Monday, July 28, 2014
Keeping up with technology changes and picking the winners and losers is no easy task. Twenty five years ago I created my first ad using digital illustration software and today you have movie animation software for the creative arts. I wanted to take this ad out of my portfolio to illustrate the ad’s theme for Software City, that is still appropriate today - “Cut Through the Jungle”. The names may have changed, but the jungle just got thicker. Does anybody remember Lotus 123 the leading spreadsheet software in 1990 or Ami Pro a word processing solution? It seems like a technology software brand can’t last a generation in today’s disposable technology market.

 
While we have been distracted about all the latest tech toys for the reader and all the digital delivery systems that are required. I thought it was time to look at what other technology tools that are available for publishers out there. I made the rounds with all the exhibitors of Magnet 2014 in June. Here is a roundtable of the vendors and their 100 word sales pitch for the people that did not make it to the conference this year.

After reviewing the list, each company has a unique product that I tried to describe in a few words, some overlap with each other in their approach. Before you make a decision just make sure you have measurable objectives before you embark on a technology solution to solve your business needs. Sometimes the old way is still more effective, like cold calling on the phone to personally talk with someone, but technology can help you do it better with more data at your fingertips in today’s just-in-time information society to prepare for the cold call.

I am a firm believer in technology, but I feel that there are limits on how technology can impact your company’s performance. For example, I believe technology cannot make a hockey player a better goal scorer that is a natural creative instinct. Through technology you can track the shooter’s tendencies for defensive strategies so it can help. If you can increase team goals against performance by 2% it can be the difference in winning and losing in professional sports.

There is an argument (Limits To Growth, published in 1972) that there is a limit on how much you can grow no matter how much technology you have and you can witness what is called “Overshoot,” where you have constant growth with finite resource depletion and it all crashes when the resources are depleted. The best example is the North Atlantic Cod fisheries collapse through over fishing and no sustainability strategy. Just like there are a limited number of advertisers, it its hard to grow on a straight line curve if the ad market (eco-system) is volatile or collapses for your market segment.

MagNet 2014 VENDOR ROUNDTABLE

 

Bard Business Solutions Inc.
- Magazine Manager
Product: Magazine database solution 
In dealing with today's markets, it is imperative that your company maintains accurate data on advertisers, rates, publications, contracts/insertion orders, production dockets, production scheduling, articles, subscribers and invoices. The power of this application is derived from the philosophy that you "enter data once and use it many times". The Magazine Manager is developed in FileMaker Pro and runs on both the Mac OS X 10.7 or higher and Windows 7, Windows 8 and iPad OS platforms for a multi-user environment.
Website: www.bardsolutions.com
J. Stephen Bard, info@bardsolutions.com, (416) 410-2273
________________________________________________________________________

 

EquiSoft - Publisher Elements
Product: Magazine Automation Solution
“PublishersElements is specifically designed to help publishers increase their revenues through a set of flexible and integrated web modules including digital/print subscriptions fulfillment and circulation management as well as newsletters administration, e-commerce and multi-platform digital publishing (online, mobile, tablet). PublisherElements easily connects to existing websites and email marketing solutions, so it helps increase web presence in a cost-effective way. By gathering all customer information into a single database, PublisherElements allows publishers to achieve a 360° view of their customers and thus permit to deliver them the right content at the right time. With PublisherElements and Equisoft’s publishing expertise, going digital has never been easier.” Martin Boucher, Product Manager – PublisherElements
Website: www.publisherelements.com  
Camile Diodati, camile.diodati@equisoft.com, (514) 989-3141 x 104
________________________________________________________________________
  
 

GTxcel
Product: Digital Publishing Solution
GTxcel helps thousands of Fortune Companies & Publishers monetize, discover & engage with their digital content; Desktop Web, Tablet Web, Mobile Web & Apps. Typically we work with companies who are frustrated with readability across multiple devices; concerned about the expense of software solutions that take over 40 hours for each device type, screen size and orientation; anxious to get more scale out of their publications by publishing once and getting it everywhere; desktop web, tablet web, mobile web, apps and disappointed in decreasing ad revenues with replica editions and looking to maintain replica while generating new digital revenue stream.
Website: www.gtxcel.com  
Matt McGinty, mmcginty@gtxcel.com, (508) 804-3041
________________________________________________________________________
  
 

Hallmark Data Systems
Product: Reader Behaviour Optimization Software
Engaging, acquiring and connecting the right content, audience and advertiser is Hallmark's mission.  It is Hallmark's industry-leading audience engagement platform; marketing database, digital marketing, fulfillment and more, in combination with industry expertise and rich heritage that sets us apart. With our modular, seamlessly integrated platform, your marketers are directly connected with your audience's behavior, your audience is connected to the content they crave and your advertisers are connected to their prospects. Find out why Hallmark's solutions are chosen by more media owners.  Get started at halldata.com today!
Website: www.halldata.com
Joel Besner, jbesner@halldata.com, (323) 782-6959
________________________________________________________________________

 

MAGwizard
Product: Ad sales management software
MagWizard automates the administrative tasks associated with print and digital advertising. The web-based software allows you to easily collect and organize ad insertion orders (I/Os), ad materials, and payments, eliminating the busywork your team hates and leaving them more time for sales. The thing that sets MagWizard apart from the other publishing software, is our focus on automation. While most software is designed to help you keep track of your daily tasks, Magwizard is designed to automate those tasks. The goal of MagWizard is not just help you track the ad sales process but to do the administrative tasks for you so that you can focus on more important things.
Website: www.magwizard.com
David Averbach, david@magwizard.com, (641) 209-3959 
________________________________________________________________________

 

Marketwired
Product: Social Media Metrics Tracking solution
Partnering with companies of all sizes – from start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises – Marketwired is an innovative communications company offering best-in-class global news distribution and reporting. Powered by social intelligence engine Sysomos, Marketwired products also provide state-of-the-art social media monitoring and analytics. This critical business intelligence delivers instant and unlimited access to all social media conversations, allowing brands to see what’s happening, why it’s happening, and who’s driving the conversations. Serving more than 15,000 clients worldwide through 20 offices on four continents, we help our clients find better ways to create and distribute content, influence the people who matter most, and open up new opportunities. Follow us at @Marketwired 
Website: www.marketwired.com
Tara Tomulka, ttomulka@marketwired.com, (416) 814.2535
________________________________________________________________________

 
MediaRadar
Product: Ad Sales Data Mining solution
MediaRadar helps websites, magazines and newspapers dramatically improve ad sales and client management. The company provides detailed analysis on over 1.9 million brands, with advertising, editorial, and social media insights from more than 8,000 media properties. MediaRadar will give you a competitive advantage by placing the best prospects and most relevant pitching advice onto the desktop of every member of the sales team. “Raw” data is good; information you can use right now is better. MediaRadar makes it happen.
Website: www.mediaradar.com
Paulette Moir, paulette@mediaradar.com, (646) 439-4007
________________________________________________________________________

 

Mirabel Technologies - Magazine Manager
Product: Ad Sales and Digital Production software
The Magazine Manager® is the only web-based software integrating your entire publishing workflow from: CRM, Ad/Order Entry, Production, and invoicing to Online Pagination and Digital &Tablet Edition creation. It’s the industry’s first and most mature web-based platform.  Ideal for companies with multiple offices, offsite employees, and companies wanting to reduce their IT infrastructure costs. Used by over 10,000 magazines, newspapers, websites and events worldwide. For every fifteen licenses of The Magazine Manager®, you can expect to save an average of 43,000 CAD annually.  
Watch our Video.
Website: www.magazinemanager.com
Andy Balch,VP Sales & Marketing abalch@magazinemanager.com, 1-(954) 519-2023  
________________________________________________________________________

 

The LoweMartin Group
Product: Print Production Technologies
In keeping with its vision of helping customers improve the quality of their communications and reduce their overall cost of doing business, the Lowe-Martin Group has focused on introducing technology which makes the printer an extension of the magazine’s production team. Advances in secure file transfer, online proofing and electronic scheduling reduce the lead time in production. Proforma pricing tools allow the magazine’s publishers to calculate costs in real time as they decide on page counts, run lengths and stock selections. Real-time pricing also let the magazine’s sales team calculate costs for advertisers without delay.
Website: www.lmgroup.com
Pamela Falkner, Pam.Falkner@LMGroup.com, (613)741-0962 x3433
About Me
Martin Seto

 
Martin Seto is the producer of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPAS) with 30 years of life expereince in technology, advertising, media and creative exploration. He can be reached at marty(dot)seto(at)
reflexmediasales.com or 416-907-6562, and on LinkedIn.

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Full of terrific information, Thanks!...
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