Meet the Speaker: 5 questions for James Hewes

For the first of our “Meet the Speaker” posts for Media Makers Meet (Mx3 Berlin), we spoke to James Hewes, President and CEO of FIPP.

FIPP is the global magazine media association with members including B2B and Special Interest media, media-tech companies and national media associations worldwide.

Media Makers Meet (Mx3 Berlin) takes place on 19-20 October in Berlin, Germany. James will join us to speak about innovation trends in vertical media from around the world and host a few of our other speaker sessions.

See the draft agenda here.
See the speakers so far confirmed here (note: where we have received their photos and biographies).

Mx3 Berlin is organised and hosted by Di5rupt in association with Deutsche Fachpresse, the German Business Media Association, and as local media partner MVFP, the German Free Press Media Association.

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Special Speaker Offer to attend mx3 Berlin

We offer readers of our speaker posts a 20 per cent discount on signing up for the event. You can sign up here to take advantage of the offer.

When registering, use the promotional code “Di5rupt_20” to get the discounted rate (on the page that opens when you click on “Tickets” on the sign-up page, the promo code link is in blue above “General Admission”).

Do note we will strictly limit the audience to around one hundred people to ensure a highly interactive, participatory experience for those in attendance.

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Tell us a little more about yourself.

I’m James Hewes, the CEO of FIPP. I’ve more than 20 years’ experience in media. Apart from my day job, I speak at various conferences worldwide, mainly around the media trends we observe in working with our media owner members.

Tell us about your earlier career.

Having started working in a bank – and realising quickly that it wasn’t for me – I joined the BBC in 2001. I spent a very happy 12 years there running various projects and business areas. I guess the most notable thing I did was to lead the expansion of the Top Gear magazine brand, which we eventually took to more than 40 countries. It gave me an excellent grounding in international publishing, which greatly helps me in my current role.

Tell us about your current role.

I run FIPP, the global trade association for the magazine media industry. Of course, as the industry has evolved, we have expanded beyond just print and now primarily focus on digital business models, sharing examples of best practices from around the world.

The main challenges for B2B and Special Interest media are…

B2B and Special Interest media are really in a great place to take advantage of the diversified business model media businesses need to succeed in the industry. I guess the biggest challenge is prioritising time and resources; it can be daunting trying to fit together all the different pieces of the puzzle. Related to that, there’s the tough but necessary discipline of investing in things that don’t have an immediate pay-off but are vital to future success, such as a first-party data platform.

The main opportunities for B2B and Special interest media are…

The flip side of these industries’ challenges is that the opportunities are immense. Being able to “own” a particular vertical really enables you to develop all the potential revenue streams that derive from that deep knowledge, moving beyond advertising and subscription revenue into areas like consulting, data and education. It seems pretty clear that in the long run, B2B and Special Interest media will emerge as the big winner from the digital transformation journey we’ve been on for the last 25+ years.

Join James and other colleagues in Berlin.

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Special Speaker Offer TO ATTEND Mx3 Berlin

We offer readers of our Meet the Speaker posts a 20 per cent discount on signing up for the event. You can sign up here to take advantage of the offer.

Do note we will strictly limit the audience to around one hundred people to ensure a highly interactive, participatory experience for those in attendance.

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