This week, Sally Hampton, Consumer Magazines Publisher at DC Thomson talks about how she manages such a wide range of magazines, the biggest shifts she’s seen in print publishing, and a surprising new growth opportunity for niche Scottish titles. She also explains why she’s so optimistic about the future of magazine media.

In the news round-up the team discuss the Independent’s paid-for subscription model, whether it matters if print audiences don’t follow when newspapers go digital only, Apple foibles, and Comcast’s purchase of Sky. Peter’s view of the Telegraph’s readership is Dickensian.

We’re reading:

In our own words: Esther Kezia Thorpe

My first encounter with Sally Hampton at Magfest was when she featured on a brilliant panel about the future of magazine media the evening before at the kick-off party.

One question that was put to the panel was ‘How optimistic are you about the future of magazine media?’ Sally was the first to say that she was a 10, and believed that both print and digital media had an important role to play for many years yet.

You may not agree with her, but I really enjoyed her reasoning and the insight she provided when I interviewed her the next day for the podcast. She’s certainly got enough experience – with 34 years in the industry and a job which involves overseeing everything from niche Scottish titles to weekly women’s magazines with a much larger reach, she’s under no illusion about the challenges that the industry faces.

But she can also see the opportunities, and her observation that having everyone in the business aware of how the financials work and how to make money is a positive thing was surprising to me, but makes sense. In fact, as she points out, it often brings out a very different kind of creativity.

Maybe I’d be just as optimistic if we could all agree on what magazine media actually is!

 

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