#Hailthedrum: Fast Company editor Bob Safian on why the phone in your pocket is his biggest competitor
Bob Safian, editor and managing director at acclaimed business magazine Fast Company, is working hard to get eyes on Fast Co.’s print magazine, website and mobile offering but he is not competing against other media brands out there. Nowadays, Safian is vying for consumer attention from texting, playing games, and watching movies online.
“People often ask about our competitors, but the reality is I compete with you texting, playing games, movies that you watch. Anything that you spend your time on. And there are so many of those options available that you really have to create something distinctive,” he said.
Speaking to The Drum in the back of its Advertising Week Taxi Cab about how he has built a sustainable publishing model, Safain said it takes content and scale and both of these require the publisher to create a distinctive offering.
“There are two things that make a publishing model work regardless of the media. The first is generating compelling content. It sounds simple but there is a tremendous content clutter at the moment where there is more content available for more people in more places that anything else.
“If you do create something distinctive you will aggregate an audience of scale. And that’s the other piece that is required to create a sustainable online business,” he said.
Safian also discussed how native advertising fits into that model.
“Native advertising is a phrase that is used a lot today. Advertising that is integrated or comfortably juxtaposed with editorial has always been talked about. People talk about native more now because the standard advertising sizes on websites are not satisfying,” he explained.
“Often the most effective native advertising we find is content that is alongside content that our own editors are producing.”
In editing a publication which covers the latest developments in technology, Safian has a few thoughts on what we might be seeing in the future. But he doesn’t predict that the nation will be going about their day with a pair of Google Glass.
“Do I think everybody is going to be walking around in three years' time wearing Google Glass? No probably not. I’m not sure that you’ll see me walking the streets with a pair,” he said.
However, Safian didn’t seem to rule it completely out, comparing it to the early days of Twitter when he admitted he “didn’t really get it”, but now is a more regular user of the platform than Facebook.
This is the latest in The Drum’s #Hailthedrum Texi Cab interviews. Click here to view previous videos featuring the likes of broadcaster Krishnan Guru Murthy, ESI commercial director Jon O’Donnell, and CP+B founder Chuck Porter.
The Hail The Drum series was produced in partnership with Hailo and Media Agency Group. The wrap for the taxi was courtesy of Media Agency Group.