My thoughts on the current state of the media industry and where we will see success in the future. Main points: • The Dark Age Is Over: We’re moving beyond the age of disruption. Print is still a viable vehicle for content distribution, and the disruption of digital has only heightened our awareness of that fact. It’s time to move forward powerfully, embracing all of the distribution channels available. • Experimentation Is Our Renaissance: As we enter an age of experimentation, we can be creative with our use of a full content ecosystem that covers the print and digital spectrum. • Media’s Golden Age: What’s in store if we seize our moment? A golden era of communications, where content is driven by unbound access, choice and interaction. Please feel free to comment. You can find me on Twitter at @MNetburn.

1. From Disruption to Experimentation: The Power of Magazines
IDEAlliance PRIMEX EAST Conference Keynote
Malcolm Netburn
Chairman
CDS Global

2. Malcolm Netburn
© 2014 CDS Global.All rights reserved.
July 2014
2
From Disruption to Experimentation: The Power of Magazines
IDEAlliance PRIMEX EAST Conference Keynote
I had the pleasure of speaking at the IDEAlliance PRIMEX EAST Conference on June 19,
2014, where I shared my passionate view on print magazines, digital content and the
bright future of the media industry. Below are my collected remarks from that keynote.
Mark Twain once said, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Who would guess
that, 117 years later, we would still be using that phrase? For years, print has been touted as a
dying medium – a relic of the past stubbornly holding on naively in hopes of a resurgence. And
through it all, we have too often taken the bait. Media professionals lamenting that fate publicly.
And even more glaring, lamenting in the very products where great brands have been forged,
where great relationships with audiences were created.
For many, that train of thought still holds true today: that print is dead – or at least dwindling –
like a wounded caribou on the African savanna. But before we call it time for print to quit, we
need to take a rational, unbiased look at its role in the larger content ecosystem.
We need to look at the facts and not conventional wisdom. Print works. The reality is: print still
plays a major role in content distribution and consumption. The top 25 print magazines reach
more adults and teens than the top 25 regularly scheduled primetime TV shows.i
Readership is
consistent across generations,ii
seeing less fluctuation among age groups than TV, Internet and
radio. And consumers are spending a significant amount of time – 40 minutes on average –
reading each print issue.iii
Its values can’t be overlooked.
Even in this age of disruption, print maintains a powerful place in the ecosystem of content
distribution. The moment we forget that, we endanger the power of content everywhere.
While it would be naive to not recognize the decline in print as new channels have expanded our
ability to reach our audiences, it would be equally negligent to discount it completely.
Digital has an insatiable appetite for content. That is both its strength and its weakness. In its
limitlessness, there is risk of degrading the value of content. Consider other media. How many
times have you clicked through 400 television channels only to realize that there is really nothing
on? There isn’t a lack of channels or programming. There is a lack of great content, of great
quality. In this context, it may be of no surprise that more than 150 print magazine titles have
thrived for more than 50 years; only nine TV programs can say the same.iv
While I am not arguing for print dominance, I am evangelizing the belief that print holds a
critical position in the content ecosystem. It is the nurturer – the basis of many brands, of many
voices. Of experience and trustworthiness and accountability. And it elegantly coexists with
current and emerging digital channels that serve their own purposes of brand extension and
consumer interaction.

3. © 2014 CDS Global.All rights reserved.
Malcolm Netburn
3
July 2014
Magazine brands are respected sources of content, and the magazine itself – ink on paper – has
been and is still the pulsing heart of those brands. That heartbeat, that creative energy, powers
digital as well, creating a healthy ecosystem of interconnectivity. Today, it is also true that a brand
must continue to nurture and change its print format or run the risk of creating an unhealthy,
unstable ecosystem – like an ocean starved for oxygen. Removing or giving up on that printed
word, however, runs the risk of pulling the rug out from underneath the brand itself.
We must ask the question, given the power of brands and the respect that print has garnered for
quality and trustworthiness, would online content be as valuable without it? In many cases, no.
We can’t underestimate the power of print, metrics, circulation and brand power. Of course, we see
early-stage adoption of digital only. Quartz from Atlantic Media is a great example. As a thought
leader in news and political information, Quartz is doing incredibly well in digital. But a good deal
of that success derives from the credibility and discipline that comes from an organization that has
been successfully building its brand value over more than 150 years with The Atlantic Monthly.
The strong, early move toward digital can partially be attributed to the fact that magazine readers,
in general, have proven to be early adopters of technology and new content distribution channels.v
Because of early adoption, though, we are now seeing some declines in digital as consumers have
recognized the value of print within the ecosystem. Digital revenue growth rates slowed slightly in
the past year to 12.6 percent (from 13.7 percent),vi
and digital subscription levels are just starting to
rise again after a strong start followed by a quick decline.vii
While this could change in the future –
I don’t think any of us would claim that print will always and forever be the prevailing medium –
it is hard to picture many valued magazine brands that could exist without the printed magazine.
In the future, digital will be much better and print will be very different (and there will most
definitely be less of it), but I don’t see that in our short-term future. For all the buzz of a digital-
only world, print delivers both the content and financial goods that power the best and largest
magazine brand companies today. And that’s important because it dictates how we charge forward
through the disruption of the past several years and prepare ourselves for a strong, healthy future.
Moving from Disruption to Experimentation and Beyond
Disruption is a term that we have been hearing constantly in our business. Let me be the first to
declare this age of disruption over. You can stick a fork in it – it’s done.
In the age of disruption, common wisdom declared the magazine dead. Specifically, we were told
consumers weren’t reading print magazines anymore. They were obsolete because of their fixed,
non-interactive format. So, the age of disruption has been our Dark Age. And it is now giving
way to become the age of our Renaissance. If I may be so bold, I would like to label it the age of
experimentation. Experimenting in creation of a full content ecosystem, replete with print, Web,
mobile, apps and more – more that are emerging and more that we haven’t yet even conceived.
And if we are bold, if we seize the moment, this is our time. This could be our golden age.

4. © 2014 CDS Global.All rights reserved.
Malcolm Netburn
4
July 2014
In this age of experimentation, content is delivered in flexible, mixed distribution networks that
actually address the many differing and changing needs of our consumers. Our audiences can
seamlessly digest content from one format to another, with technology and tools that help lead
them to more of the content they are interested in. We call that distribution agnostic.
Throughout this magazine revolution, we will also be experimenting with the virtues of the printed
magazine and how we shape content. We are able to do that because we are much more in touch
with how consumers are digesting that content. Magazines are still very influential and serve as
a critical source of the content consumers crave. They continue to be one of the most powerful
mediums for advertising. In fact, print magazines are the most preferred media to look at ads, and
they rank No. 1 in advertising engagement and acceptance.viii
Above all, they can be trusted. Print is more researched, edited and digested, having cooled from
the heat of the moment, presenting details without the stream-of-consciousness chatter that
bombards us on the Web. In most cases, print drives the brand. Like the Ralph Lauren polo shirt, one
of the first pieces of clothing that defined the Ralph Lauren brand, print is the constant, the staple.
The print magazine will remain vital, powerful and valuable. And value always generates money
over time.
But, of course, the age of experimentation is not only about print. It is about the collaboration
of print and digital. To create an accurate map of the magazine experience, we need to drop the
“versus.” It is not print versus digital. Print and digital do not exist at the expense of each other;
they enhance each other. Of all American adults, 91 percent read print or digital magazines,ix
and
the share of total revenue from digital and e-commerce has climbed from 12 percent in 2011 to
24 percent today.x
It goes without saying that this is great news for the content ecosystem and is
a testament to the combined power of print and digital.
Print and digital sit well together. In a balanced ecosystem of content, we enjoy and need to receive
content in multiple channels. It is a balance of mediums where each serves a purpose and helps to
enhance the consumer experience. We don’t need to re-create magazines in digital – the mediums
support one another. So the pendulum, having swung way off into the land of digital, finds itself
looking for the sweet spot. A place where different mediums support, rather than cannibalize,
each other.
Creating a Healthy Content Ecosystem
In the end, it is about coexistence. We need to recognize the vitality of print – the fact that it offers
consumers a trusted experience, and an interactive one at that. We need to recognize that print is
the brand nurturer and an integral part of our content ecosystem.
We need to welcome this age of experimentation – the innovation that it breeds and the rise of
digital that allows us to interact with audiences on new levels. How print and digital can work
together to build strong brands and create unsurpassed content experiences. This is the
challenge – and the hope – of our age. And we need to recognize how we can use standards
and process to add structure to innovation, effectively reaching consumers and measuring success.
Really, it is all of these things together that make for a healthy, vibrant ecosystem.

5. © 2014 CDS Global.All rights reserved.
Malcolm Netburn
5
July 2014
But where do we go from here? If we are entering the age of experimentation – our Renaissance –
what’s next on the horizon?
I believe we will see a golden era of communications. There is a need for consumers to get greater
access to information, and we now have a much more democratic way of obtaining it. In this golden
age, consumers will have much more access, choice and interaction, and that will come in various
channels across the print and digital spectrum.
Where disruption found us lost and pessimistic, questioning our own existence and future, we are
seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The age of experimentation is our opportunity to solidify
our efforts and to engage consumers through a content ecosystem that gives them the information
they want and need across any number of channels and formats. That is why I implore us to go big,
to go bold.
And as we gain ground, we will experience the richness of the new golden age of communications.
i
MPA 2013/2014 Magazine Media Factbook, http://www.magazine.org/node/26924, 12.
ii
Magazine Media Factbook, 8.
iii
Magazine Media Factbook, 13.
iv
Magazine Media Factbook, 84.
v
Magazine Media Factbook, 20.
vi
FOLIO: & CDS Global, State of the Media Industry: Benchmarks & Trending Study Fourth Edition, available July 2014 at
http://www.cds-global.com, 7.
vii
CDS Global, Aggregate Client Data.
viii
Magazine Media Factbook, 16.
ix
Magazine Media Factbook, 7.
x
State of the Media Industry, 11.