Managing Today's News Media : Audience First

The business of journalism is in the midst of massive change. Managing Today’s News Media: Audience First offers practical solutions on how to cope with and adapt to the evolving media landscape. News media experts Samir Husni, Debora Halpern Wenger, and Hank Price introduce a forward-looking framework for understanding why change is occurring and what it means to the business of journalism. Central to this new paradigm is a focus on the audience. The authors introduce "The 4Cs Strategy" to describe how customers, control, choice, and change are all part of a strategy for successful media organizations. Every chapter in the book relates to one or more of these four key principles:

• Customer – Each platform must offer a unique experience to the customer.
• Choice – The audience has more options than ever, and news organizations must work harder to be the preferred choice.
• Control – Sharing power and control with the audience is now a necessary part of running a successful news operation.
• Change – Companies can manage change through adaptation.

Real-world case studies, important theoretical grounding, and a focus on understanding rather than resisting the customer’s desire for choice and control make this an unbeatable resource for students and managers alike who want to succeed in this changed media business landscape.

Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, Ph.D.  is the founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University f Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media. He is also Professor and Hederman Lecturer at the School of Journalism. As Mr. Magazine™ he engages in media consulting and research for the magazine media and publishing industry.

Dr. Husni is the author of the annual Samir Husni’s Guide to New Magazines;  Just Common Sense: Mr. Magazine’s Ideas to Grow and Cultivate Magazine Media ; Magazine Conversations; Magazine Publishing in the 21st Century; Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide for Succeeding in Today’s Marketplace; and Selling Content: The Step-by-Step Art of Packaging Your Own Magazine,. Dr. Husni is also the co-author of Design Your Own Magazine . He is also the editor of The Future of Magazines.

He has presented seminars on trends in magazines and magazine media to the editorial, advertising and sales staff of the magazine groups of the Morris Communications Company, the Finnish media group Sanoma, The South African Media 24 Magazine Group, IOStudio, Hightlights for Children, Inc., Hearst Corp., Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, Meredith Corp., Reader’s Digest Magazine, ESPN the magazine, Sail Magazine, American Airlines Publishing, the National Geographic Society, the Swedish magazine group Bonnier, Southern Progress magazines, New South Publishing, Inc., the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Magazine Editors, MPA: The Association of Magazine Media, Vance Publishing Corporation, the Florida Magazine Association, The Magazine Association of Georgia, the National Society of Black Journalists, the Japanese Magazine Publishers Association, and the American Press Institute.

He is “the country’s leading magazine expert,” according to Forbes ASAP magazine, “the nation’s leading authority on new magazines,” according to min:media industry newsletter; “a world-renowned expert on print journalism” according to CBS News Sunday Morning and The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “the planet’s leading expert on new magazines.”

Dr. Husni has been interviewed by major U.S. and International media on subjects related to the magazine industry. He has been profiled and is regularly quoted in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other newspapers world-wide, as well as the major newsweeklies and a host of trade publications.

He has appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, CNNFN, PBS, and on numerous radio talk shows including National Public Radio’s Morning and Weekend Editions as well as On The Media.

Dr. Husni holds a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Texas.

Debora Halpern Wenger, a veteran journalist and educator, is associate professor and director of undergraduate journalism at the University of Mississippi. She is also a former associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to her academic appointment, she served as assistant news director at WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla. She started her career as a reporter/anchor at KXJB in Fargo, N.D., moved on to producing at WBBH in Ft. Myers, Fla., and WMUR in Manchester, N.H., then became executive producer at WSOC in Charlotte, N.C. Wenger conducts multimedia training in newsrooms across the country and is co-author of the broadcast, online and mobile journalism curricula for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Journalism Training Program. She has been invited to work as visiting faculty for the Poynter Institute. She has a BA from what is now known as Minnesota State University and an MA from University of North Carolina–Charlotte.

Hank Price, is a veteran television executive who has led some of the nation’s most prominent stations including WBBM-TV, the CBS owned station in Chicago, KARE-TV, the Gannett-owned NBC affiliate in Minneapolis/St. Paul, WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, NC and WFMY-TV in Greensboro, NC.  He is currently the President & General Manager of WVTM-TV, the Hearst-owned NBC affiliate in Birmingham, Al.  Since 2000 Price has also been Senior Director of Northwestern University’s Media Management Center where he concentrates on future journalism and business models.  Earlier in his career Price was a national television consultant with Frank N. Magid Associates.  A frequent speaker at industry events, in 2000 Price was named a Fifth Estater by Broadcasting & Cable Magazine for “innovation in television news.”  In 2010 he was given the North Carolina Association of Broadcast’s Distinguished Service Award for “Outstanding contributions to broadcasting.”  That same year he was named a member of University of Southern Mississippi’s Journalism Hall of Fame.