Magazine Industry needs to preach optimism, says Time Inc. CEO

The CEO of one of the world's largest magazine companies acknowledges that the current downturn in the industry is"more challenging than previous recessions," but Ann Moore of Time Inc. told an industry event that there were many reasons for optimism.

And she said that the magazine industry needs "to start preaching optimism in our businesses and brands."

According to the story in MediaDaily News, she urged executives to use the recession "as an opportunity to right size", to evaluate product mix and pricing strategies and to look hard at efficiencies.

Among the reasons she offered for optimism:

• Traffic -- one of six Americans visit a Time Inc. web site and the newly launched Life.com has seen a rush of visitors
• the old media mix still offers the best return on investment
• there remains a need for trusted editing skills
  

The top executive at Time Inc. did her best to buck up the struggling magazine industry Tuesday, declaring that the business will prosper for decades to come and essentially urging worried executives to stop and smell the roses.

"I'm absolutely sure that the Time Inc. brands I'm working on will be strong long after we're gone," said CEO Ann S. Moore at an industry event.

Even with increasingly frenetic lifestyles and bombardment of media options, she said, "There's still a real human need to tune out our busy lives and read."

Time Inc. saw revenues for its 115 magazines fall 7% to $4.6 billion and post an operating loss last year. Ad dollars dropped 10%, although the unit saw improvement in its digital operations that include People.com and SI.com.

She also suggested that magazine executives needed to look after the business, but also themselves; urging them to get proper sleep and exercise, keep desks clean, listen more, but talk to people rather than rely on email, empower assistants, and manage time better during the day to reclaim family time at night.

And she defiantly called for mass reduction in BlackBerry usage. She said she asked five People magazine editors to examine the obsession with the devices. Among the findings: executives are getting 20,000 emails a year, a figure growing at a 15% annual clip. And through a series of calculations, they reached a conclusion that easing up on the BlackBerrys might free up a full 15 days a year for other pursuits.

She expressed confidence that consumers' current fear of spending is "unsustainable" and that one of the principal injuries to the media ubisness has been auto advertising.

"This panic will subside," she said. "Americans will buy new cars again."