TECHNOS

September 8, 2008

Report on National Media Market 2007

Exhibitors

The National Media Market (NMM) was held October 7–11 in Mesa, Arizona. The Market is a showcase of instructional media resources for schools, colleges, and public libraries. Fifty-five exhibitors attended the Market, an increase of 10% over 2006, and the maximum allowed for NMM. (In fact, 11 exhibitors were turned away from this year’s Market.)

The Market represents more than just motion media. More and more, exhibitors are presenting other media resources and services. For the first time this year, a closed caption service agency, Caption Max, presented at the Market. A number of providers offered digital media collections or distribution systems. Seattle Community College Educational Television Services, a partner of AIT, sponsored a presentation about delivery of rich media using online repositories for media and local distribution and management software. Two long-standing exhibitors who offer online library media booking and management systems are now offering to play media-on-demand or order media for delivery seamlessly. The potential for delivering a hard copy DVD to a client or allowing them to download a media file, based on what is easiest and best, all the while keeping track copyright concerns, is now a reality.

AIT attended the market both to showcase our new media resources and to promote the services we provide in creating metadata and correlating content to state curriculum standards. For us, this means that everyone attending the National Media Market—both exhibitors and buyers—were potential clients for AIT.

Buyers

Buyer attendance was down 17% this year, with 130 total buyers in attendance. Thirty-eight buyers were new to the Market this year. Having about a third of the buyers new each year has been a trend in NMM and represents both the turn-over of personnel within the buying agencies and the fast-evolving market for instructional materials. For instance, this year public libraries represented 18% of the total buyer group as public and state libraries move to acquire instructional media to support patron demand for it. Previously, public libraries represented less than 10% of the total buyer group. Educational broadcasters, on the other hand, are dwindling in attendance, reflecting the trend for public television stations to reduce licensing of instructional materials or to move toward alternative services.

An unplanned highlight of the Market for many buyers was an informal discussion about digital transitions, held the second day of the conference. This spontaneous event was planned via NMM’s online wiki discussions that took place in the final weeks before the Market was held. The discussion was scheduled as a 30-minute informal time just prior to time set aside for buyers to screen new materials—but the meeting went on for 90 minutes! Buyers sought the opportunity to network with their peers about the methods available for instituting a systematic district or statewide transition to providing video-on-demand. Some had been through several different video-on-demand services already, and others were just contemplating this transition. There was a lot of expertise to share, and many questions and concerns posed. One state agency observed that they came to the Market to select a digital video-on-deman d service and went home with a whole different outlook and plan to create their own service instead. It proved to be a very valuable and timely event.

Next Year

The National Media Market moves east of the Mississippi in 2008 for the first time in nearly a decade next year. The Market will be held in Lexington, Kentucky, September 22–26, 2008. For more information, see the National Media Market’s Web site.

Reported by Joann Flick, Marketing/Sales professional for AIT, and Secretary of the National Media Market Board of Directors (2006-2009+).