I'm attending American Business Media's Annual Meeting today. Thought I would share some of the discussions that I've been hearing over the past 24 hours.

1. There has been a shift in the required qualifications for newly hired top editors. In the past, the assumption was that B2B media companies like ours would recruit top print editors to fill their senior editorial positions. Increasingly, media companies are requiring new recruits to show experience not just in print but also online, and to demonstrate a real understanding about what it means to be a "brand content leader" rather than strictly a print editor. Recruiters say this has eliminated people from consideration who in the past would have been desireable new hires, and has opened the field to a new group of people with multi-media/platform experience. (I can't remember the last time we recruited a senior editor from the outside--but if we did, I assume demonstrated multi-platform experience would be required).

2. On the other end of the hiring scale, young journalists are assumed at this point to be able to both write longer stories as required by print, but also create blog entries. Hiring editors who ask for clips expect to see serious stories as well as slightly less formal examples of blog posts. Some discussion around whether young journalists should also have video experience--at this point, consensus is "not yet", since those skills can be learned on the job. (We do a considerable amount of hiring for entry-level journalists. Do we require print and web experience? Maybe one of our editors could share their thoughts below on the skills we need for the new world of media).

3. There was a similar discussion around the hiring of advertising sales people. Print and online sales are rapidly being integrated. Sales people with experience selling both are highly desirable, with many organizations refusing to hire those with only print experience. That means showing a demonstrated facility selling with usage data and a demonstrated creativity in selling print/online packages that are more than just a way to reduce price.

4. Speaking of ad sales, there's been much discussion about target advertising, particularly demographic targeting in online sales. With rates dropping for run-of-network, buy all the eyeballs web advertising, media companies are moving to more targeting using registration data, usage data, and context. Advertisers will pay more to reach a more targeted audience of likely customers. At the very least, that means collecting data when users register for a website, But more sophisticated targeting is being implemented through tracking how a reader uses a site (if they read a lot of stories about litigation, you might want to send them more ads from litigation support vendors). Or even using the context of a particular story to drive what ads are shown on that page.

5. We have entered the age of the data-driven advertiser. Or, as one speaker put it, "Data is the New Creative". Advertising used to be more art than science. Not anymore. Whether we like it or not, we're in the age of Return on Investment, and marketers are insisting on more metrics and more measurability, so they can figure out the cost for every click, lead, prospect and sale. That puts a burden on media companies to collect more of that data and learn how to sell with it.

6. At the same time, there continues to be talk about developing the Marketing Services function--to provide ad agency services to small and midsize advertisers. That means research, market planning, creative development and execution. It also means well-developed and robust marketing databases--to help advertisers reach targeted slices of the audience with soft marketing (eg. research or e-newsletters) and hard marketing (eg specific offers). The consensus is that the marketing database is both the most critical piece of the puzzle and also the hardest to execute well. (That certainly mirrors our experience).

Overall, I'm finding that the ABM group at this annual meeting is realistic about the impact the economy has had and is having on their businesses, but also looking aggressively at building for the future. In that regard, Incisive North America is no different. We're focused on new product development, investment in new technology and, where appropriate, selective hiring. In the last few months I have become more enthusiastic about our prospects as I focus on our project list and the future benefits of all we are doing. I'm pleased that nothing I have heard from my ABM colleagues has dampened my optimism about our future.