It is that time of the year when every college and university in the United States calls attention to its graduation exercises and, of course, the graduates.
We see photo after photo of smiling young faces tossing their caps up in the air, free at last (so they think) of studies and responsibility, and out into the adult world, with all its challenges.
For publishers, one of the major challenges is to hook these young adults to their titles. So we see many special offers that, like this one from The Wall Street Journal, congratulates the achievements of the graduates while enticing them to become subscribers. That’s a tall order.
Here is how the offer reads:
Make Your Mark
on the Future.
Prepare for your career with The Wall Street Journal’s trusted insights and advice. Eligible graduating seniors can take advantage of the WSJ Grad Pack, a discounted membership for young professionals.
Only WSJ student members have exclusive access to the WSJ Grad Pack. Activate your student account below before you graduate to guarantee your exclusive rate.
Remember, as a professor at Columbia University, I, too, have just sent my 14 students into the real world last week. Mine are journalism students, mind you, but they don’t read in print, and they consume tons of information but are not in the habit of paying for any of it.
So, it will be interesting to see how effective these marketing campaigns are to attract the Class of 2019.
And, it will be tougher to do so with the Class of 2020, no doubt.
Mario doing a keynote presentation at Newscamp 2018 in Augsburg, Germany
Mario’s speaking engagements
Here are places where I will be taking the message of mobile storytelling in the weeks ahead:
May 25, Milan, Italy, EidosMedia Annual Customer Meeting, Keynote: Mobile First Strategies for Publishers
June 12, NEC Media City, Bergen, Norway, Storytelling workshop for Editors
June 13, Fortellingens kraft 2019, Bergen, Norway, Long form Mobile Storytelling for Writers
July 11, Florida Media Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, Keynote for editors: The mobile first newspaper strategy.
Mario’s weekend rituals…..
Monocle interviews me about what I do on a typical weekend (is there such a thing? Not for someone like me who is seldom in the same location twice. But I gave it my best shot, for what may come as a normal weekend, when I am home in New York! Enjoy.
https://monocle.com/minute/2019/04/27/
Pre-order The Story
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/shop-the-bookstore?olsPage=products%2Fthe-story
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post #3055