FIPP 09: Personalisation will play role in magazines' future, say experts

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Personalisation will be a key factor in the success of print magazines, a group of industry leaders said yesterday.

Speaking at the FIPP World Magazine Conference, Paul Kurzeja, UK creative director of Redwood publishing , explained how publishers should build on the 'emotional engagement' readers have with magazine brands .

Fellow panellist Andy Cowles, editorial development director for IPC Media, told Journalism.co.uk that his publisher saw an opportunity in offering more personalised print editions for subscribers.

"We know more now about our consumers of our brands through their online activity than ever before. We have a huge amount of data, as does anyone who serves these audiences," said Cowles.

"An opportunity for us will be how to take advantage of what we know about people's habits and their interests, what they like, what they don't like, and how we can reflect that in our paper publishing - particularly for subscribers.

"I don't know how this could be done, but I suspect that there will soon be high speed, inkjet printing techniques that could deliver a unique blend of highly personalised content, alongside the base material of any given issue."

For a subscriber, personalised content could make the rest of the offering more attractive, he added.

"The brand context will have been adjusted to make it more personal, more appealing, but without compromising its integrity in anyway," said Cowles.

"I'm not sure how relevant this approach might be to our mainstream mass market weeklies, but for the more specialist, high-end monthly titles or even weekly titles like Country Life it could be a really exciting opportunity."

At the same event Google's UK managing director, Matt Brittin, advised publishers to look at adapting their content online to meet specific consumer trends.