Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) Magazine publishers from all over the world gathered in Taipei for an annual conference looking to embrace the opportunities and challenges in Asia of a digital revolution that has taken the industry by storm.
Twenty speakers will make topical speeches to more than 300 participants in the 2007 International Magazine Conference of Taipei (IMCT) , which will be held from Nov. 21-22 on the theme of "Decomposition and Recomposition: Asian Opportunity in the Digital Revolution."
"This is probably a topic in which the government and our readers are not interested, but it's important for a content business like ours because we need to find a new way and a new strategy to survive in an Internet age, " said IMCT chief executive officer Johnny Duann, who is also the publisher of Rock Publications.
"I do believe the business model [of the magazine industry] is changing. And it has to, " said Donald Brown, managing Director of International Magazine Publishing, on the impact of digitalization and the development of the Internet on the industry which has seen its profitability and circulation fall in recent years.
In the past, he said, most advertisement money went to television networks and newspapers with very little going to magazines. Now that the Internet is overshadowing print, the magazine industry is facing an even bigger challenge.
Brown, with over 30 years of experience in the industry, including a career with the well-known Time magazine, is scheduled to address China's impact to the Asia-Pacific region with particularly attention paid to the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Taiwan's magazine industry should try to turn the challenges into opportunities, Duann said, adding that Taiwan should take advantage of the technology and exercise its muscles to the Greater China region.
The keywords to success in publishing are engagement and convergence, Brown said. In the future, advertisers and publishers should be able to use the combination of multiple platforms to capture its audience's attention.