Welcome to PR Vibes™, created by Calysto Communications to provide you with key insights into the publications and events in the broadcasting, mobile and telecommunications industries. Today, we’re featuring a short interview with Fred Dawson, editor of ScreenPlays. ScreenPlays, through its web portal and print outlets, provides in-depth multimedia coverage of the service strategies, market trends, technologies and innovations in content and applications that are reshaping business models across all segments of the global media and communications marketplace.
To help you better understand ScreenPlays’ focus, we asked Fred to share some of his insights on the publication and on the future of new media and telecommunications in general. Enjoy!
What is the editorial mission of the publication, and how has it evolved?
Our mission from the beginning has been to serve the strategic information needs of senior decision makers who must figure out how to make money off of content and applications that go out to all devices in the marketplace, hence the name ScreenPlays. We launched as a monthly magazine at the beginning of 2006, and our mission has stayed the same since we launched. What has changed is the pace of market development. When we launched, a lot of what we covered was far-fetched, but it’s mainstream now.
We positioned ourselves to cover the whole ecosystem, meaning all players who would have a stake in new business models as IP took over. We provide an in-depth look at technologies and how they work and how they will impact the services and business models of content suppliers and service providers.
At the same time, we serve as a filter for our readers. Everybody is inundated with information, so we pick and choose those things we see as significant. We bring our readers’ attention to those topics and educate them as to why they are significant. We offer a broad, deep understanding of all the technologies that went into making the marketplace what it is today.
What is your vision for the future of ScreenPlays?
We are moving toward more global coverage, so our main strategic goal is to expand our reach. From the marketing services side of what we do, the portal has become the mainstay of our business. Our portal is built on our own proprietary technology, which we put into play to create an environment that is useful and navigable for readers but also allows us to provide unusual services for advertisers. We do a lot of promotional work for our vendors based on our ability to leverage this technology platform. Our vision is to expand our readership and give vendors a longer reach into a much broader marketplace.
Who is the key target audience?
We target senior executives at telcos, cable companies, all of the cable programmers, Hollywood studios, broadcasters, all of those folks — C-level to vice president and senior director levels.
We also draw a broad base of folks in the applications development arena, independent content producers and a wide range of folks from websites who run portals and basically serve the public through entertainment-oriented kinds of websites. There is also a vast audience of technology folks out there who read our products.
What changes has this publication put into place (or plan to put in place) to be more effective?
The portal has been our biggest project. We had an HTML website at the beginning, but two years ago, we began to put into place what you now see as our website. It took a long time, and we continually are refining it, but it is now largely where we want it to be. As we continue to evolve, we will add new bells and whistles.
The most fundamental aspect of the portal consists of microsites where we host specific
collateral that advertisers want to highlight in the form of interviews, slide presentations and product demonstrations. The microsites allow vendors to get significant pieces of collateral in front of an appropriate audience in an immediate way that goes beyond an advertising message. We track traffic thoroughly and report back to clients through automated reporting modules that they can access anytime.
Those microsites are flexible, so when a reader clicks on a story, demo or video, a microsite opens in the right-hand column with information related to that piece. The reader doesn’t have to leave the home page to view that additional information; it comes to them, and when readers click out of that microsite, they are right back where they were.
One of the major aspects about our technology platform is that we display high-quality video instantly, so visitors don’t have to wait for videos to download. Video coverage is important to us. We feature executive interviews, which have become a major driver of traffic and interest to our site in the On Camera section. We also feature a Technology Showcase made up of video demos of interesting technologies, not just those from clients but tidbits we find as we go to conferences.
We send email blasts to 40,000 opt-in users that call attention to substantive information we are hosting at microsites to drive traffic to vendors’ collateral. It’s important that the information on these microsites is not marketing hype but substantive information so that readers can learn something of value to them on those sites.
Those microsites constitute the primary facet of everything we do in serving vendors’ needs. In addition, we provide video recording services to capture collateral and present it in compelling ways. And we support development of other collateral such as slide presentations, webinars, white papers and thought leadership features.
What other special features do you offer, i.e. Webinars/events/podcasts?
Our other piece of business is conferences. We will be producing our fourth conference — the Media Innovations Summit — in the fall at the Directors Guild of America headquarters in Hollywood. It will take place Sept. 27-28.
As part of our expansion, we want to start doing conferences abroad as well. We take a unique approach to our events. We offer tightly managed sessions with a lot of AV support—no serial PowerPoint presentations, but dynamic conversations led by well-versed individuals to create a highly informative and visually impactful event for the audience. The events also have exhibits to go along with the conference.
We don’t have a consistent brand with our conferences yet. The conferences have covered several topics, according to what we think the audience would find meaningful. We have delved into advertising, cable and IPTV. We had a big landmark event called Cable Next at the convention center in Santa Clara, Calif., which was very successful. Because of internal politics, the cable industry does not support any conferences other than two main events in the fall and spring, so we are not allowed to produce Cable Next again.
We also provide webinars and have a template for them, although we haven’t pursued them aggressively.
What is the most popular section of your product family and why?
As someone with a traditional journalism background, it pains me to acknowledge this, but the executive video interviews are the most popular. They are hot right now. I guess people would rather spend 20 minutes watching somebody talk than read. However, we do also have great readership of our articles as well.
What are some of the key topics you plan to cover in the next year?
Certainly right now, we are focused on the impact of mobile broadband on everybody — how mobile broadband is changing everything from how we do business to entertainment. One big game changer that is looming—and already happening in terms of using mobile for entertainment and graphically rich material—is the evolution to 4G. What we have been seeing for the last year and half with the iPhone and its imitators is the tip of the iceberg. The iPad represents another piece of that. In the next generation of mobile, we will see a huge transformation in the marketplace.
Another big item we are following is the emergence of connected TV, the idea of being able to access content directly from the TV through broadband connections, and the effort the consumer electronics manufacturers have made toward making that a viable business model for them as they adjust to not only selling devices but generating recurring revenue. We are impressed with the extent to which they are putting muscle into that. It’s starting to reverberate on Madison Avenue and with programming suppliers. It’s a tiny trickle now, but eventually everybody who buys a TV set will be buying a connected TV set.
Finally, 3D TV, which is something we saw coming and started reporting on some time back, has become more or less mainstream. It appears to be taking over as far as a strategic way for broadcasters to retain audiences. That technology will be a force to be reckoned with in the next couple of years.
What is one thing about ScreenPlays that most people don’t know?
They don’t know the extent of functionality of our marketing support for vendors. Even folks that advertise with us often do not fully appreciate what they can do with what we offer them.
If you weren’t in telecom/new media, what would you be doing?
I would go back to singing and playing my guitar on the road. During moments of utter disappointment in the market, I am prone to thinking about doing that any day.
What was the latest book you read?
I am just finishing up Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, by Gordon S. Wood, a great recounting of the post revolutionary era up to 1812.