Tuesday, February 08, 2005
The Amazing Shrinking Trade Magazine
B2Blog: How to save the shrinking trade magazine
In digging back into the B2Blog, I found another great post, again from the b2b media customer's perspective. As ad pages shrink, folio sizes drop, and editorial wells dry up, trade magazines--and their relevance--are shrinking magically right before the eyes of our customers.
The folks at Circuits Assembly magazine caught B2Blog's eye with a solution, which you should read: More editorial content, and a wider variety, in each issue. But not all of it will be in print--instead, mini-articles in the magazine will point readers to full-length versions on the website, along with additional content, including a home for technical paper abstracts.
Sample grab from B2Blog: 'He [the editor of Circuits Assembly] echoes what I've said is the continuing job of trade publications: "Our role is to act as a filter, screening the noise from what's truly crucial."
So a shout out to a creative b2b editor, who is committed to serving his readers, regardless of folio size.
But I'll continue to address in this blog what I think are the underlying issues here: letting finance instead of audience drive editorial decisions, neglecting to sell advertisers on the core value of b2b media, and so on. If we can fix those, we can fix a lot of things in b2b media.
If we can't fix them, we'd better see how transferable our skills are to, say, selling insurance.
Comments
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In digging back into the B2Blog, I found another great post, again from the b2b media customer's perspective. As ad pages shrink, folio sizes drop, and editorial wells dry up, trade magazines--and their relevance--are shrinking magically right before the eyes of our customers.
The folks at Circuits Assembly magazine caught B2Blog's eye with a solution, which you should read: More editorial content, and a wider variety, in each issue. But not all of it will be in print--instead, mini-articles in the magazine will point readers to full-length versions on the website, along with additional content, including a home for technical paper abstracts.
Sample grab from B2Blog: 'He [the editor of Circuits Assembly] echoes what I've said is the continuing job of trade publications: "Our role is to act as a filter, screening the noise from what's truly crucial."
So a shout out to a creative b2b editor, who is committed to serving his readers, regardless of folio size.
But I'll continue to address in this blog what I think are the underlying issues here: letting finance instead of audience drive editorial decisions, neglecting to sell advertisers on the core value of b2b media, and so on. If we can fix those, we can fix a lot of things in b2b media.
If we can't fix them, we'd better see how transferable our skills are to, say, selling insurance.
