BD recently examined influencer marketing and where it sits in the current media landscape. Now, we’re turning it on its side and looking at the other end of the spectrum, through the lens of Bauer Media Australia and New Zealand CEO, Paul Dykzeul.
An interview with Esprit Magazine reaffirms our predictions that a total 360 - from media to influencers and back to print again - is imminent.
Read on for key insights from the interview – as featured in Esprit March 2018:
'A Conversation with Paul Dykzeul, CEO, Bauer Media' by Andrea Ferrari and Elisabeth King
One of the biggest mistakes many people make is to look at magazines as a single homogenous market. Some areas are under huge pressure but as Roy Morgan Research reported recently, 10 of Australia’s leading 15 magazine titles increased their readership over the past year. As the so-called infobesity overload of social media, podcasts and the growing number of TV channels overwhelms consumers the pendulum is swinging back and there is a growing demand for a finished package.
It’s true that some magazines have been shuttered or lowered their frequencies, but great print publications remain powerful communication tools and the springboard for many platforms and touchpoints, including digital, roadshows, events, books and collaborations. News of print downsizing has been pervasive, but shutdowns and layoffs, difficult as they are, are often the result of innovation and change in the magazine industry. Magazines have always been willing to try new ways to further the connection between major brands and audiences and continue to do so. Many have successfully innovated and adapted to market conditions and this is an under-told narrative amid the hysterical headlines.
Few chief executives in the publishing industry know this better than Paul Dykzeul, CEO of Bauer Media Australasia. A highly respected veteran of Pacific Magazines and ACP Magazines, he was appointed CEO of Bauer Media New Zealand in 2008 before returning to Australia to helm Australia’s largest publishing house as CEO of both markets in June 2017. His core mission is to implement the changes required and strengthen the relevance of some of the most important magazine brands in the country, including the Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, House & Garden and Harper’s Bazaar, to build a viable and profitable future.
I’m not here to manage the status quo is one of Dykzeul’s favourite expressions.
“If you don’t change, you get overtaken. We’re all guilty of allowing the digital revolution to overtake us."
Dykzeul has never wavered in his passionate belief that magazines remain important as the media landscape convulses with change.
“We’re curators of content in an independent way that is really important to audiences which I don’t think influencers and social media can replicate. There’s a great deal of credibility, experience and cut-through that goes into producing a magazine that enables readers to get an authoritative view on how to choose the right face cream, for example, when they are looking for beauty advice”.
Magazines are and have always been important points of engagement with key audiences and I get desperately sad when I read stories about print disappearing, says Dykzeul.
“Advertising revenues have declined, but we have never given up delivering content that readers want. A lot of people still buy car magazines and the leading auto companies love the credibility of our magazines but don’t place enough ads in them. It’s ironic to see a TV ad for a new car with - “As reviewed by Wheels magazine”.
Magazines may not be selling the number of copies they used to sell, but research shows that readership has not followed the same downward trend and engagement has remained stable. Bauer Media is also rapidly growing engaged digital audiences, notes Dykzeul.
“Our digital storytelling has all the relevance, passion and connection of the magazine brands, just curated in a different way and at a different pace. To me, that will be a major main driver of the brands going forward”.
The word influencer might be bandied about more often today but the phenomenon dates back to ancient times and the only thing that’s changed is that technology and speed spread opinions and reviews much faster. It seems to me that anyone can become an instant expert with a click of the finger today, says Dykzeul.
“But just as beauty advisors undergo training and put in an enormous amount of work to become knowledgeable in order for consumers to trust their advice, the people we employ on our magazines have an enormous amount of experience and authority and it shows in the content they produce. I believe there’s a place for independent influencers, but along with traditional methods of influencing. At Bauer, we have a stable of some of the industry’s most sought-after influencers and we are also adept at amplifying the influence of others. One of the great strengths of magazines has always been their deep and long established connections with their audiences”.
Good print is very much alive and well, says Dykzeul. “I’m sick of people talking about the death of the magazine business when it’s still a very profitable business. It’s not the same as it was but show me an industry that hasn’t changed. The business model has changed and we just have to do things differently”.
In a world of insta-images and a growing number of screens to keep track of from smartphones to tablets, there’s still something beautifully tactile about magazines, notes Dykzeul.
“There are thousands of people every week who buy our magazines. They buy them because they are passionately involved and engaged with the content our magazines deliver. Whatever magazine they buy, it’s “theirs”. There’s still an awful lot of people in Australia and around the world who love to sit in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and read a well-written story they can relate to”.
Pass-on readership has always been a subject of debate, but it’s growing adds Dykzeul. “Today’s hair salons and doctors’ waiting rooms have to provide the latest magazines and that’s a huge readership. I regard digital reading as a bit seagull-like."
Dykzeul is known for his direct approach and telling it like it is. “A lot of the criticism of the magazine industry comes from within the media industry itself which I find extraordinary”. He’s right. And he’s also adamant that magazines can still do a lot of things that digital-only players can’t.
Magazine readership facts:
12.47 million Australians aged 14+ - 62.6% of the population - read print magazines
10 of Australia’s 15 leading magazine titles increased their readership in the 12 months to June 2017
5.87 million Australians - 29.5% of the population - read food and entertainment magazines
3.385 million read mass women’s magazines -17% of the population. The category leaders are the Australian Women’s Weekly (1.471 million) and Woman’s Day (1.28 million)
2.933 million Australians read home and garden titles - 17.7% of the population
