PPA Conference: Tim Brooks on the new found optimism for professional publishers

By Arif Durrani, mediaweek.co.uk, Wednesday, 09 May 2012 03:47PM

Tim Brooks, the former managing director of Guardian News & Media, identifies a new sense of optimism setting into the publishing industry, after two years of concern amid sweeping change.

Talking at the PPA Publishing+ conference today (9May), Brooks describes a "more outwardly facing, less hunched, and less worried" feel to the industry.

He urges publishers to seize the initiative and new revenue streams that are opening up, particularly in the world of Tablets, led by Apple’s iPad.

In parting advice for those still concerned about losing readers of their magazines to their own digital editions, he said: "If you don’t cannibalise yourself somebody else is going to eat you… you need to manage that transition."

Watch the second part of this interview, which talks about the "success" of the Mail Online and "the failure" of The Times paywall, here.

Videos produced by Sarah Johnson and Ben Hall. Follow on Twitter: @BRproducers

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk