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(EDIT: I've made some copyedits so you can actually understand what I'm saying throughout the post. That was a little dicey in some spots! LW)
I'm picking up midstream in the closing session, as Lisa Stone talks with some powerhouse leaders in media - Redbook Editor in Chief Stacy Morrison, Caroline Little from Washingtonpost.com/Newsweek Interactive, iVillage President Debi Fine, and Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience Google. The topic: "Is the Ethos of the Social Media World Changing How We Conduct Business Online and Offline?"
Lisa asked if the "ethos of social media" has changed how we work in teams. The amount of content generated by the team has doubled since she got there, says Stacy from "Redbook" who also adds that as far as hiring goes, she only hires people who will "drink the Kool-Aid with her" - in other words - you have to get it.
Lisa says the metaphor of a "slumber party" used by one panelist for the work environment is different (in a good way!) from any newsroom she's ever worked in.
Mayer from Google says that people there are willing to work flexibly, using different talents and in different roles - different from the hierarchical methods of working that were really based on an "assembly line" mentality.
Debi Fine at iVillage says she has always been a believer in assembling a hybrid team. The reason they are seeing the kind of traction they are at iVillage is because the team is hybrid. People can share tasks and lend their skills to many different aspects of the operation. She says that if you subscribe to the theory that businesses are driven by people and product, your business will move forward.
Lisa asked Caroline Little to speak to bringing in outside talent to her organization. Little says that there is a tendency in the print arm of her company to resist change. She started to see this happening in the online segment as well. Working with more creative (crazy?!?) programmers has been a good boost for the team - working with differences has caused a positive change, although it's not always easy. You need different viewpoints.
Lisa asks how often they are in a reactive mode on a daily basis, versus an innovative mode. Mayer says they are often reactive but it's often a good thing and necessary, due to the changeable nature of the medium (think YouTube). Lisa asked how trusting employees to do "whatever they want" one day a week, which is company policy, is helping. Mayer says it's actually resulting in more and better output. People feel trusted and are more apt to contribute as a result.
Fine says the iVillage work is like "dribbling two thousand balls at the same time." They are constantly trying to weigh what should stay as-is with what should change. Morrison says she is not reactive at all - she plans - just trying to put "Redbook" into the context of what makes sense for women today. She sits there all day long and thinks about women - not technology.
Morrison says she guides her staff with the goal of "creating delight" for her readers - that delight is what brings people back. Little is reactive - again with the goal of contextualizing the user/reader experience.
Lisa entered the audience to take questions. The first question was relative to measurement, and talk turned to budgets. Fine pays much more attention to this at this time than Morrison, who says that relaunches of magazines are now showing some growth in distribution, and as Hearst is a privately owned company, there is not such a focus on the bottom line as yet.
Question from the audience: "Content - what is the future? Who is the key distributor of content?" Are publishers/publications counting on the fact that a consumer will always go directly to sites such as washingtonpost.com, redbook.com, ivillage.com, or will more attention need to be paid to partnerships and portals?
"Findability, the watchword of any business online," Lisa says. Little agrees, saying that navigation and useability even within a site is one of the biggest challenges for her organization.
Lisa says she's reaching content through lots of ways that have nothing to do with the original urls. What do these organizations think?
Morrison says "redbookmag.com" is not easily findable, as a case in point. She feels it will never be a giant. Their previous affiliation with iVillage gave redbook.com a boost but it was not difficult
