The bright young things at the Media Federation of Australia's NGEN program recently attended the NGEN Behind the Scenes: Magazine Publishing event. What did they learn? You're about to find out...
I will never forget the first time I watched the movie Suddenly 30, I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but one day I am going to be the editor of a magazine’.
I was always a very aspirational child and something about a 13 year-old girl being transported in time and into the career of her dreams was something incredibly tantalising for me.
A journalism degree and 10 months in advertising later, I found myself sitting in front of the editor of real living and homes at Bauer Media, Deb Bibby; group publisher for health and lifestyle at News Life Media, Nick Smith; and group publisher for fashion and health at Pacific Magazines and all-round legend, Jackie Frank.
As a writer, and lover of all things media and communications, I cannot express to you the joy I felt to be given the opportunity to sit in a room with these three iconic, bright-minded and driven individuals, let alone, be gifted with their invaluable advice.
The NGEN Behind the Scenes: Magazine Publishing session began by Deb, Nick and Jackie being asked how they came into their roles and unsurprisingly all three had untraditional answers.
However, one common thread among all of them was that they began their careers at the bottom-of-the-barrel and were eventually ‘baptised by fire’ to become the leaders they were today.
They never let the fear of not knowing what was to come, dictate their decisions and potentially keep them from a greater opportunity beyond their day-to-day.
Continuing on the point that their publishing journeys began in an untraditional way, Jackie explained that in today’s society ‘traditional roles are completely changing’, urging the crowd and my star-struck self, to know that ‘it is up to the individual to create their own roles’.
This was music to my ears, and a facet of evolving business that I feel my company whole-heartedly supports, nothing can possibly be more inspiring than hearing a beautician-turned-publisher tell you that your career is unequivocally yours for the making.
Of course, with the world at our fingertips daily, it only makes sense that this is the direction we are heading.
Flowing conversation with the audience led Deb, Nick and Jackie to discuss the creative process with the eager group of advertising youngsters and, to Nick Smith’s point, how this process allows publishers to ‘wake up with [their] audience and engage them through the day’.
Deb Dibby expressed her personal addiction to Instagram and how it has become a huge source of content throughout her daily creative discovery. At this moment, a member of the audience asked the panel if they had ever received a brief that they simply could not find a response for, maybe because it didn’t ‘fit’ with the conventions of their magazine.
It was after this question that I received the single most uplifting piece of advice I have been graced with during my very fresh career, the ‘no, but –' ideology.
As Jackie explained to us, ‘no, but –' was to not shut down any opportunity by saying ‘no’ but instead saying ‘no, but have you thought of it this way?’ If I have learnt anything from my 10 months in media buying and planning, it is that in order to make the most of your career you need to be an opportunist and an optimist, greeting every challenge with a big fat ‘let’s do this’ and an even bigger smile.
The expert panel presented us with a lot of food for thought that morning, to correct our thinking (print is not dead), to not be tied up in the detail of your job description, to acknowledge that we are all brands, to understand that data is a proof point but not necessarily the bread-and-butter of the most brilliant ideas, to work hand-in-hand with your publishers, clients and media buying teams to discuss openly the engagement opportunities you can harbour by working together and most importantly, for the next generation of media experts to rid themselves of ‘no’ and consume themselves with ‘yes’.
Thank you, Deb Dibby, Nick Smith, Jackie Frank, our amazing hosts at Bauer Media Group and especially NGEN for giving myself and like-minded individuals the opportunity to step away from the office and engage in forward thinking.
It was truly a morning to be cherished.
By Carley Schad, client communications planner at MediaCom Australia
If you want to read more about magazines, pick up a copy of the 15 May edition of AdNews. You can grab a subscription here or get on iPad instantly here.