The Publishing Business Conference & Expo has announced three Co-Chairs for the 2009 conference: Andrew Brenneman, managing director, Finitiv; David Hetherington, adjunct professor, Pace University’s Graduate School of Book and Magazine Publishing; and John Sateja, executive vice president of Consumer Reports.

In their roles as Co-Chairs, Brenneman, Hetherington and Sateja will work with the staff of Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines, which produce the event, to develop more than 50 conference sessions that will provide book- and magazine-publishing executives with actionable ideas and insights to improve their businesses.

Together, the trio of experts brings many decades of publishing experience to the development of the Publishing Business Conference program.

“We are thrilled to have the participation of Andrew, David and John. Their combined knowledge and contacts are far-reaching in the publishing universe, and their insights and ideas will be a boon to the conference and its attendees,” says Noelle Skodzinski, conference director and editor in chief of Book Business and Publishing Executive. “Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be working tirelessly with them -- leaning on both their experience and their Rolodexes -- to identify great speakers and to develop sessions that are jam-packed with tips and strategies to help drive publishers’ growth, profit and success.”

Brenneman has 20 years of experience leading digital media initiatives in publishing. Most recently, he founded and led The University of Chicago Press’ Digital Media Group. In 2008, he began writing the Digital Directions column for Book Business magazine, offering publishers digital-media insights and strategies.

“Publishers of all stripes will be called upon to fundamentally recast their value to the marketplace, their offerings, and their organizations. Those that are able to understand and execute such changes will remain and thrive. Those that don’t won’t,” says Brenneman. “The current crisis in the macroeconomy further narrows the window of opportunity in which these changes must be made. It is a critical time for publishers and their partners to share their perspectives that will help drive this strategic work.”

Hetherington has more than 25 years of senior management experience with publishers including Simon & Schuster, Reader’s Digest and Wolters Kluwer Health. He most recently served as chief financial officer of Colombia University Press.

“Events like the Publishing Business Conference are always valuable,” Hetherington says, “But in these difficult times, new ideas and new ways of doing business are especially important.”

Sateja oversees all information products at Consumers Union, including Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, the world’s largest publication-based subscription Web site, as well as several other Web sites, newsletters, books, special interest publications, a syndicated television news service, and a mobile phone application. Consumer Reports has more than 7 million combined paid subscribers to its various information products. A former keynote of the show, Sateja brings strong business-management experience and a proven track record of building brands both in print and online.

“I am very honored and excited to be the conference chair for this year’s Publishing Business Conference,” Sateja says. “We are all experiencing historical and tremendous changes in the economy, the political environment, and in our society. All of these changes directly affect our industry and our businesses. Now more than ever, we need to be experts at managing change. This year’s conference will focus on giving you the practical advice and tools that you need to navigate your business in these changing times so that you can experience growth, profits, and success for you business.”

The conference program -- featuring dozens of sessions and scores of expert speakers -- will be announced in the coming weeks. Session topics will address challenges in business management, e-media, audience development, digital, production, manufacturing, workflow, editorial, design, marketing, distribution and more.

Publishing executives interested in speaking at the 2009 Publishing Business Conference & Expo are welcome to contact Matt Steinmetz, conference program editor, at msteinmetz@napco.com or (215) 238-5372.

Matt Steinmetz: Welcome to the first installment of our 2009 Publishing Business Conference & Expo Podcast Series, where we take you behind-the-scenes of the show and interview conference speakers and leading industry executives about the issues and challenges facing publishers today.

I’m Matt Steinmetz, special projects editor with Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines and one of the staffers who works on the conference program.

In our first podcast, we’ll talk to Noelle Skodzinski, editor in chief of Book Business and Publishing Executive and the conference director of the 2009 Publishing Business Conference and Expo.

Thanks for joining us today, Noelle. Can you tell us about any of the changes being implemented for the ‘09 conference?

Noelle Skodzinski: We keep growing, so we have more sessions planned for this year. But, based on feedback from past attendees, we’ve also made some of the sessions longer, so our speakers and attendees could really explore the topics in-depth. We provide so much content that it sometimes is easy to fight to just pack everything in that you can, but this year we’ve really tried to balance that with the time needed to do these important topics justice.

The other big change this year is in our content direction. In the past, we feel we’ve done a great job of examining what’s happening in the industry and providing actual solutions to major challenges our attendees are facing -- such as the rising costs of manufacturing and distribution, evolving workloads and corporate structures and developing sound digital publishing strategies ...

We plan to continue that for sure -- publishers desperately need that practical advice that can help them get through today. But, there are also so many questions about publishing’s future that we need to have one eye on today and one eye on tomorrow. This year’s conference will help prepare our attendees for getting through the current challenges, but also for thriving in the industry’s future. We have a lot of really exciting content planned in that area!

Steinmetz: I’m sure with the state of today’s economy that a lot of companies are being very selective when it comes to travel these days. What about the Publishing Business Conference sets it apart from all the other shows out there today?

Skodzinski: It’s focused on providing how-to information, so executives leave our show armed with practical solutions they can actually apply when they get back to the office.

You know, we’ve all been to a ton of conferences that talk about really interesting topics, but they don’t provide practical advice for being more successful. If you spend money on something today, you need to get a clear return on your investment.

Our goals, as always -- but even more so this year -- are to help publishing executives cut costs, save time, do more with less and just operate more successfully and profitably. The idea being that even if you take home just one or two cost-saving ideas, the conference will more than have paid for itself. And, based on the programming and amazing speakers we have lined up so far, we think attendees are going to leave with 10 or 20 or even more ideas.

Steinmetz: We recently announced the conference’s three Co-Chairs for 2009. Can you talk a little bit about each Chair and how they’ll be working with the conference staff in developing the program this year?

Skodzinski: I’m really excited about this year’s conference chairs. Attendees to the conference are definitely going to benefit from having them involved in creating the programming they’ll see at this year’s show.

Andrew Brenneman, who’s also our columnist for Book Business magazine, is a digital media consultant. We went after him as a conference chair because we felt that he was the best person to help ensure that we provide really cutting-edge information in digital publishing. We don’t want to just look at what’s happening in the publishing industry today, we want to look ahead, to tell our attendees what to expect in the future. Andrew is absolutely brilliant, and he truly thinks outside the box. I think he’s going to make a significant impact on the direction of this year’s Publishing Business Conference & Expo.

David Hetherington’s background complements so well a great deal of our conference programming -- he’s got a ton of really impressive experience in everything from finance to manufacturing and operations at some major publishing companies, like Simon and Schuster Higher-Ed, Reader’s Digest, Lippincott ... plus, he’s just a forward-thinker. He’s an extremely valuable addition to this year’s program.

And last, but far from least, is John Sateja from Consumer Reports. What can I say? He heads one of the most successful publishing organizations in the world. He gave the keynote address at our show two years ago, and I think every publisher can learn something from him and from Consumers Union -- they’ve mastered the concept of must-have content and built a successful revenue model behind it, without advertising.

John has such high-level insights into the challenges that publishers are facing today that we felt really strongly that he was the best choice to help steer the conference programming in the direction in which it needs to go—to help publishers get through this extremely difficult time.

Steinmetz: And, lastly, at this point in the development of the conference program, what’s the one thing you’re most looking forward to at this year’s show?

Skodzinski: At a time when publishing executives and publishing companies are just taking a beating from the economic environment, the changes taking place in media consumption and advertising, and especially from constantly rising manufacturing, distribution and operational costs, we have focused all of our efforts on providing content that will specifically address each of those challenges and help publishing executives better deal with them.

So much of the industry is in need of real guidance right now, and that’s what was behind our conference theme -- the Publishing Business Conference & Expo is truly intended to serve as every publishing executive’s GPS ... a personal guide to growth, profit and success.

We believe that what we’re producing can and will help strengthen businesses, help companies find cost-savings to increase revenues with out-of-the-box ideas to grow their companies, but also, at many companies, just to prevent lay offs ... and that’s what I’m most excited about being able to accomplish this year.

Interview with Noelle Skodzinski, editor in chief of Book Business and Publishing Executive and the conference director of the 2009 Publishing Business Conference and Expo.