PPA 2011: McIlheney pledges 'relevance and focus'

McIlheney was introduced by PPA chairman Charles Reed, who welcomed his new deputy chairman Stevie Spring and wished her good luck as his successor.

After thanking a long list of conference sponsors, McIlheney gave his assessment of what the PPA, which recently changed its name from the Periodical Publishers Association to the Professional Publishers Association, stood for.

He said the name change not only reflected the "multi-platform, channel agnostic businesses we have all transformed into", but accentuated the professionalism of the industry.

That professionalism included respecting copyright and paying contributors, McIlheney said, before moving on to reveal the PPA had welcomed the Data Publishing Association back into the fold.

[While in his speech McIlheney referred to the Digital Publishing Association, he later clarified he meant the Data Publishers Association]

As a result, the PPA will hold a digital publishing conference on 10 November.

Summing up the time since he joined the PPA at the beginning of 2010, McIlheney said: "Over the past 12 months we have been working hard to ensure there is real relevance and focus in everything the PPA does."

The key audiences the trade body would engage with were advertisers, government and retailers, he said.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk