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AMC 2008: Governator, Brand Power, Google Shines Light in Dark Places
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Amy Novak

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California’s famous for bringing sunshine on a cloudy day. And while the clouds over the current economic situation are going to last much longer, the makers of magazines left San Francisco feeling as though things might not be as bad as they seem. After all, as Nina Link put it during Monday’s session, “Magazines have seen it all…and have survived it all.” While the theme for these year’s conference pushed execs to unleash their brand power, speakers also encouraged publishers to think of themselves as something more. “I think a better description of Meredith today is a full-service, fully-integrated communications company,” said Andy Sareyan, EVP, Meredith Publishing Group.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg took a jab at a certain VP candidate while proving that she’s a fan of magazines,“I can even name which ones I read if you ask me to.” When asked WTF is up with the credibility of user- generated content (in reference to the recent CNN iReport/Steve Jobs debacle, Sandberg stated that people are now shifting back to more trusted sources for quality information, “Good content always floats to the top.”

On the award side, The Economist ended up on top of Ad Age’s A-List, while Carol Smith of Elle was awarded Publisher of the Year. Her videoed acceptance speech contained some daring words:” In 2008, we slid into the number two spot. We are knocking on Vogue’s door.” Although min readers predicted that Interview’s “Andy is 80!” cover would walk away with the ASME Cover of the Year honor, Runner’s World’s David Willey presented the award to New York magazine for their March 24, 2008 “Eliot Spitzer’s Brain” cover. Guess mocking his poor judgement was pretty good judgement.

Very interesting was TNYer's Drew Shutte’s interview of Shotime’s CEO Matthew C. Blank and Dexter star Michael C. Hall on their widely successful multi-magazine campaign (click here to see all the covers). Futurist Paul Saffos’ offered his thoughts on where media companies are headed as well by claiming that, “Over the next few years, media companies will be bigger than the biggest ones now. Smaller media is not taking over as every might expect.”

Governor Schwarzenegger had the audience rolling in the aisles and even rolling back some tears with his thoughts on politics at home (“it’s very interesting”) and on saying the wrong thing (“your words get so twisted by the press, sometimes you’re so careful that you end up sounding like a machine.” We all got the Terminator reference). The Guv had great things to say about Obama’s destiny to lead: “When I look at Obama, I see a man who has probably had a clear vision from a very young age that he was meant to lead. Maybe not at the Presidential level, but he has always known that no matter how tough things get, no matter how much you get knocked down, how much you cry, that does not change your destiny.” The Governor went on to say that he relates to Obama because back in his young days in Austria he, “always knew he was going to come to America and be the best at something.”

The days were packed with heavy content but the nights proved to be a bit lighter. The wine and gourmet food tastings on Sunday and Monday nights were exquisite, though they left more than one attendee slipping around the corner late at night to grab a slice down the street. The ferry around Alcatraz was amazing and unlike The New York Post’s Mr. Kelly, I didn’t mind the Kentucky Irish coffee.

The good folks at MPA also sent us out to the Google campus for a day. You can read more about that excursion in the Minsider blog here.