Publishers‘ Forum 2015: Driving the successful transformation of publishing through the right strategic decisions

Proudly announcing more and more details about Publishers‘ Forum on April 27 & 28, 2015 in Berlin.

These topics and speakers have been announced earlier today:

At the end of April 2015, the Publishers‘ Forum will illuminate two current, strategic challenges in publishing enterprises:

• Which approaches to financing and which investment tools provide optimal support for innovation strategies in publishing?
• Which specific challenges are making IT decisions play a more and more central role in all strategic processes?

Well-known speakers from leading German and international publishing companies will share insights into their decision-making practices:
The book business is growing in complexity. More and more often, publishers are delivering their content in different media and formats via an increasing array of channels – both via booksellers and direct to the consumer. In the course of this development, Edel transformed itself from a music distributor to a publically traded media company. Timo Steinberg, Edel CFO and COO, will illuminate the specific challenges that accompanied this transformation and the prospects that it opened up for the medium-sized company.

Clearly, there is a varied portfolio of investment strategies available to decision-makers, each applicable to a different undertaking: whether the plan involves organic growth on the basis of the existing company structure, securing new business segments, or acquisitions or strategic partnerships, successful business development demands carefully consideration of the options and models.

On the CEO Day of the Publishers‘ Forum, speakers with a broad range of backgrounds and experience in financing strategies will offer practical orientation with analysis of the market conditions and specific case studies. Aljoscha Walser will analyze various instruments and their fields of application.

The theme „Money and Strategy“ continues on Tuesday with a look at prospects in newly emerging business segments as well as in fundamental waves of innovation which are looming on the horizon. David Worlock of the UK and US-based consulting company, Outsell, highlights how the „Internet of Things“ is rapidly gaining relevance for the media industry.

Afterwards, we turn to innovations and expanded business models which are already successful today. Rüdiger Schmidt will use the example of new production technologies to demonstrate how their reach can extend as far as the conception of books, through the customization of titles for title audiences for example, and how they can generate completely new product ideas. Marcello Vena reports how he equips the entire value chain to handle digital strategies for book and media groups. Revenues from rights and licenses are often neglected and underestimated areas of growth for publishers – so argues Michael Healey from the international perspective of the US-based Copyright Clearance Center. Finally, Nathan Hull uses the example of the Danish flat-rate provider Mofibo to demonstrate how much more innovation is necessary in subscription models than just the conversion of one-off book sales to recurrent revenues.

All these strategies and innovations have a central factor in common: digital technologies are the fulcrum and lever. IT decisions take center stage in almost every strategy.

Don’t miss to be a part of the exciting conversations at Publishers‘ Forum (early bird rates available until February 2, 2015).