"Where Do Magazines Come From" - with Nicolas Brett, Managing Director (MD) of BBC Magazines Worldwide

On Monday 14th May 2012 I attended a seminar entitled "Where Do Magazines Come From" by Nicolas Brett, Managing Director (MD) of BBC Magazines Worldwide.

I took some notes during his presentation. Below are some of the key points and questions I took away.

Can you take a company property and turn it into a magazine?
What is a magazine?
1) the dont disappear
2) companion & friend
3) people feel they own them
4) advisor
5) personal and community

Key Points to take away:
build (what the readers want) and they will come.
build a community around peoples common passions and interest.
set and lead trends. do not follow.

Keep the audience at the heart of everything you do.
Build a brand with international appeal.
Embody that across several channels; print, web, motion, newsletter, social media, podcasts, events, etc.
Define the role each channel will play in embodying the brand playing of each ones strengths


Market Segmentation: Present reader with (illusion of) choice?
same topic/ different viewpoint.

The Problem with children's magazines: (do other publications face same/ similar issues?)
forced to find new audience every few years.
feast and famine because of age group

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At the end of the seminar I approached him to speak about internships of work experience at BBC Magazines and Nicolas was nice enough to give me the contact details of

Having wokred on the student newspaper I can now see more of the strengths of print, digital and online so I plan to learn the following.:
Learn HTML, CSS & javascript
Learn to develop for the iPad, iPhone and Android devices