Don’t Bash Blighty
Wednesday, February 15
This may come as a surprise, seeing as I have gone with a title like “Don’t Bash Blighty”, but I am to begin this blog entry with the revelation that I have recently neglected to pick up an Evening Standard on my way home from work.
The reason? I just find everything in it so utterly depressing: recession this, downturn that, economic stagnation, debt, deficit, downturn and disease from cover to cover, every night. I have instead taken to reading content on my iPad that I have actively purchased.
This particular blog entry is not about paid content, it is a defence of Britain as a great place to do business and a great place to be a publisher. In my humble view, we should not solely focus on Malthus-does-economics commentary, and instead look at what we have going for us.
If we look at the whole Moody’s credit rating issue, this is where I get quite cross with the news coverage on Britain’s economy: the good news is always buried in the mights and maybes. Moody’s has put the UK’s AAA credit rating on “negative outlook”, which means that we have a 30% chance of being downgraded to AA in the next 18 months. However, many analysts believe a drop in the UK’s credit rating would not have a significant effect, especially as in this particular regard, it was not of obvious detriment to the US when they dropped to AA last year.
Moody’s also said, when announcing the “negative outlook”, that “the UK continues to be well supported by a large, diversified and highly competitive economy, a particularly flexible labour market, and a banking sector that compares favourably to peers in the euro area”.
So what makes Britain such a great place to be a provider of business information? Let’s run through a few big B2B sectors.
> Financial reporting: London is the largest financial centre in the world, rivalled by only Tokyo and New York. 75% of all financial transactions in Europe happen in the City (no wonder the French and the Germans thought that a transaction tax was such a good idea).
> Healthcare: The NHS is Europe’s largest employer and the 7th largest employer in the world. However, perhaps most importantly and in terms of business information, it is the largest employer of ‘skilled’ staff in the world.
> Law: The UK has nearly 200,000 registered legal practitioners, and has one of the fastest rates of legislation creation in the world, which has created the world’s largest legal publishing industry.
> Construction: Since the 2010 recession, construction been the fastest growing sector of the British economy, and the Government intends to utilise infrastructure investment such as HS2 to encourage new growth
> Energy: As well planned new Government investment in nuclear energy, Britain is also home to two of the world’s six largest oil companies, and has the largest provable oil and gas reserves in the EU.
Please don’t ring me up if I haven’t mentioned your sector in this list – I’m sure you realise the simple point I am trying to make: Britain is still a major player, a major economy, and a great place to do business. We have a huge amount going for us, and the sooner we realise it the better. We have a highly educated population, all fluent in the international language of business, a strong national “brand”, and some of the most ambitious and innovative entrepreneurs in the world.
And speaking of entrepreneurs, Mark Allen of the eponymous publishing group told me yesterday that he may well have a record year in 2012 and is, as ever, looking to expand his business.
We have talked about B2B publishers needing to change in order to survive, and on the whole they are quickly and efficiently doing so. Now all we need is strong economic growth fuelled by consumer and business confidence. Britain has come back from far worse before, and in my relatively short lifetime, we have recovered from 26% inflation, an IMF bailout, a Black Wednesday, a 9/11, and a dot-com bubble. It will require a lot of work but I’m convinced we’ll get there if the pessimistic headlines are tempered with just a little bit more optimism. Please.
Jerry Gosney: The Management Strategy Core to Apple's Success
Wednesday, February 1
Joe Hames has asked me to sit in for him while he takes a short break, and it’s great to be talking to you all again. And what’s caught my attention concerns Apple Inc, billed as America’s (and perhaps the world’s) most admired company – the apple of the eye you might say, if it wasn’t such an awful pun.
One of the secrets of the corporate’s success, apparently, is that it doesn’t believe in general managers - all executives are expert in something.
What’s the link with our sector? Well, you can’t but have noticed the disappearance of the role of publisher in major B2B houses in recent years. Part of the reason was to cut costs by lowering headcount. Another was to remove a tier of middle management, shortening the chain of command from the boardroom to the frontline. But was something else going on here as well?
Years ago I ran RBI’s publishing village, an experiment to revitalise 12 or so small and specialist magazines, giving them their head by running them as if they were start-up operations, free them from heavy cost-centre charges, with editors and ad mangers making the decisions, without publishers getting in the way.
Many of these mags, such as Railway Gazette, had editors and ad managers acknowledged as experts in their industries and truly dedicated to their titles. They found it irksome to have a succession of young publishers foisted on them, typical young ad managers given their first break in ‘general management’ on a title so solid they couldn’t do much harm.
And the great thing was to see editors and ad managers stepping up to the challenge, working more collaboratively than in the past, bringing forward development and commercial strategies that a young publisher may have nervously blocked, unwilling to take a risk early in his/her career or lacking the market nous to see the opportunity.
I guess the point is that if you’re going to be as brilliantly innovative as Apple, you’ve just got to give free rein to specialists in your organisation and not smother them in a blanket of risk-averse general management.
Jerry Gosney is a constultant to the PPA BMG. Why not discuss his comments further with 500+ publishing colleagues on the PPA's LinkedIn group.
Avoiding a Fat Quango
Wednesday, January 18
So here we are then, 2012. The year the Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, London will host the Olympic Games and, more importantly for some of us, it is the year the Government will finally take action and create a Public Data Group (PDG) and a Data Strategy Board (DSB).
Perhaps most importantly, the Government has listened to the PPA’s Business Media Group in coming up with its data battle plan, ultimately making it more suitable for their aims of opening up data to the public and giving our economy a big data-fuelled kick up the backside.
Initially, the Cabinet Office had visions of a Public Data Corporation, an entity which, to many, resembled a state-funded competitor to the data publishing industry that would charge the public for access to data from Ordnance Survey, Companies House, HM Land Registry and the Met Office.
This was not the way to open up data - and it certainly wasn’t a way to build business. In fact, at the time, the Chair of the PPA’s Public Sector Information Working Group, Feargal Hogan, publicly stated that he had nightmares of a “Fat Quango”. We are as pleased as he is that this has not transpired.
The more welcome outcome, which follows the outline of our recommendations, is to create two entities: the PDG itself and the DSB, which will oversee contracts with the PDG. Another very good piece of news is that George Osborne has also written a £7m cheque for the DSB to spend on making more data freely available.
Anyone interested in learning more about Public Sector Information opportunities should:
Read the PPA’s Progress Report on Public Sector Information here.
Read the PPA’s reaction to the PDG announcement here.
Join the PPA’s Public Sector Information Working Group here.
Season Finale
Wednesday, December 7
The PPA events ‘season’ came to a close yesterday with a fantastic Independent Publisher Conference and Awards.
It was a truly fascinating day and a reminder that it isn’t just the big publisher members of the Business Media Group that can impress an audience with creativity, ingenuity and innovation. In addition, I was seated next to someone at lunch with an all too rare passion for some of the vital issues for our sector - piracy, intellectual property and the Hargreaves Review, Paywalls, etc - so I really was a very contented BMG Manager.
Next week (December 13) we have our final BMG Session of the year, and there are still a few spaces, so please do come along for a bit of festive networking before 2011 is out. Our guest speakers from Invisible Training will be talking about productivity skills for B2B publishers, and I guarantee that it will be a really useful session.
This afternoon I have the Recruitment Directors Forum, a popular group which is dealing with a challenging and ever-changing aspect of B2B media. Certainly, recent meetings of the forum have focussed very much on the digital side of recruitment advertising, with Nielsen paying us a visit a few weeks ago to talk about measurement and hit rates.
While today, around about 45% of recruitment media activity remains in print, with 30% on job boards, our friends at Enders Analysis predict this will shift further by 2015 to around 32% and 35% respectively. Social media recruitment advertising is also set to double over the next 5 years, so our Recruitment Directors are already adjusting quickly to these exciting yet challenging opportunities.
We have so much going on in the next couple of weeks that I will no doubt see most members of the Business Media Group before we close for Christmas on December 23. If I don’t get the opportunity beforehand, I would like to wish you a very merry Christmas.
On the phone
Wednesday, November 23
There are a whopping 100 million smartphone users in Europe today. If that statistic wasn’t mind-boggling enough, wait ‘til I tell you that by 2015 there will be 160 million.
So it is clear, if nothing else, that the smartphone has caught on in a big way. And while the lure of the tablet market continues to tempt publishers, many members of the PPA Business Media Group have avoided putting all their product development eggs in one basket. In fact, I think it is fair to say that there are some publishers out there who are more excited about the possibilities of the smartphone.
The BMG’s Content Managers Forum is comprised of the big name B2B Editorial Directors, and is chaired by the PPA award-winning Editor-in-Chief of UBM’s Property Week, Giles Barrie. While the group’s focus is on content, trends, and reader behaviour, the agenda in recent times has also (almost unavoidably) focussed on content delivery itself, with apps being a big area of investment for so many of our members. What makes a tablet app readable, useful, and consequentially profitable were all areas of insightful debate last time we met.
This week, the group will apply the same scrutiny to smartphone apps and the products they are developing to whet the appetite of those millions of users. Our guest speaker for the morning is Carolyn Morgan of Penmaen Media. She is in no doubt whatsoever about the importance of the role of mobile and is adamant that as mobile internet coverage improves, publishing in the future will be as much about a quality mobile phone offering as it will be about tablet apps.
The Final Countdown
Wednesday, November 9
The PPA Data & Digital Publishing Conference is now only a few hours away. Tonight, I shall pour a large gin and tonic, run a hot bath, and sink hippopotamus-like into the bubbles. To use a sporting analogy, the pre-match preparation is done and we are now focused on the result - delivering what we think will be a great event for data and business media publishers.
The conference will kick-off with PPA CEO Barry McIlheney interviewing B2B mastermind Adrian Barrick, who will discuss the evolution of UBM Built Environment into the global data and digital publishing behemoth we all know today. The finale, after a day of invaluable insight and activity, features a select panel of the PPA’s BMG Board, who will tell us where their businesses are going, and the sort of decisions that publishers need to take to follow them.
Our awards dinner in the evening will be hosted by “The Leicester Lip” - better known as rugby heartthrob Austin Healey, whose achievement of 51 England Caps (and two for the British and Irish Lions) seems to have been forgotten by several people of the fairer sex in the PPA office, who instead consider his appearance on Strictly Come Dancing to be of foremost reference.
Having learnt a thing or two from tomorrow’s speakers about the monetisation of data assets, I am considering selling Austin’s telephone number if the price is right.
"You must believe, boy!"
Wednesday, October 26
Reckless risk-taking, carelessness and gung-ho speculation are rarely commercial characteristics of the publishing sector, and quite rightly - we can leave that to the banks (boom, boom).
However, while it is important to make decisions sensibly, with all due diligence and respect for the risks involved, I do not think that we should forget that most good things come from taking a timely and well-informed leap of faith.
One contemporary celluloid-based example of such a leap is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There's a particular scene (which, if you haven’t seen it can be accessed via popular video sharing websites), our hero is faced with a seemingly impassable chasm over which he must pass to reach safety. While he hesitates, his father (Sean Connery, as film buffs will know) reminds him that he “must believe!”.
We all know what happens next. Indiana looks straight ahead, gathers his courage and - spoiler alert - the camera pans to show Indiana standing on a camouflaged rock bridge.
Meeting the publishers that we do in our day-to-day work at the PPA, I discovered quickly that those with the strongest businesses are those that have taken such a leap of faith. In recent years, for example, plenty have jumped – or have been challenged to make the jump - into the opportunities presented by digital platforms.
Today, the digitally-enhanced “rock bridge” is increasingly coming into view, particularly as the market for tablets and mobile devices continues to mature. There are very few publishers, however, who would claim to have made the crossing.
Our Data and Digital Publishing Conference on November 10 will feature many such inspiring examples of how publishers have traced the pathway ahead. These publishers have been inspired, they have innovated, and the Holy Grail they have uncovered has given their businesses and their brands a new lease of life.
Epilogue: As well as Indiana Jones, I like the works of the anarchistic 19th Century American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. In honesty, his biggest contribution to the publishing industry is probably the fact that he wrote several bestselling books. However, for the purposes of a nicely rounded finish to a blog entry, he also did say that “we must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success”. Wise words.
No trifling matter
Wednesday, October 12
In the old days, magazine readers were an elusive lot. OK, you may have had the address details and some basic information about your print subscribers, but you wouldn’t have known much about which articles they were reading, how long they were reading them for or any of the other invaluable usage statistics that are generated by digital content and closely tracked by analytics programs.
The revolution is helping to grow digital advertising revenues by encouraging ad agencies to part with more cash for content and search terms with higher hit rates. The statistics help publishers know which features and articles are working and which ones aren’t, paving the way for better targeting and, in turn, an increasingly large and more engaged readership.
If a publisher knows exactly how their output is being consumed, they can develop content and marketing strategies and even pricing models for different levels of usage to ensure greater rates of subscription renewal. Our members are continuing to gauge the value of this information, and a book rather than a blog is needed to discuss the possibilities of Online Behavioural Data for publishers.
For retailers, with their unflinching commitment to the demands of the customer, this reliance on data is an integral part of their operations. Providing I remember to take my Clubcard on a shopping trip to Tesco, if I buy lots and lots of trifle sponges, you can almost guarantee that I will receive coupons for tinned fruit and custard in the next Clubcard statement. This targeted marketing (based on my behaviour in relation to usage of their services) will ensure that Tesco don’t waste their time trying to sell me salad.
This whole fascinating area is one of the big themes at the PPA Data and Digital Publishing Conference on November 10. Learn more on the day – and don’t forget to book your place before Friday (October 14) to take advantage of the discounted earlybird rate.
The First of Many
Thursday, September 29
I have just got home from the first of our BMG Sessions, our relaunched networking event for the PPA’s Business Media Group members.
Judging by the lively Q&A and subsequent hubbub of chat among attendees, the event got off to a good start and I would like to thank the excellent speakers from Farrer and Co for their invaluable advice about the legal ins and outs of Twitter and social networking.
Over the flow of PPA house wine and coffee that followed, perhaps inevitably, we were all there rather late talking about someone called Professor Ian Hargreaves, the authority commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron to chair a review on the UK’s intellectual property and copyright laws. The review was published in May 2011, and makes a handful of recommendations to help “support innovation and promote economic growth in the digital age”.
On the whole I like Hargreaves. He seems determined for the Government to act quickly in developing Britain’s print age copyright and piracy laws for the digital age - something that is rather long overdue in vast areas of our media industry. However, while you would think that most publishers would be lining the streets, cheering and throwing confetti as Hargreaves marches into Milton Park, some are concerned by his views surrounding the area of data mining.
Lots of PPA members have business built around the supply of data, on everything from rainfall levels in Ukraine over the last 25 years to the number of onions produced in France since 1994. Hargreaves has recommended that the UK Government should exclude the act of data mining from copyright, and in some instances even require that it be handed over free on request. But just as the Government would never dream of allowing the requisitioning of drug formulations from pharmaceutical companies, should the same rule not apply to a publisher’s data?
Naturally, the PPA is monitoring the Hargreaves Review very closely and has challenged the Government to maintain its commitment to consult further . If you would like more information on the Hargreaves review or to discuss how the review might affect you, please get in touch.
An opportunity not to be missed
Wednesday, September 14
The wait for Government to announce a formal consultation on the formation of a Public Data Corporation (PDC) has been a long one but we now finally have a commitment from Westminster.
The PPA was quick to take a lead on this issue and our members have come together to develop their vision of a perfect PDC in one of the most high-profile and well-subscribed of our Business Media Group committees. Initially pooled together, anxious of their prospects like lobsters in a tank, the rubber bands are now off and a determined pincer movement is underway to establish what opportunities might be available in the future.
Some background. As regular followers of my blog will know, the Government has decided to open up the data it holds, and even use its vast wealth of data to create commercial opportunities for the publishing industry, and thus help publishers do their part in creating that still elusive economic growth.
However, there is more at stake than just defending the best creative opportunity many of our members have had in years i.e. the monetisation of Government datasets. Our work is even more important because of the changing competitive landscape: amending rights around public data brings the potential for organisations such as Ordnance Survey to change their priorities, take off their wellies and become a state-owned competitor instead. In this situation, the public purse would pay for the OS to go out and pinpoint youth hostels and then the public and industry alike would have to pay again to find out where they are.
There are a huge number of issues to be debated and discussed before we submit the PPA position document in November, and plenty of lobbying will be needed to reinforce this position afterwards. There is still a long and difficult mountain to climb, and, to employ an over-used but entirely appropriate quote from Churchill, this consultation “is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning”.
I would like to invite as many of our members as possible to submit their thoughts on what they think the PDC should look like, and what their concerns about its formation may be, so please do get in touch.
Please also not that this subject will form one of the key sessions at our forthcoming Data &Digital Publishing Conference on November 10, which will be attended by several senior figures from Government and leading open data advocate Professor Nigel Shadbolt.
Social behaviour
Tuesday, August 16
The sense of shock and disbelief felt by most of us as last week's riots played out in real-time across social and 'traditional' media is this week being replaced by reflection and a realisation of the impact of this dramatic, chaotic episode.
Fingers have predictably been pointed at the “feral” youths of today and column inches continue to rage with letters from people (who were certainly not the youth of today) calling for a return of National Service.
The Government has laid blame in part at the door of the social networks, not least of all Twitter, for making it easy for the rioters to communicate and organise. Now, while I disagree with this on the basis that the Storming of the Bastille, The Peasant’s Revolt and Boudicca’s uprising against Roman Britain were some of the most “successful” riots in history, it’s clear that the opportunities presented by the new dimension of social networking are matched by fresh challenges.
Twitter, for example, has presented business publishers with a sharable, short-form content channel that many have been quick to exploit. Equally, however, it has brought with it legal pitfalls and uncertainties. Who owns a tweet? What rights do authors have? What rights do publishers have?
On September 28 at 5pm, the PPA Business Media Group will be running an informal networking session with media lawyers Farrer & Co. to discuss and answer questions about the use of Twitter in journalism. We’ll be paying particular attention to content ownership and copyright issues but will open the session to other relevant Twitter-related topics. Many of you have asked me where you stand on this, so now we have a means of exploring these issues further.
Somewhat ironically, this social-networking focused event on September 28 marks the first in a new series of ‘real-world’ networking forums for B2B members. The BMG Sessions will blend discussion of the hot topics in business publishing with a chance to network with peers (not forgetting the nibbles and wine). We know that while we have important issues to address, it is also great to come together as a sector, share thoughts over a few drinks and find new ways to enjoy being part of our great industry.
Trying to reach higher ground
Wednesday, August 3
With the entry deadline for the Data & Digital Publishing Awards long gone and tickets for the daytime conference now going like the proverbial hot cakes, what has previously been a pretty event-focused blog takes a slightly different angle this week.
Indeed, this blog entry was inspired by the imprisonment of the son of Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, who played his part in disrupting Charles and Camilla’s soiree at the Royal Variety Performance during the student fees protest.
Though Charlie Gilmour’s drug-fuelled decision to swing on the cenotaph has quite rightly meant that he will spent 16 months counting yet another brick in a wall, the student protests in general did make me think about young people and what the future holds for them as they forge their careers in an ever-changing world.
Now, of course, there are many routes into the top business jobs, and these professionals have a spectrum of different qualifications and experience that make them today’s big-hitters. However, it is the case that a large proportion of today’s professional B2B magazine readers are university graduates, and moreover a large portion of tomorrow’s accountants, lawyers, bankers, business managers and directors will be too. They are waiting in the wings, their brains bubbling with ideas, energy and potential business brilliance, and we should make sure that B2B titles become a vital part of their lives and their studies while their reading preferences and habits are still in the formative stages.
For many B2B publishers, selling a significant amount of their product to students and university libraries will represent an exciting new market, for others it will be a case of maximising an existing (though perhaps stifled) revenue stream. Academic librarians have often told me that they would love to have a bigger offering of B2B magazine titles in their libraries. However, the subscription models do not seem to suit them and the multi-user-friendly pricing models of research or academic journals simply do not extend to many of our titles.
This is an important opportunity for B2B publishers as magazines may well be a more efficient way for universities to fill their libraries with useful content in times of shrinking budgets. Similarly, with student fee increases making a degree more of an investment in a future career rather than a lifestyle choice, the importance of gaining a degree relating to a clear professional path and a greater need to learn about their chosen industry during the university years makes it all the more vital for students to be reading our titles. We just need to get them onto their reading lists and into their libraries.
We have lift off
Wednesday, July 20
After several months of careful preparation, today (July 20) marks the official launch of the PPA Data & Digital Publishing Conference 2011.
We’ve decided to hold the event at the Victoria Park Plaza this year, and being that I was in that corner of Central London a few weeks ago, I decided to pop in and take a look around. The venue is fantastic and will make an ideal setting for the day’s discussion of the key issues in data and digital publishing. (For those interested, I can also report that the bar’s not bad either).
In choosing the content for this year’s conference, our primary aim was to give delegates a real sense of the commercial opportunities presented by data and digital media. We want to deliver an event that builds on the success of the DPA Conference, based on compelling content for modern business publishers.
Final details will be confirmed over the next few weeks so make sure you keep up to date with all the latest developments by checking the event website and making sure you’re signed up to our email alerts.
From cookies to shortbread
Wednesday, July 6
I like the theatre, so the other afternoon, I was scouring a well-known website for a cheap return ticket to Edinburgh for the annual Fringe Festival. I got a good price, thanks for asking, but this inconsequential purchase has made it into my blog because it crossed paths with something that I have been working on quite extensively, along with other members of the PPA team.
Ever since scouring thetrainline.com for my return ticket to Edinburgh Waverley, the advertisers seem to know my travel plans. I have had airlines reminding me that I should consider flying to Scotland (they are not aware of the castigation I would get from the PPA’s Head of Environment), ads offering me Scottish hotels, and even restaurants near Holyrood House. I am now waiting with baited breath for ads selling kilts, shortbread fingers, haggis, and historically inaccurate Mel Gibson films.
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines behavioural targeting, or online behavioural advertising (OBA), as the practice of showing relevant ads to users based on their previous web browsing behaviour, such as articles read or websites visited.
For media owners, the purpose and benefits are clear: it helps advertisers optimise ad performance by reaching more relevant users and it aims to enhance a user’s experience by serving them more relevant content. In March 2011, IAB research revealed that 66 per cent of digital advertisers found that behaviourally targeted advertising performed better than other online advertising.
The PPA’s Data Committee is meeting tomorrow to discuss progress on the revised ePrivacy Directive, an amendment to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, which will require companies who use cookies and monitor browsing behaviour to have the consent of the consumer. The PPA is working hard in the interests of its members to make absolutely certain that the industry’s own safeguards can satisfy the directive while ensuring that advertisers can continue to benefit from this important aspect of digital marketing.
I’ll report back on developments from the committee but for more information on this topic download the PPA’s OBA Briefing or contact Head of Public Affairs Mark Burr by email or on 0207 400 7520.
Awards and the Environment
Wednesday, June 22
There is still time to enter the PPA Data & Digital Publishing Awards, which will be presented at the Park Plaza Victoria on November 10. If you think your team has done an amazing job this year, check out the categories on the website and get your entries in.
The winners of last week's PPA Awards will tell you that there is no better feeling than being applauded by your peers for what you have achieved (and winning an award never did anyone’s career any harm!).
Last week also saw the B2C Directories Environment Group come together to discuss the excellent work that our directory publishing members have been doing to reduce the environmental impact of their activities. In fact, they decided to show off slightly and hit all of their targets so, in light of their constant eagerness to improve, the meeting included a decision to come up with some more challenging objectives for the future.
An impressive part of our work means that 98 per cent of local councils now recycle directories. The remaining 2% has the PPA legal team to thank for not being named and shamed here!
p.s. Congratulations to the eagle-eyed among you who spotted the deliberate error in my previous post. Tim Berners-Lee is, of course, credited with inventing the World Wide Web and not the internet. Just keeping you on your toes...
Opportunities in data
Wednesday, June 8
The PPA’s Public Sector Information (PSI) Committee met last week to discuss the latest developments in the lengthy process of opening up government data to us out here in the ‘real’ world.
PSI is a sound and lucrative commercial opportunity for publishers and especially publishers of data - at least it will be if the government listens to the warm wisdom of PPA’s membership.
This process all started, so the story goes, when Gordon Brown had a meeting at Chequers with Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the internet. Anyway, long story short, Berners-Lee told Brown to make all Government-held data, such as that held by the Met Office, Ordnance Survey and the Land Registry, openly available to individuals and organisations.
Because Berners-Lee is a very clever man, Brown agreed. A few months later, the coalition arrives and continues with the plan but on a different level – as a deficit-dousing public corporation. Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, announced the formation of a “Public Data Corporation” (PDC) which would be responsible for holding data, supplying freedom of information, and providing the entity with which commercial deals would be made.
Naturally, if the government wishes to make money from the PDC, the concept needs to be appealing to publishers and entrepreneurs. The PPA’s PSI working group has met several times to discuss what it should look like and how it will best represent the interests of members. We intend to put forward a model of the PDC which will achieve the very best for members and the industry at large.
So, with new data comes a wealth of exciting new opportunities for publishers, but until the PDC is finalised it’s a case of watch this as-yet-undefined space.
And the winner is…
Tuesday, May 14
There won’t be any blubbering acceptance speeches, waspish red-carpet fashion critics or an Elton John after party, but the PPA awards are nevertheless correctly considered to be the ‘Oscars’ of our industry.
It’s a night where our greatest writers, editors and publishers – from both business media and consumer publishing – come together to be recognised by their peers and admired by those who aspire to be the best.
Each category had dozens of entries, then a shortlist, and, on the night of June 15, a winner who will enjoy one of the most memorable nights of their career.
A huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure the entries are all carefully and equally considered, and boy, do the judges take it seriously. With scenes reminiscent of the film Twelve Angry Men - where 12 jurors decide the fate of a man accused of murder - points of view are exchanged, impassioned defences of writing and editing techniques are articulated, and entries stewed over until a final decision is made.
Book your place at www.theppaawards.com to join us at the Grosvenor House Hotel on June 15.
The First Post
Tuesday, May 10
Avid followers of our news pages will be aware that I am now in my third week of working for the PPA. It certainly didn’t take me very long to recognise some of the biggest and most innovative names in the industry that we are lucky enough to have as members, and it didn’t take me long to understand the huge value that PPA membership offers to publishers and information providers.
My position is a new one that has been created to focus solely on our B2B members, so with many areas of my role there are no unfillable shoes to fill and no prodigal predecessor that I need to emulate. There is, however, an unwelcome exception to this: I am going to be the author of this new Business Media Blog. Now of course my apprehension is in no small part due to working alongside the great Jedi-master of the blog, our CEO Barry McIlheney, a natural writer who seems to effortlessly combine extremely interesting and informative content with a mixture of entertaining anecdote and amusing observation.
So what have we got coming up in the B2B area over the next few weeks? Well, we have several committee meetings approaching, and I am particularly eager to get to grips with the group on Public Sector Information (PSI). The Government’s undertaking to use PSI to create a commercial opportunities presents the industry with an exciting but complicated mountain to climb, for which the PPA will be our membership’s trusty Sherpa.
For those that I didn’t meet at our hugely successful conference on May 4, I look forward to speaking with you over the coming days and weeks. If you feel the urge to get in touch and make yourself known to the new boy I would be delighted to hear from you! Just email me by clicking here.