The Digital Shift: Challenges & Solutions for Magazine Media

At the FIPP World Congress in Cascais, Portugal on 5 & 6 June 2024, Dan Heffernan, Vice President & Chief Product Manager, interviewed Philippe van Mastrigt, our Director of European Operations and Observer-in- Chief, about the impact of the digital shift on magazine media. Here is a transcription of this well-attended session, lightly edited for clarity. 

Dan: For the past decade, newspapers have been in the spotlight for their digital transformation, from implementing paywalls like The New York Times in 2011, to building digital subscription models in 2016, with a boost during COVID, followed by a recent slowdown. However, magazines haven’t received as much attention. Why is that the case?

Philippe: First, it’s important to understand that the magazine industry’s business cycle has lagged behind that of newspapers. Newspapers saw a decline in print circulation as early as the ’70s and ’80s, whereas magazines had a golden age until the 2000s. While newspapers shifted to digital earlier, magazines stabilized print circulation and didn’t fully embrace digital...

Revenue Diversification for Scholarly Publishing

It is no secret that many publishing markets we serve are seeing declining revenues of traditional product offerings. For example, the newspaper industry in the United States alone has seen 2,800 newspapers disappear in the last 20 years. That was not a typo—2,800! In the business-to-business space, the collapse of advertising revenue continues to threaten well established publishers’ models. And in the scholarly market? Open access is taking its toll along with emerging AI capabilities poised to upend the status quo.

What strategies does AdvantageCS see publishers making to adapt and survive? How is the Advantage platform facilitating those strategies? Looking at the scholarly market can provide an important perspective for one strategy being employed. 

Simply, revenue diversification.

Client Services Leadership Announcements

Time flies, and it's hard to believe we're already halfway through 2024! As always, the software landscape is rapidly evolving, and at AdvantageCS, we are committed to staying ahead of the curve. Our dedication to providing top-notch customer service remains unwavering as we adapt to new releases and enhanced functionalities.

As we venture into the second half of 2024, we are excited to introduce several changes in our Client Services division aimed at empowering our talented business analysts. These adjustments will help AdvantageCS deliver the highest quality projects, client support, and managed services. We’re thrilled to announce two key additions to our Client Services leadership team as part of these adjustments.

First, Molly Mathe has been promoted to Manager of Support Operations. With 23 years of experience across multiple divisions and teams, Molly has been an important part of ACS's success for over two decades. She will continue to provide tier-2 support while taking on a management role to ensure our Support Center delivers swift and accurate responses.

Additionally, Stephanie Kutsomarkos has assumed the Team Lead role for a newly-created team in the Client Services division. Stephanie has a proven track record of successfully leading numerous upgrade projects and has naturally become a trusted "go-to" analyst. In her new role, she will oversee our efforts to deliver successful projects for clients in the many years that follow their implementation of the software.

I’m incredibly excited to see Molly and Stephanie expand their leadership roles within ACS as we continue our commitment to meeting your needs and maintaining our status as your trusted partner. Please join us in congratulating them both!