and excitement that we share with you our new name. The Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies.” Thus Debra BenAvram, CEO of AABB, reveals the new name of the American Association of Blood Banks in a 2022 EXCEL Gold Award-winning video for Single Entry (Membership). It’s a five-minute moving and emotional watch that could never have been conveyed with the same gravitas in an article. It begins and ends with a photo of the association’s first executive secretary, Marjorie Saunders.

Reach a younger audience. I wrote about Harvard Business Review’s Christine vs. Work in January, and I’m happy to see that she’s still going strong. She’s smart, has fun and says what others just think. Her latest video, titled What to Do If You’re Undervalued at Work, begins like this: “If you’re working at a job that you’re like, ‘I’m putting in all the work, but this is not putting it back into me,’ this episode is for you.” “When it came time to reimagine what video content would look like for Ascend, [HBR’s] brand for young professionals, we knew we’d have to make it real,” said Kelsey Alpaio, associate editor of HBR. “We knew we’d have to take a host-driven approach. And we knew we’d have to meet our audience where they are. On TikTok, yes, but also on YouTube, Instagram, and whatever comes next.”

New Year 2022 Goals Concept : Empty asphalt road sunrise with text go to New year 2022

On Thought Leadership, Changes in B2B, and Helping You Get to Sunny Days Ahead

by Media

This article was written by Tony Silber, AM&P Network’s Director of Programming and Development

On Twitter, I follow a variety of thought leaders, and I almost always pick up interesting insights and conversations on and about the media. In B2B media specifically, I like Rafat Ali, founder of Skift, Tony Uphoff, former CEO of Thomas, and Sean Griffey, founder and CEO of Industry Dive—which rocked the media world last month when it was sold to Informa in a deal valued at $525 million. (That’s more than five times their projected revenue for 2022, a similar equation to today’s deal of Axios selling to Cox Enterprises for $525 million.)

All three of these executives sprinkle their feeds with business observations alongside personal posts, which adds up to accessible, insightful learning. Although they are all accomplished media executives, they’re not household names outside the relatively small community of B2B media.

Which makes their insights even more valuable because there’s not a whole lot of it.

Since I took over recently as director of programming and development at the AM&P Network, I’ve been guided by a single operating premise that has two parts: First, thanks to all of you, we—as an association—represent a vibrant community, a clearinghouse of knowledge, a place for sharing ideas and networking with all sections of the B2B world. And that connection is symbiotic: Our B2B community needs a strong association, and a strong association needs people like you and your peers.

And second, this sector is on the brink of a golden age, where business grows and thrives, iterates and innovates. Here’s why:

1. Those doing business now, in 2022, are true survivors and innovators. They’ve succeeded in what was a wrenching two-decade digital transition. They’ve succeeded in getting through the worst recession since the Great Depression, and one before that, in 2000-2003. B2B publishers have adapted, changed. And even if many companies now are new, many operating leaders themselves have been through this crucible.

2. B2B media is experiencing the value of a need rediscovered. It has outlasted dire predictions. There were a few years when the conventional thinking was that LinkedIn would wipe out B2B by pulling the ad dollars out of the ecosystem. There were several years when martech dramatically improved and a fear emerged that marketers wouldn’t need B2B media partners anymore. Marketers and agencies could do it themselves. That didn’t work out. And then there was a fear that aggressive aggregators like the old VerticalNet would launch sites in many verticals and displace legacy players.

3. B2B media companies possess attributes that can’t be easily replicated. Journalism and content-production skills. Deep market expertise. First-party data. Direct reach and decades of relationships on both the reader and advertiser sides. Years of creative revenue diversification. Unlike consumer media, which is still largely ad based—and in mass markets, still print dependent—revenue in B2B is much more balanced.

Which takes me back to the top of this article. The reason for all this is that smart people are driving change, engagement, innovation and execution. They’re people like Ali, Griffey, Uphoff, Bill Carter at ALM, Elizabeth Green at Brief Media, Jennifer Litterick at Ensemble IQ, Tim Andrews at Advertising Specialty Institute, Doug Manoni at CyberRisk Alliance, Wilma Jordan at JEGI Clarity, Peter Goldstone, Tim Hartman and Connie Sayers at GovExec, Andy Weber and Charlene Finck at Farm Journal Media, Greg Watt at Watt Global Media, Dan Fink at Money-Media, Jane Qin Medeiros at studioID.

Also Chris Ferrell at Endeavor Business Media, Prescott Schibles and Matt Reilly at Randall Reilly, Rich Murphy at BPA, Mark Holdreith at Media Advisory Partners, Paul Miller at Questex, Jim Elliott and Reed Phillips at Oaklins DeSilva + Phillips, John Yedinak and George Yedinak at Aging Media. John Lerner at Breaking Media, Ron Spink at AC Business Media, Lee Maniscalco at Haymarket Media, KC Crain and Veebha Mehta at Crain Communications, Dan Oswald and Rafael Cardoso at Simplify Compliance, Cindy Carter at FDAnews, Susan Coene and Ted Coene at Group C Media, Shereta Williams at Cox Enterprises…

The list goes on. For those of you not specifically named today, know that you’re not overlooked. We will engage with all of you soon!

We’re so glad you’re all associated with the AM&P Network.

chips

SIIA Welcomes the Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022

by PolicyPress Release

The following statement can be attributed to Chris Mohr, President, SIIA and Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) welcomes the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (the “CHIPS Act”) and commends President Biden for signing this important legislation. Our 450-plus member companies depend on advanced semiconductors (or “chips”) to deliver artificial intelligence tools, data analytics, and many other valuable tools.  The CHIPS Act will stimulate the creation of new products and services in the information industry and facilitate science and technology research.

Though less widely reported, the CHIPS Act will enable critical investments in the innovation infrastructure of the United States through new programs and funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Act authorizes a doubling of NSF’s budget over 5 years, a 45% increase in DOE’s Office of Science budget, and a 50% increase in NIST’s budget. These increases include funds to invest in the future through STEM education and teaching.  But, these funds are authorized, not committed.  We urge Congress to follow through on this critical funding.

We also commend Congress on formalizing and extending programmatic authority for the critical work of NIST on emerging technologies. The CHIPS Act will advance NIST’s efforts around safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI), risk management of AI systems, privacy enhancing technologies, digital identification standards, and biometric research, among others. We believe these efforts are essential to develop a strong democratic framework for data governance and promote continued U.S. innovation.