Strategy is to drive revenue by squeezing every penny out of content, AdAge editor says

The Business Media Summit,  hosted by Magazines Canada yesterday in Toronto heard an editor, Jonah Bloom of Advertising Age magazine, spend most of his time talking about how to make money from content. 

Notably, knowing that his audience was almost wholly management from business-to-business magazine publishing companies, he also spent a lot of time talking about ways of maintaining quality while doing more with less. A few things struck me about his presentation. 

• The uptake of many of their new initiatives is relatively small (numbered in the hundreds or a couple of thousand) but that the revenue from even an iPhone app can be very lucrative if handled right.
• He essentially hires editorial staff for attitude and knowledge and trains for journalistic skills, which means he is more likely to search around for someone who knows something about something in the media and marketing world and then trains them to do the things that AdAge needs doing. 
• Despite his own preferences, he is reconciled to the fact that where quite recently three editors might touch a story and refine it, that may be done in future with only one or two and that speed of posting and handling may to a certain extent trump accuracy.
• He takes a very global outlook and sees audiences far outside the US.
• Whatever he does, he is transactionally driven (my words, not his) always thinking about making money from everything the magazine does, in print or online.

I understand that Magazines Canada will be making available a video record of most of his talk. When I know where and when that will be available, I will post something here.