Time Inc global chief executive Joe Ripp has told legacy publishers to stop feeling sorry for themselves, and to work out how to “take a piece” of the new digital, mobile and video media landscape.

Speaking on the second day of the Festival of Media Global 2016 in Rome this morning (20 May), Ripp revealed some of the challenges he has faced since returning to Time, and the ways in which he is trying to refocus the business on new content opportunities.

“This is an incredibly turbulent time in the world of media. I’ve never seen so much change. Traditional media, the question is how do I survive in the future?” said Ripp.

He believes that clients, who themselves are subject to ever-shorter tenures, are beginning to question some of the digital choices they have made in recent years.

“The shelf life of the CMO is shorter than that of a CEO. How do I break through the clutter that has become advertising? Am I breaking through? No one really knows,” he said. “There has been a lot of spend rushing into digital, but people are starting to question if it works for me.”

Describing the near-150 year-old publisher’s new approach to areas including talent, video, brand content and data, Ripp offered a more optimistic view of the future, and insisted audience experts like Time Inc have every opportunity to thrive in the new consumer environment.

“What we are really good at is talking to and engaging consumers, and we can do that in all forms. The opportunity for Time Inc to engage consumers is what we are focused on. We can all say the world is really changing, or we can say the world is changing and ask how we can take our piece of that,” he said.

“This is an old company. We’ve been around for a long time, and the question is how we survive in this new world. We think we have found a path for our growth.”