OPA 10th Annual Summit: Day 1

The first day of sessions at the 10th Annual Online Publishers Association Summit highlighted the fundamental global changes that are impacting the publishing industry.

Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi discussed the economic outlook for the next couple of years in opening comments.

While he says full recovery is a few years away, he is optimistic and predicts that 2012 will be better than 2011, and 2013 will see additional improvement.

Mark indicated that the next big opportunity for US companies is in China, but that products and services must be re-imagined in order to succeed in that very unique and different culture. This holds true for content as well.

Our next speaker Peter Francese, Demographic Trends Analyst for the MetLife Mature Market Institute, noted that the state of the union for publishers is strong, considering how limitless the demand for content has become.

He broke down the various demographics that will be consuming the most content. He focused on both the young–noting that children are starting to access content online at around 5 and 6 years old–and grandparents, of which there are 65 million in the US alone.

For the latter, he said that when users encounter a new life stage, e.g. becoming grandparents or seniors, the need for content that explains the new worldview increases.

Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow and Director of Interactions and Experience Research, Intel Labs, INTEL, spoke next about how Intel uses anthropology to better understand how its products fit into this changing landscape.

She highlighted the fact that the world is not just more connected, but that the US is no longer the center of the web-driven world.

“17% of the world’s Internet users were based in the US in 2010 vs. 65% 10 years ago,” she said.

“You need to be clear about who you are targeting, not just creating a fantasy of who your user is,” Bell said. “It is essential that technology providers and content providers make things that cut through the clutter.”
                 
She highlighted a number of trends that impact the publishing space. For example: the proliferation of devices. While consumers are struggling with what devices are relevant to their lives, they have decided that no one device will do it all.

But not everything is changing; Bell is quick to point out that Americans still watch five times more TV in a month than spend hours on the Internet.

Plenty more to come tomorrow and don’t forget to tune in at 9:15 am ET and 9:50 am ET for the next two live streamed sessions from the summit