Bad credit where bad credit is due

Now here's the sort of distinction that no company wants. Buried in this piece from the Kansas City Star is the following piece of troubling news: Only "two U.S. companies are rated 'CCC' or lower on CreditWatch with negative implications: Penton Media Inc. and Booth Creek Ski Holdings Inc."
Imagine that! Of the thousands and thousands of companies in this country, only two are viewed with such disdain by Standard & Poor's. To understand what that means, consider this: only one nation on earth has a rating of 'CCC' or lower -- violence-ridden Belize.
Now Penton management has recently expressed some optimism, as reported here by my fellow B2B blogger David Shaw.
But I simply don't share that confidence. No company can grow their way out of the debt-driven disaster that is Penton's balance sheet. Penton, publisher of such titles as "Air Transport World" and "Baking Management," will have to divest properties (the company has already sold off its European holdings.) There are probably some bargains to be had by any acquisition-minded publishers.

New sites for marketers

The woman I love works in the marketing business. And I'm amazed by the amount of B2B material that is aimed at her and her peers. It seems to me that no one receives more attention from B2B publishers than the people who try to get the goods on the shelf.
And now there are two new information sources for marketing executives.
Chief Marketer, a Primedia property, has redesigned its site and added two email newsletters. I'll admit to some disappointment with Chief Marketer. As of today, the site doesn't work properly in the Firefox browser. (Not optimizing for Firefox is a bad idea, as reported here in yet-another site for the marketing business.) Here's how the lead story looks to me in Firefox: "If you�re trying to buy television airtime in the �upfront� sales market this month, you could be in luck. Media buyers at a New York conference predicted that a weak �scatter� market combined with the uncertain economy and mounting pressure among marketers to move ad dollars online"
Also debuting today is VNU's new site about the marketing craze of product placement and other forms of branded entertainment. I'm trilled to note that insidebrandedentertainment.com has a section dedicated to external links. And I'm pleased that it works in both my browsers.

B2B publishers start to catch on

I've done what I could here to try and convince B2B journalists and publishers to pay attention to the citizen journalism movement. I've shared my opinion that bloggers are not the enemy; they are our audience....and they want to talk. I've also shared my prediction that the ease of Internet publishing does pose a competitive threat by enabling almost anyone to enter this industry -- and that the threat is most likely to come from existing staff and sources.
I've often been discouraged. Most of the folks I've talked to in the B2B press in recent months have seemed reflexively angry about, or shockingly unaware of, the changes in our industry.
But today comes two pieces of news that I find encouraging.
First, American Business Media, the trade association for B2B publishers, is launching an RSS feed. Second, ABM has formed a committee on blogging, and put Rex of Rexblog in charge.
I'm just thrilled.
If ABM has recognized that change is here, and decided to embrace the new media and share what it learns, then I expect that heads across the B2B world will soon be pulled from the sand.

The boss doesn't like you, but loves the ad guy

I just read a story in Folio based on a survey of the chief executives of B2B media companies. I found the article sort of disconcerting, although I think it's meant to be optimistic.
The problem...I think...is that I'm just not on the same page as the people surveyed. I find this to be an incredibly exciting time in journalism, particularly in B2B journalism. But the article doesn't mention a single one of the remarkable things that are happening in this game. There's no mention of blogs, no discussion of podcasting, no indications of changes in ad-tracking technology, no arguments about post-objectivity, no conversation about the risks to print products in a multimedia era, etc.
The CEOs do predict a rise in advertising revenue. And certainly that is good news. But the predictions are perhaps too optimistic -- 42% of those surveyed say they expect double-digit revenue growth! And these feel-good forecasts seem to be based on nothing more than feel-good hopefulness. "Asked to identify their sources of new revenue for 2005, 75 percent of respondents said revenue would come from new print advertisers, while 60 percent cited existing print advertisers," according to Folio.
Now as any talented B2B journalist would recognize, that sentence requires a few follow-up questions. If your existing customers are willing to pay more for your products, why haven't you increased your rates already? If there are new, untapped customers available, why have you failed to do business with them to this point?
And therein lies the problem, for the survey also indicates that the CEOs don't much care about talented B2B journalists. "The only priorities that significantly declined from 2004 to 2005 were editorial integrity and staff stability," according to Folio.

ASBPE honors Don Ranly

The American Society of Business Publication Editors, the trade group that represents the journalists of the B2B world, is giving a lifetime achievement award to one of my former teachers from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Don Ranly is probably best known for his promotion of "service journalism." But I'll always remember him for his shockingly white hair. He looks like Andy Warhol would have looked if Warhol had a comb...and a beard. Congratulations Don.

Redesigns for photographer site, finance pub

If my memory serves me correctly, back when I was at CNNfn.com in the early days of the Web, we did our redesigns on Sundays. Since that was the day we had the fewest visitors, we had a cushion should something go wrong, and we could get things fixed by Monday morning.
Perhaps relaunching a site nowadays isn't as risky.
Because in the middle of the business day yesterday, VNU Business announced it had redesigned PDNOnline, a Web publication for professional photographers and buyers. I like the new look -- it's crisp and clean and plays up the photos. Take a look.
After you're done with that site, see if you can find a copy of this week's issue of "The Deal," the B2B publication that serves the mergers and acquisitions world. The paid-subscription weekly has changed its look and moved its columns to the front of the publication.

Covering trade shows with blogs

I've written here before about the plan by Primedia Business to use blogs to cover trade shows, a sort of new-media version of the trade show dailies of old. The project is going nicely, according to this story in Folio.

Journalism students as B2B competitors

I've written here recently about the competitive threat to traditional B2B publishers posed by both readers and staff. In an era when Web publishing means that everyone can buy ink by the barrel, the barriers to entry have disappeared. Any source, any reporter, any person with enough knowledge about the industry you cover is now in a position to cut your market share.
Now this isn't exactly what I was talking about...but it's worth a look.
Students at New York University's journalism program are being asked to cover business news by blogging. There are beats in public relations, finance, health care and other industries.
None of what I've seen there is extraordinarily interesting, but that's not the point.
Rather, I would urge folks in traditional B2B publishing to consider the ease with which these students have become new B2B publishers.
For more information on the project, check out this article by a teacher at NYU, Adam Penenberg.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, conversational media, business media, journalism education

Chicago B2B art war

Who says there's nothing exciting about B2B? Take a look at this story about a feud between Pfingsten Publishing, owner of "Art Business News" and a rival trade show producer in Chicago.

Poor circulation

I try to avoid being snide in this blog. I don't like the jaded tone that I find in much of journalism. And if there is a shortcoming in the blogsphere, it is that this medium seems even more enchanted than the rest of the press with wise-ass cynicism.
So I hope this post doesn't come across as obnoxious.
I've received two invitations this week to the Xtreme Circulation conference sponsored by Circulation Management magazine. And both of them were addressed incorrectly. One was sent to Paul Conley, Editor, Bloomberg. That's an understandable mistake. I was once an editor at Bloomberg News. But the second was sent to Circulation Director, Bloomberg -- a title I have never held.
This sort of thing cannot be good for the Circulation Management brand. These are the guys who are supposed to be the experts on list management and related issues. But their own mailing list has at least one duplicate. And it leaves me wondering if CM has any Bloomberg circulation folks on their list.
Regardless, you may want to check out the conference on June 16-17 in New York City. A number of B2B bigwigs will be speaking, including circulation gurus for Reed Business, CMP Media and the company with the coolest name in the industry -- Blood-Horse Publishing.

The buying and selling craze in B2B

Yesterday's post about the pending sale of my former employer, Primedia Business, generated a fair amount of feedback. Much of it from old friends, comrades, enemies and a few folks I don't quite remember from my time at that company. And I'd describe much of that feedback as a sort of gleeful, vengeful fury.
I guess I was right when I wrote that there are still plenty of "folks left who are still angry" about what went wrong.
Maybe the sale of Primedia Business will let all of us put the past behind us.
Besides, as my fellow B2B blogger David Shaw points out, there are plenty of B2B conglomerates that suffer from the same problems, for the same reasons, as Primedia Business.

Primedia Business for sale

Primedia Business is for sale. That's no surprise to anyone who has watched the B2B publishing unit languish all these years under the staggering debt and staggeringly bad decisions of parent company Primedia. It's certainly no surprise to me. Back when I was vice president of online content at Primedia Business, I predicted almost every day that the unit would be sold. (But that was, perhaps, just wishful thinking. I'd spent too many boring meetings in Primedia's executive dining room, wasted too many days trying to track down high-ranking bigwigs with drinking problems who frequented the bars near corporate headquarters, and listened to far too many imbeciles tell me their theories on journalism.)
So who will buy the B2B giant once known as Intertec?
The obvious choice is Ascend Media, run by former Primedia executive Cam Bishop. That would be the outcome most likely to have folks jumping for joy back in Kansas. Ascend is right down the street from Primedia Business's offices in Johnson County. And there are plenty of Intertec folks left who are still angry over the disrespect they were given by the pretentious New Yorkers who bought the company. I doubt there's a soul in Primedia Business who thought it was good idea when Primedia CEO Tom Rogers decided to let Tim Andrews, and not Cam Bishop, run the B2B unit.
Another former Primedia executive who may buy Primedia Business is Charles McCurdy. But I'll put my money on Cam.
Nonetheless, rather than think about what is next, today is probably a day to contemplate what has...at long last...happened. Now that Tom and Tim are long gone...and much of Intertec has been sold off or closed down...it seems Primedia has decided it's time to end the whole bloody mess.

Billboard gets a facelift

VNU's Billboard magazine is one of those strange breeds in the magazine world. It's clearly a B2B property. But it also has a substantial B2C slant. And Billboard, like similar B2BandC publications such as The Hollywood Reporter or Trains, is available on many newsstands.
Perhaps that's why changes at Billboard are deemed important enough by the folks at the New York Times to merit a feature story.
But don't look to the Times to mention what I find to be the most interesting development at Billboard -- the launch of a B2BandC blog about iPods.

Folio moves to controlled circulation

I just got an email from Red7Media, the folks who recently bought Folio magazine from Primedia. And Red7Media says it is shifting Folio to a controlled-circulation model. I followed the link in the email and renewed my subscription to this bible of the magazine world. Check your email in-box and do the same. If you believe the "Act Now!" tone of the email, then time is short. "...we plan to hold the rate base to its current approximate 9,000 subscribers, we are encouraging our present subscribers to sign up immediately," Red7Media says. "Once the 9,000 is achieved, additional requests will be wait listed."

'Stand alone' journalism and the trade press

There's a fascinating discussion on Jay Rosen's Pressthink blog about Chris Nolan's concept of "stand alone" journalism. In brief, Nolan predicts a rise of high-quality journalists who work without the support of traditional publishers. Blogging software, Nolan says, gives journalists their own means of production, freeing them from the need to sell work through a middleman. That has the potential to create a new subset of the press -- journalists without employers.
I agree that people like Andrew Sullivan can make a living selling general interest news to a general population. But I'll predict here that these new "stand alone" journalists are most likely to come from the specialized business press, where customers will pay high rates for quality information. Trade journalism is already filled with folks such as Ralph Wilson and Richard Brock, who make money publishing specialized B2B newsletters.
I've said here before that traditional B2B publishers need to be aware of the competitive threat posed by their readers. Thousands of people in the B2B audience already have the tools to launch a competitive product -- expertise, sources and publishing software.
Traditional B2B publishers also face a "stand alone" threat from their own editors and reporters. The Web and blogging makes it much easier for someone to strike out on his own, using the sources he met while working for a trade publication, and cashing in on his own reputation as an expert. If you're a trade publisher, look across your newsroom now at that guy. You know the one. He's been there for 20 years. Before that he worked for your competitor. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. He speaks at trade shows, gets all the story tips. He has become, in a very real sense, synonymous with your brand. And ask yourself: what would happen if he left to start his own business?

Another buy by another former Primedia exec

Sometimes it seems that the entire magazine-publishing industry is being bought up by the former executives of my former employer. Now Apprise Media, run by ex-president of Primedia Charles McCurdy, has agreed to purchase Canon Communications. The acquisition of the publisher of such medical-manufacturing titles as "Plastics Machinery and Auxiliaries" is Apprise's first move into B2B.
I send my "good luck" wishes to McCurdy, the guys at Red 7 Media, the team at Ascend Communications and all the rest of the Primedia exiles.
Primedia, on the other hand, is undergoing a "major philosophical shift" and turning its back on acquisitions.

B2B publisher Advanstar makes B2C buy

B2B publisher Advanstar continues its acquisition frenzy. The New York-based parent of "License," "American Salon" and 74 other B2B magazines bought a business-to-consumer property that ties in with some of its business-to-business operations.
Advanstar has purchased off-road.com, a Web site for off-road motorsport enthusiasts, from Rubicon Media. The idea, it seems, is to flesh out Advanstar's off-road group. That unit, which launched last year, contains trade publication "Off-Road Retailer" as well as a consumer mag and a trade show.
As a general rule, I'm a little leery of publishers who dabble in both trade and consumer press. That's what Primedia, one of my old employers, did. Primedia would buy almost anything: gobbling up Intertec B2B magazines, About.com, auction sites, Bacon's and "Teddy Bear and Friends" magazine. And I thought it was a disaster.
But Advanstar seems to be approaching this with a little more sense by choosing B2C properties that are related to its B2B holdings.

Further reorganization at Vance Publishing

One of my former employers, Vance Publishing, has completed the second stage of a companywide reorganization. Vance has merged its Decor and Industrial divisions into a new unit known as the Interiors group, which will house such magazines as "Furniture Style" and "Residential Lighting."
I've blogged here before about Vance's consolidation of its agricultural properties into a new unit based in Lenexa, Kan. This new announcement would seem to lend credence to my theory that Vance is planning on selling part of the company. And as I've said before, I'm betting that Kansas-based Ascend makes an offer for the Lenexa properties soon.

Help with your magazine launch

If you're one of those folks with dreams of launching your own trade magazine, there's a new Web site that claims to have the information you'll need. Magazinelaunch.com is an online resource for entrepreneurs with visions of earning wealth from publishing. The site, complete with chatboards for sharing ideas, is the brainchild of InfoSwell, a California-based company that designs Web sites for magazines.
Magazinelaunch is also a place for "leading vendors and consultants" to connect with professionals and entrepreneurs. There are also opportunities with the site for writers who wish to freelance articles about the magazine business.

Farm Journal buys agricultural TV program

Farm Journal Media, which has been in the B2B publishing business for 128 years, has purchased "U.S. Farm Report -- Town and County Living," the country's oldest agricultural television show, from Tribune Co. The 60-minute, weekly program features news, weather and rural-lifestyle feature segments.
Farm Journal already has agricultural-TV offerings -- "AgDay" and "WeekEnd Marketplace," which air on broadcast stations across the country. "U.S. Farm Report" has carriage deals with the 26 local stations owned by Tribune and its WGN superstation. Those deals will continue on after the sale, making Farm Journal's TV offerings available to almost every rural home in America.
This is a deal that's likely to be looked on favorably by everyone except for DTN, the other giant of agricultural B2B multimedia.

More on Variety layoff(s)

An anonymous reader of this blog wrote to ask for further details about the changes at Variety magazine's website. I reported last week that Variety had laid off "about a half-dozen employees." But I was called to task by Variety.com's Alex Romanelli, who wrote to say that only "one person" had been laid off. But in that email Alex also said "Any freelance work required to produce that content will first be offered to those affected by the recent layoffs." And the use of the plural "layoffs" implied that more than one person was out of work, according to Anonymous.
I asked for a clarification and received another email from Alex. Here's what it said: "Reed Business only employed one staff person for the broadband projects. He was laid off. Other people were utilized on a freelance basis, mostly for actual video shoots (sound, lighting, camera etc) as required." These freelancers, Alex said, "will soon no longer have scheduled work, but all will remain our first choices for the upcoming projects that are lined up."
So it sounds to me that one full-time guy is out of work, and some freelancers will be looking for new assignments. Thanks to Anonymous for asking the question. Thanks to Alex for answering it.

Will Ascend buy Vance?

Folio magazine points out that two of the three B2B publishers owned by Veronis Suhler Stevenson are now for sale. That must leave the folks at Access Intelligence -- the only VSS property in the U.S. that's not on the auction block-- wondering when someone will hang a "For Sale" sign around their neck.
If this stuff interests you, you may want to attend American Business Media's Spring Meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. Cam Bishop, president and CEO of Ascend Media, is on a panel where the topic is "The Merger & Acquisition Front: How aggressive should we be?" Cam has been doing a lot of acquiring of late, and I suppose it's possible he has his eye on something from VSS.
But if you attend the meeting, ask him about my theory that Ascend will soon buy the food publications of Vance Publishing, which have their offices right down the road from Ascend in Johnson County, Kan.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was once senior writer at Vance. And I was once vice president for online content at Primedia Business, where Cam Bishop once ran all B2B operations.

More on Primedia blogs

Prescott Shibles, the smartest guy who ever worked for me, sent an email with more details about Primedia's new blogs. Prescott oversees the new media unit at Primedia Business these days, and he's justifiably proud that the new blogs have already lined up advertising support.
Here's what he has to say about Millimeter's new blog for the National Association of Broadcasters convention.
"It's taking the old "tradeshow daily" and increasing the frequency from once a day to several times an hour. We're hopeful that this can help our editors cover content directly from their notes in an abbreviated format before they go back to their office and work on articles for the next magazine issue. This will improve the coverage, as eds may not have the time to cover everything in the more polished detailed manner that traditional journalism dictates."
Now that's how to take advantage of the instant-publishing capabilities and short-form content style of a blog.
To review, a number of B2B publishers have found ways to expand editorial coverage through blogs. Among the most interesting techniques: using a blog to cover a "micro" beat that can't justify full coverage, i.e. Variety's Bags and Boards and Billboard's PostPlay. Now Primedia is taking the "tradeshow daily" idea and modernizing it. (As an aside, the king of the "tradeshow daily" was Atwood Publishing, which is now owned by Ascend Media. Ascend continues to do events publishing. But as far as I know, Ascend hasn't tried blogging a tradeshow.)
Prescott also points out that Primedia Business has some other blog projects, including this one, which are about to come in-house.

Primedia B2B magazines try blogging

Back when I was vice president for online content at Primedia Business, I remember having an argument with another executive about online links. This guy didn't want the editors of our sites to link to other Web pages without written permission from those sites.
It seems funny now that someone would so misunderstand the very nature of the Web.
But it looks to me as if things haven't changed much at Primedia Business. Some Primedia properties have launched blogs -- a move I applaud (Thanks to RexBlog for pointing out the new properites.) But in at least one case, Primedia is misunderstanding how journalists should approach blogs.
Check out this "blog" from the editor of VideoSystems, for instance, which seems unaware of any information that it doesn't publish itself. There's a similar problem with the Chief Marketer email newsletter, which links only to Primedia sites (Note: I find this less offensive, if no less shortsighted. A newsletter does not imply that it seeks its information outside, whereas a blog by its very nature links to other sources.)
On the other hand, look at the special blog that Millimeter is planning for an upcoming trade show. I love the instant-analysis that blogging can provide, and a trade show is the perfect place to show off that capability. Here's hoping the Millimeter editorial staff does the sort of high-caliber work I expect of them.

Participatory journalism and B2B

It seems the B2C press has really begun to catch on to the potential of participatory journalism. But the B2B press, I fear, is still dragging its feet. I've said here before that I view bloggers and other citizen journalists as our audience more than as our competitors. Certainly the Greensboro News & Record understands that, and now welcomes the give-and-take of participatory journalism. Others in the B2C press are now compensating their citizen journalists.
But when I talk to folks in trade journalism about the need to move away from lecture mode and embrace conversation, I still find considerable hostility about bloggers, podcasters, etc.
So maybe I should put more emphasis on the competitive threat of the citizen journalists. Perhaps that will get more folks to pay attention.
By its very nature, the B2B press caters to a specialized audience of experts. The reader of your typical trade magazine tends to know an enormous amount about the subject at hand. That gives him a nearly instant credibility should he choose to start a blog and compete against you. Trade associations understand this. Large numbers of them have taken advantage of the publishing ease offered by the Internet to share information with their members. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I've worked with a number of trade association email newsletters published through SmartBrief.)
Smart trade magazines are taking action. Broadcasting & Cable has a blog that's open to readers. Variety has a number of blogs that cover niche areas.
How will your publication address the changes in the media world?

Firefox project for a slow day

If there's a slow day in B2B journalism, it's usually a Friday. Lots of weekly publications head to the printer on Thursday nights so that readers will have the product on their desks come Monday.
If today is a slow day for you, here's something to do.
Take a look at this article on the remarkable growth of the Firefox browser. (FULL DISCLOSURE: Back when I was a technology editor at Bloomberg News, I worked with the reporter on this story, Dina Bass.) Then check to make sure that your B2B website works well in Firefox.
MTV launched a new video service yesterday that doesn't support Firefox, and tech-savvy folks aren't pleased.

OhmyNews goes international

OhmyNews, the citizen journalism project based in South Korea, is going international. There's been an English-language version of OhmyNews for quite some time now. And I've been urging journalism students and others to get involved. Now that process is much easier.
Take a look.
It seems to me that the opportunites here are limitless. OhmyNews is growing at a remarkable rate. Yet prestigious beats in business, sports, etc. are wide open.
Back when I was starting out as a journalist, I'd have killed for a chance like that.

More on Variety

Alex Romanelli, editor of Variety.com, wrote to say that my post yesterday reporting that Variety had "laid off about a half-dozen employees who worked on video and sound production for the B2B magazine's website" was incorrect. Only one person lost his job, according to Romanelli.
Here's some of the email:
"Reed Business Information, Variety's parent company, laid off one person as a result of shuttering regular production of its broadband initiative.
We'd appreciate the correction.
Sorry that you found "some pleasure" in someone losing their job. To provide some info, we will continue to produce video content on an editorially specific basis, ie no more weekly production but we continue to cover certain events and/or special reports. Any freelance work required to
produce that content will first be offered to those affected by the recent layoffs."

Layoffs at Variety

A source tells me that Variety has laid off about a half-dozen employees who worked on video and sound production for the B2B magazine's website.
Regular readers of this blog know that Variety is my least favorite B2B site because of its cluttered design, strange taxonomy, etc. And the video section, called Variety Vision, tends to crash my browser as often as it actually plays video.
I'm always sad to see someone lose their job, and I hope that Reed Business has been as kind as is possible during this process. But I'll admit to finding some pleasure in this news. Maybe now someone will do some serious thinking about that site.

Podcasts for B2B

I'm not convinced that podcasting has much of a business future. I certainly don't see it as a major threat to radio (satellite radio, however, may someday deliver the death blow.) I tend to think podcasting's future is more likely to be as a form of personal communication, which puts me in about the same camp as Rex of Rexblog. At the same time, I've been adamant when speaking with journalism students, insisting that they master this new medium as soon as possible. (Students -- especially broadcast communications students -- who can't do podcasts are one of my new pet peeves. I have the same blood-boiling reaction to people who don't write but say they have "always wanted to be a writer." Or to students who say they want to be journalists, but don't blog, work for ohmynews or participate in other citizen journalism ventures.)
I'm a little less adamant about podcasting when speaking with B2B publishers...but perhaps restraint is not appropriate.
I've noted an ever-growing number of business-related podcasts. Someone seems to think there is a market here. And even if podcasts cannot be a revenue driver for a B2B publication, podcasts may be another way to expand the brand, serve customers and add to news-gathering capabilities.

More on custom publishing

I posted some of my concerns about custom publishing a little more than a week ago. And so far I haven't received any complaints from journalists who say they are pressured to write for such products.
I'm relieved.
Given that there may, in fact, be little for me to worry about, I read this piece about B2B custom pubs with little hand-wringing, hair-pulling or other forms of fretful behavior.

VNU discrimination lawsuit

Can this really be true? Can management at VNU's Billboard magazine be this paranoid? this silly? this out-of-touch? this racist?
Take a look at the story in today's New York Daily News that alleges Billboard executives were so worried about lawsuits that they got nervous when employees who were members of minority groups formed friendships.
There are more details here, courtesy of CourtTV.

Another reorganization for Primedia Business

Things are changing once again at one of my former employers, Primedia Business.
The B2B publisher will fold two existing magazines into one in a move that "Folio"magazine warns "runs the risk of opening up opportunities for niche competitors."
Primedia plans to combine "Catalog Age" and "Operations and Fulfillment" into something called "Multichannel Merchant."
Off the top of my head, this doesn't seem like the best idea.
First, I just hate the new name. It's too similar to Reed Business' Multichannel News. More importantly, the name is supposed to evoke the broad business of online and print catalogs, direct mail and telemarketing. But to me it seems sort of bland and unfocused.
Second, I'm always a little wary when a niche publication -- where success comes from having expertise in a small area -- decides to go broader.
I assume the rebranding is part of Primedia Business' larger effort to refocus its marketing publications as part of the Chief Marketer initiative. And I'm generally supportive of that move.
But I have to say I agree with "Folio" on this one. There's considerable risk here.

New boss at Vance Publishing

Vance Publishing -- home of such B2B publications as the Packer newspaper (where I was once senior writer) -- has named Peggy Walker president and chief operating officer.
The move may mark a turning point for Vance.
The family-run company has a tradition of home-growing its top executives. But Walker is an outsider. Most recently she was president and group publisher of the National Underwriter Co. Before that, she was an executive at Putnam Media.
Walker replaces Mike Ross -- a longtime Vance man who moved up through the magazine ranks. Ross replaced Jim Staudt, who started in the circulation department of the Packer. Most interestingly, Walker assumes the title that most insiders assumed would go to Bill O'Neil, who had been with the company since 1976. But O'Neil stepped down a few weeks ago. And people inside Vance tell me he left because he'd been taken out of the running for Ross' job.
As a general rule, one of my favorite things about small B2B publishers is the collegial, supportive environment in which workers can learn and grow. But there's a downside to any closed system: no new blood often means no new ideas.
Given the increasingly competitive nature of publishing in the Internet era, Vance's decision to look outside for inspiration may prove to be an inspired idea.

Hold on to that magazine!

Yesterday I gave some of my arguments for why trade magazines will survive and thrive amid changes in the media. The Magazine Publishers of America association -- no surprise -- thinks that all print mags will endure.
But their argument seems to be that in the future we'll need something "real" to hang on to in our floating bathtubs.

Bad news at Penton

There's bad news at Penton, and it's the sort of thing that can leave folks worried about layoffs. The Cleveland-based publisher of such B2B titles as "Air Transport World" and "Baking Management," said it will restate earnings for all of 2002, 2003 and 2004. The problem involves deferred tax assets. Correcting the errors will cost some $72 million.

On death and dying in the media

One of the more common topics discussed on media blogs is the death of print media. And there's always an argument to be had in predicting that one form of the medium will perish, while another will thrive.
I have my opinions on the subject too. I worry that the newspapers of my youth may not be around by the time my grandchildren are old enough to read. But like my friend Douglas Fisher, I'm not convinced that all is lost. And I tend to feel quite positive about the outlook for community newspapers.
I don't see blogging as a competitive threat to traditional forms of journalism; I see blogging as a long-overdue response by the consumers of traditional journalism. Bloggers are journalism's audience, journalism's partners, journalism's opportunity to understand itself.
I'm fascinated by the spread of citizen journalism into audio, but I don't expect that podcasting will destroy radio.
And I'm least worried about the print versions of B2B media -- which puts me in a different camp from Rafat Ali of Paidcontent, who says his "pessimism is mainly about trade mags."
Here's why I'm optimistic:
First, much of the B2B press has the advantage of controlled circulation. When it's time to cut the media clutter, the free stuff in my mailbox is not where I'll look first. Second, the B2B press publishes (or at least tries to publish) information that is needed. People are less likely to stop reading things that can bring them money than they are to stop reading things that cost them money. Third, trade publishing is about information distribution. Smart publishers will find multiple ways to get information to users and make money from it. B2C publishing is about the "package"-- selling indistinct, commodity-like pieces of information in a single magazine. It's going to be difficult for Vogue or Seventeen to find a way to sell a single piece of content about lipstick directly to readers. But price information, market-share data, competitive analysis -- the cores of B2B information -- can sell with or without the rest of a trade mag.

Publishers' policies on blogs

I've been impressed with how some mainstream newspapers are embracing the participatory journalism movement. The Greensboro News & Record, for example, is generating considerable attention from other mainstream media outlets for its use of blogs and its embrace of transparency. But I have yet to come across a B2B publisher with a similar level of interest in how online journalism is evolving.
Much of the foot-dragging is based in fear, it seems. When I mention blogs to many B2B journalists, I tend to run into a lot of paranoid pontificating about amateurs pontificating in pajamas. I've said it before ... and I suspect I'll say it again ... trade publishers have to look again at the community journalism movement. Those people in pajamas are not your competition, they are your audience. They are not your enemy. They are the key to all your opportunities.
The pajama people are also often your coworkers.
And one specialty publisher has created a set of rules on employee blogging that may prove a workable template for any B2B publisher. The rules are evolving, according to Rexblog, because the company is listening to feedback from bloggers! Check out the most recent version of the rules here.

Custom publishing: growth and ethics

Few things have gotten the business side of trade publishing companies as excited in recent years as the revenue potential from custom publishing. Companies such a Cygnus and Penton have even started separate units to create and market vanity publications for clients.
Now comes word that corporate spending on custom publishing rose 19% last year to $35.5 billion. Certainly that's good news for the bottom line of many a B2B publisher. But it does leave me wondering about the nature of custom publishing, and some of the ethical risks.
I remember there was considerable debate about a decade ago when it was still fairly routine for publishers to ask journalists to write for custom publications. I don't think you'd find a serious journalist anywhere who doesn't have a problem with that. And today I'd be surprised to find anyone other than the most amateur of operations failing to use a separate staff or freelancers to produce custom pubs.
American Business Media's "Editorial Code of Ethics," the latest version of which I blogged about earlier this week, specifically condemns the use of editorial staff "in the preparation of custom publishing."
What I'd like to know is if this is still the issue it was a few years ago. I'd love to hear from any editorial staffers who have been pressured to write for a custom publication, corporate Web site or similar product.

More on transparency in journalism

Shortly after I finished my earlier post about journalism ethics and transparency, I came across an interesting piece about transparency and branding. There's a link at the end of this post, and I'd urge everyone to take a look.
My experience has been that journalists remain too elitist, too enamored of their insider information and connections to appreciate the need for openness. The hidden histories of the mainstream press are widely known among journalists, but not among news consumers. How many Americans know Andrea Mitchell is married to Alan Greenspan? How many folks know NPR congressional reporter Cokie Roberts is the daughter of two members of Congress (a fact that is omitted on her NPR bio.)
I'd argue that the lack of transparency is an even larger problem in trade journalism, particularly in the use of anonymous sources. Few B2B publishers have rigid rules on sourcing. And ABM's ethics guidelines don't discuss the issue. As a result, the B2B world is full of the weakest of all journalism phrases: "according to sources." When I question B2B reporters about that phrase I often find they are being misleading -- using the plural "sources" when they've only talked to one, favored source. And sometimes they aren't talking about sources at all, but instead use the phrase as a sort of catch-all attribution for things that "everyone" knows.
Here's my prediction: the push for transparency in journalism is about to gain strength, but not from journalists, bloggers, academics or Dan Gillmor. This change will be driven by folks on the business side who are eager to protect their brands.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising, newsletters, business media, journalism ethics

Journalism ethics for B2B

American Business Media has released its updated "Editorial Code of Ethics." Nothing in it should be a surprise to anyone who practices the journalism craft. The guidelines are clear, simple and even a little obvious. Nonetheless, I know there are folks out there who balk at ethical behavior, so I'm grateful that ABM has taken the time to publish the code.
Of particular note are the guidelines related to online advertising. The online world is new, and the rules are still being written. As a result there have been more shenanigans on the Web than in print in recent years. ABM is calling for online standards similar to those used in respectable print publications -- clearly labeling advertorial content, keeping editorial content under the control of the editorial department, etc.
ABM also wants online readers to be able to "opt out" of having their information sold to third parties. That's the sort of consumer-oriented move I support, but it's not going to go down well with many circulation departments.
One disappointment is that the guidelines don't mention transparency. Dan Gillmor, who may be the best thinker in journalism today, has suggested transparency as part of a model for the post-objectivity world.
My experience is that the most common form of unethical journalistic behavior involves non-transparency, in which reporters don't fully disclose biases, history (many B2B reporters once worked in the industry they cover) and relationships with sources.
I'd like to think the folks at ABM are thinking about these issues, and perhaps next year's version of the ethics guideline will address them.
In keeping with this idea of full disclosure, let me say this: Among the members of the ABM committee that issued the guidelines are Rama Ramaswami, who I remember as one of the brighter people I met in my time at Primedia Business; Marlys Miller, who is an editor at Vance Publishing, where I once worked; and Whitney Sielaff, publisher of one of my favorite B2B magazines.

VNU Business sells four B2B titles

VNU Business Media is selling four B2B magazines for the retail industry to Chicago-based Ideal Media, a new division of Schofield Media Ltd.
"Retail Merchandiser," "Restaurant Business," "Foodservice Director," and "Beverage World" as well as related trade shows and Web sites are all included in the transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to the press release, editorial staffers won't have to worry about relocation, because the magazines will "be co-located in New York City and Chicago."
The purchase -- at least of the food and drink magazines -- may prove a nice fit. Schofeld already publishes "Food & Drink" magazine in the U.S. and "Food Chain" in Europe.
Schofeld, the U.S. arm of England's Schofield Publishing, has been growing at a rapid pace of late. Last month Schofeld bought "American Executive" and "Health Executive" from RedCoat Publishing.
Given that Schofeld is publisher of "Construction Today" and "Furniture & Interiors," I'd look for more purchases in the homebuilding and furnishings space.

B2B magazine for retailers

My fellow B2B media blogger David Shaw has announced his latest venture -- a B2B magazine for senior retail executives. The publication promises coverage of transportation, logistics and other issues "throughout the retail value chain."
Congratulations to David and his team. I'll look forward to the first issue in May.

B2B video-on-demand service

On days when I can't get to the gym, I'll sometimes use Cablevision's video-on-demand services on my television and take a yoga or Pilates class through "Sportskool" or "MagRack."
The services are essentially instructional videos, usually bearing some sort of consumer magazine title. Yoga Journal, for example, produces classes for video-on-demand.
I've often wondered about the potential for similar B2B services.
And now someone has done it....sort of.
Home and Garden Television, a unit of E.W. Scripps, will produce three-minute videos for professional home builders. But HGTV won't offer the video through cable television. Users can access the product only through the Web at HGTVPro.com.
The videos are proving popular, according to the Associated Press, which says HGTVPro received 380,000 unique visits in its first 19 days of operation -- roughly half the number of the Web site of B2B trade publisher Hanley Wood.

B2B magazine awards and psychology

About 18 years ago, when I was young reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal, I decided I wanted another job. So I took a drive to nearby High Point, N.C., to apply at Furniture Today.
The folks there gave me some sort of psychology exam, which I apparently failed. Because they told me that the test results indicated I wouldn't be happy as part of the FT family.
On the Myers-Briggs test -- my personal favorite among the personality inventory exams -- I'm an ENFJ. That means I'm creative, highly verbal and have a mentoring personality. A lot of ENFJs become writers.
But being an ENFJ apparently wasn't enough for Furniture Today.
Whatever was missing from my personality, I cannot argue with Furniture Today's decision. The magazine has been plenty successful all these years without me.
And today comes word that they are a Neal Award winner for news coverage.
Check out the full list of winners here.

Convergence and reluctant reporters

I had a wonderful time at the College Media Advisers meeting yesterday. I'm the newest member of the professional advisers committee -- which has the redundant-sounding job of advising advisers about trends in journalism.
Of particular note from our gathering was the considerable attention given to convergence in the newsroom. (I'll take a second here to offer my congratulations to my alma mater, which seems to be embracing convergence as the core of its journalism program.) Convergence was also a hot topic when I visited Northwest Missouri State University last week. And what I keep hearing is that students -- the journalists of tomorrow -- aren't crazy about the idea.
It seems that students of today are every bit as delusional as I was when I was a kid, thinking that they are already experts in some particular area of interest, and that there's no need to pick up additional skills.
Certainly convergence is already a reality in the B2B press (and the community press) because the jack-of-all-trades journalist is the mainstay of any low-budget, small-staff operation.
But what I try to get across to students is that convergence and multitasking is also the norm in the mainstream press.
At CNN we had no need of reporters who couldn't record sound bites, or upload video to a Web site. At Bloomberg, reporters carried digital recorders with their notebooks, and everyone was required to be available for television stand-ups.
In the new media environment, journalists are more than just reporters or just photographers or just designers.
And I for one want nothing to do with the prospective employee who would limit his job to some small slice of the industry. Because such a person would ultimately limit my publication.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, conversational media, business media, journalism education

College Media Advisers

Well I guess I did pretty well at the professional advisory committee meeting last week at Northwest Missouri State University. Because someone who was there has invited me to join the advisory committee for the national organization that helps student-run media improve their operations.
I'll be heading over to the Roosevelt Hotel today for lunch and a meeting or two with the members of the College Media Advisers group, which hosts its annual meeting this weekend in New York City.
The hotel is about an hour from my home by subway...so I hope that gives me enough time to come up with something intelligent to say.
If anyone else says anything intelligent, I'll make sure to talk about it on this blog.

Magazine launch by Sosland

I did pick up one actual piece of B2B journalism news during my week in Kansas City. Sosland Publishing has launched a new, biweekly publication called "Food Business News."
Sosland, the 83-year-old publisher with offices in the Kansas City Board of Trade, is best known as the owner of Milling & Baking News. Sosland's latest venture reaches a bit beyond its traditional coverage of grain-based food companies, as the company tries to reach executives "throughout the food processing industry."
In some ways, Sosland is the archetype of a trade publisher. It's a family-run business (the last name of the top three executives on Food Business News' masthead is Sosland.) The company has its roots in the industry it covers, not in journalism. And Sosland is tied to the community where it's based -- funding charities and maintaining a positive corporate reputation in a small community while remaining invisible at the national level.
But despite the sort of old-fashioned feel of Sosland, it's a remarkably modern and professional company. The editors produce clean copy that's mostly free of the industry jargon and boosterism that plague many B2B publishers.
Also of note is that unlike many of its trade journalism brethren, Sosland seems at ease in the online world. The company's Web sites are crisp; Navigation is simple and intuitive. Even the print version of Food Business News seems to be a creature of new media: the front page features brushed-metal coloring and has a table of contents that resembles left-hand navigation.
So imagine my disappointment to find that Sosland named its new magazine Food Business News without buying the domain name foodbusinessnews.com. That URL will take you to a site from the World News portal. To see Sosland's magazine, you'll have to visit foodbusinessnews.net.

State of the News Media, part 2

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the "State of the News Media" report is its suggestion that the mainstream media seems ill-equipped to deal with the changes brought by blogs, RSS feeds, etc. There are "signs of frustration, lack of innovation and the caution of the old media applied to the new," the report says.
After my trip last week to the Midwest, I'll admit I share the report's concern.
It seems to me that too much of the media simply won't look at what is happening. Media folk, strangely enough, have managed to cut themselves off from information about new media.
At the conference at Northwest Missouri State, I met broadcasters who had never heard of podcasting; talked with advertising executives who weren't familiar with craigslist; and lunched with journalists who had never read any of the world's 7.8 million blogs, hadn't heard of Dan Gillmor, and were unaware of the ongoing argument that objectivity should be replaced with transparency.
That's akin to meeting a group of petroleum executives who had never heard of the Exxon Valdez. Certainly there's room for debate on these issues. But how can anyone at this date be unaware that the debate has begun?

State of the News Media -- be more like B2B press

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has released its 600-page, navel-gazing opus: "The State of the News Media." If you don't have time to read the entire report, at least glance through the "Five Major Trends" section in the overview.
The report suggests that the blogging phenomenon demands a new breed of specialist expert replace the generalist journalist in the typical newsroom. Such a move, the report says, would help journalists "inoculate their work from the rapid citizen review that increasingly will occur online and elsewhere."
I hope that is not meant to imply that the solution to the woes of the elitist press is more elitism.
Instead, I'd like to think the report is suggesting that mainstream journalists become more like trade journalists. Those of us in the trade press have long accepted that our role is less about "explaining" or "gatekeeping" than it is about engaging in an informed conversation among peers.
Good B2B journalism is about dialog, and dialog is a natural function of reporting in a world where sources, reporters and readers are equals.

Goin' to Kansas City. Kansas City here I come

I'll be in Kansas City for a week to visit friends, former coworkers and business associates. I'll also be visiting the campus of Northwest Missouri State University. It's time for the annual meeting of the Department of Mass Communications' professional advisory committee, of which I'm a member. With some luck, I'll pick up a few interesting tidbits to share on this blog.
While I'm away, I won't be updating this site.
So I'm going to ask everyone in the trade journalism world .... if it's not too much trouble ... don't do anything interesting until I get back.

Two ideas for design

I'm not a design person. I'm not even particularly visual.
But I know what I like in design.
Two new items (I'm not sure what to call them...design systems? design concepts?) have emerged in the past few days. And they have captured my attention, if not my heart.
First, is the EmPRINT project from my alma mater, the journalism school at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I'm afraid I tend to agree with Adrian Holovaty, who dismisses the project as a "glorified PDF file." Nonetheless, I'm trying to keep an open mind and have signed up to participate in the field test.
Second is the print version of the April issue of The Atlantic Monthly, which is using a sort of Web-era, footnotes-like, text-can-be-like-hypertext format in its cover story. The writer is David Foster Wallace, the author whose work is most likely to be described as "sprawling." So footnotes of some sort are to be expected.
I'm not as excited by this as my fellow B2B blogger David Shaw. I find Wallace pompous and exhausting -- and my first reaction to the layout of Atlantic article is annoyance. But it's worth a look. If you don't have a subscription, visit this discussion about the future of books and click on the graphic for a peek.

Billboard, blogs and iPods

VNU's Billboard magazine has decided to cover the digital-music industry through a blog. That may prove a wise move as sales of Apple's iPods continue to rise, and as people increasingly look beyond conventional media in the search for information.
But what's most interesting to me about the blog is that it won't be run by Billboard's editorial staff. But before anyone begins to panic that the blog will be some sort of advertorial hybrid that blurs the lines, take a look at this article. B2B magazine is reporting that my friend Rafat Ali, editor of paidcontent.org, will "direct" the blog, which is known as Billboard PostPlay.
Rafat is a quality journalist with considerable expertise, and his hire will certainly mean that VNU will get superb coverage of the industry.
Let's just hope this new assignment doesn't keep Rafat from updating paidcontent -- one of the most valuable sites in the B2B world.

Email newsletter about email newsletters

Direct, a B2B publication that covers the direct-marketing industry, has launched an email newsletter about the email newsletter business. In an article on the Direct website, editorial director Ray Schultz says the idea was born in an argument about appropriate story length for an electronic publication.
I got a kick out of that for several reasons. First, I remember having a similar conversation (I wouldn't call it an argument) with Ray and some of his staff when I was at PrimediaBusiness and online newsletters were still a novelty. Second, Ray says his recent argument -- in which he came to a new understanding of electronic journalism -- was with PrimediaBusiness' new media department. That "department" is really just a handful of folks guided by Prescott Shibles, who used to work for me. So I'm thrilled to see that Prescott is still fighting for quality work online.
FULL DISCLOSURE: The newsletter and some related projects -- all of which will soon move to the "Chief Marketer" brand -- are being developed under the guidance of Hershel Sarbin, the former president of Ziff-Davis and former CEO of Cowles Business Media. I've consulted with Hershel on his work with PrimediaBusiness and hope to expand that relationship.

Quark vs. InDesign

If you've spent much time in B2B publishing, you've already decided whether you prefer Quark's QuarkXPress or Adobe's InDesign for your layout work.
But you may still want to read this piece in the Denver Post, which outlines the history of Quark and pays particular attention to the company's history of customer-service shortcomings.
Wondering where I stand in the debate?
I have both InDesign and Xpress on my computer. But I tend to be a creature of habit. And the design software I use most often is the nearly prehistoric PageMaker.

Trade pubs for the rag trade

B2B publications in the apparel space seem to be hot, presumably because changes in global trade laws are creating opportunities for clothing entrepreneurs.
Global Sources, which publishes newsletters about the industry, says it will launch "Garments & Textiles" magazine and a related website by summer. The products will serve apparel manufacturers and related businesses, primarily those that do business in China and India.
And Edgell Communications announced it bought "Apparel" magazine from VNU for an undisclosed amount. "Apparel" is an old-timer in the clothing and trade-magazine worlds. Originally titled "Bobbin," the publication entered the world the same year I did -- 1959.
But new and old publications alike must compete against the giant of rag-trade trade pubs: "Women's Wear Daily." No one else has the influence of WWD. No one else has the staff and stringer network to produce the detailed news and gorgeous photos that are the hallmark of WWD.
And WWD has the advantage of having Rich Rosen as managing editor. Rich is a friend of mine, a talented journalist and yet another of my fellow refugees from Bloomberg News.

Thomson Media changes its name

Thomson Media -- parent of such B2B publications as "The Bond Buyer," "National Mortgage News," and "Accounting Today" -- is changing its name. Henceforth, and presumably forevermore, Thomson will be known as SourceMedia.
As rebranding efforts go, I suppose this is a sensible one. The Thomson name is confusing. There's a Thomson Publications, there's Thomson the "world's leading information resource," there's also a DC Thomson Publications and god-only-knows-what-else.
Let's just hope that no one confuses SourceMedia with Primedia or The Source magazine.

Outsider at Crain's didn't fit in

When Jeff Bailey resigned as editor of Crain's Chicago Business last week, I didn't think it was relevant to this blog. Although Crain owns a ton of B2B properties, the publication Bailey helmed was part of a different, although related world -- business magazines for consumers.
But an article in the Chicago Tribune made me rethink my position. According to the Tribune, part of Bailey's problem appears to be that he alienated his staff. Editorial employees were working "longer hours" to keep up with Bailey, a former Wall Street Journal staffer who was at his desk early, late and on weekends.
Bailey was a departure for Crain -- an outsider, rather than someone who rose through the ranks of the company. And it seems that Bailey brought with him the sort of obsessive, striving, money-oriented, worker-loathing style of big media.
I've done my time in big media. I've worked at CNN, Primedia and the mother of all unpleasant newsrooms -- Bloomberg. And I learned to dislike the people who do well in those environments -- sycophants, weaklings, manipulators and ego-crazed moguls. One of the things I love about B2B publishing -- one of the things that has brought me back to this world time and time again -- is that the smaller, often family-owned companies that dominate the field don't see a conflict between success and their workers' happiness.
And so I'm pleased to see that a B2B company has seemingly turned its back on the win-at- all-costs style of big media.

Primedia earnings rise, but not for B2B

Primedia says its net earnings rose to $13.5 million in the fourth quarter from $9 million a year earlier. The company gives the credit to its "enthusiast" unit, which includes magazines such as "Snowboarder" and "In-Fisherman."
But if you exclude earnings from the company's About unit, which it has agreed to sell to the N.Y. Times, then things look a little different -- revenue for all of 2004 is essentially flat, showing a climb of only 0.2%.
Things certainly don't look good in the B2B unit, where I once worked.
In the fourth quarter, total B2B revenue rose 5.2% compared with a year earlier. But despite years of layoffs and cost-cutting moves, expenses rose 8.4%. That leaves segment EBITDA -- the measure by which Primedia prefers to be judged -- down 2.9% in the quarter. Across the entire company, excluding About revenue, then segment EBITDA is down 2.6% for the year.
So what's next? If past is prologue, then expect another round of layoffs, more ill-conceived initiatives to "drive revenue", and another management shakeup.

Wicks buys magazine for corporate lawyers

Wicks Business Information has purchased a monthly magazine that serves corporate lawyers. Corporate Legal Times, based in Chicago, was founded in 1991 -- one of dozens of law-focused B2B publications that hoped to duplicate the success of The American Lawyer.
Only a handful of administrative jobs are heading to Wicks' headquarters in Fairfield, Conn. The rest of the staff, including the five-person editorial team, will remain in the Windy City.

Location, location, location

I spent much of the long weekend in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, perhaps the prettiest place on earth. It's home to much of what I treasure: the music of Tanglewood, the yoga retreat known as Kripalu, and the mountains themselves. And, as I was reminded early on Sunday morning as I passed through downtown Pittsfield, the Berkshires are also home to Laurin Publishing. Laurin, owner of B2B titles such as Photonics Spectra, has offices on the second floor of a building overlooking the town square.
Laurin recognizes that perhaps the greatest draw it has for B2B journalists is its location. When the company runs ads seeking reporters, it always plays up the beauty of its Berkshires home.
Location is the advantage that many trade-journalism companies have in the recruiting battle. And I'm always surprised how few of them seem to understand that.
Here in New York, where I live, B2B publishers must often choose from the bottom of the barrel of available journalists. The mainstream press offers more money and more prestige. As a result, the great unspoken truth is that B2B journalism in New York and other media centers is often the domain of second-rate practitioners.
The luckiest B2B publishers are based in places where the locale can lure top-tier recruits.
Think of Laurin in the Berkshires, Wicks in Fairfield, Conn., and NTP in Latham, N.Y.
And I've always said the best location for a B2B publisher is the suburbs of Kansas City, where Vance, Primedia Business and Ascend all operate. The area has cheap housing, good schools and offers a low-stress lifestyle. Most importantly, the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas -- both among the top five journalism schools in the country -- are just two hours away. Hundreds of talented kids are available for recruiting every year. And many of them are locals who don't want to leave the area. As a result, local B2B publishers can pick and choose among talented and well-trained journalism students. My friends in New York hate to hear it, but the truth is that much of the best B2B journalism is being practiced in Kansas City, not Manhattan.

Post Office B2B magazine

The U.S. Postal Service is becoming a B2B publisher. "Deliver" is a bimonthly magazine aimed at executives in the direct-marketing industry. Some 350,000 copies were mailed this week, the post office says. That seems to be an extraordinarlily high number. PrimediaBusiness' "Direct" magazine, which serves the same market, has a circulation of only 46,527. So I'm left wondering if the postal service understands the "controlled" part of controlled circulation.
Addendum: Rex Hammock at Rexblog wrote to tell me about another, more detailed article about "Deliver." In this piece, the reporter says the magazine will send those 350,000 copies to "CEOs, corporate marketers and their creative agencies." That may be a broad enough pool of people to account for those circulation numbers.

N.Y. Times buys About

Well I was right about this one. When word came a few weeks ago that About.com was for sale, I predicted the New York Times would buy it. That's exactly what has happened. But before I start patting myself on the back, I'll admit to being shocked by the price the Times will pay -- some $410 million.
For extensive coverage, take a look at paidcontent's take on the sale. Rafat shares my view that part of the reason the Times is interested is that the newspaper giant has been slow to respond to the blog movement. About is the grandfather of "citizen journalism." So the purchase pushes the Times to the forefront of the phenomenon. The other obvious justification for the deal is the growing importance of online advertising.
The lessons here for trade journalists are two-fold. First, if your publisher isn't focused on generating revenue from online ads, then you need to find a new publisher. Second, if you haven't established an ongoing, digital "conversation" with your readers, then your publisher needs to find a new you.
ADDENDUM: I'm flattered that my prediction about the N.Y. Times deal won me some praise on David Shaw's B2B blog.

Editorial integrity award

Given my recent complaints about journalists who also sell advertising, I want to offer some praise to a journalist who performs his job with honor. Whitney Sielaff, publisher and editorial director of VNU's National Jeweler magazine, has won the Timothy White Award for editorial integrity among B2B journalists.
I've mentioned National Jeweler here before, taking note of the crisp writing style at the publication. But the Timothy White Award is for ethics, not for prose. Sielaff is a worthy recipient. According to American Business Media, which oversees the award program, Sielaff's "history of active campaigning for objective reporting and a firm separation of church and state dates back to 1989" when he exposed a program by diamond supplier De Beers to manipulate supply and prices. Sielaff has also developed a code of ethics to uphold journalism ethics at VNU.
Congratulations Whitney!

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising, newsletters, business media, journalism ethics

More on old-time journalism

David Shaw has some interesting comments about my recent post on old-time trade journalism, in which I said I was furious to find that reporters at the Waterways Journal were selling advertisements. David agrees, but reminds me there are vital business functions at a magazine that editorial staff should be engaged in. Check it out.

New magazines

Magazines -- there may not be another industry in the U.S. where so many new products launch every year. Magazine Publishers of America has listed some of the debuts from 2004 on its website. As you'd expect, most of the launches are consumer mags, and most are aimed at "affluent" audiences. But take a look through the list. There are a few interesting titles in B2B, including 'Revenue" and "CMO Magazine."
For further details on magazine launches, check out the site of Mr. Magazine, who was recently named chairman of the University of Mississippi's journalism program.

Competing against former employers

Here's a story that should gladden the heart of any journalist who ever thought he was smarter than his bosses. The former editor and managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education have gone into competition against their ex bosses. The journalists have launched insidehighered.com, a free, Web-only publication to rival the paid-subscription Chronicle, a specialized publication serving academics and university administrators. In addition to being less "stodgy" than the Chronicle, insidehighered promises to reach a broader audience by targeting grad students and smaller institutions.

Old-time trade journalism

I'll admit to having a soft spot for "The Waterways Journal." I've been reading it for decades now, starting when I was a young transportation reporter for the "Journal of Commerce." The WJ has its flaws -- it runs ads on the front page, tends to be such a cheerleader for the industry it covers (inland barges) that it reads more like a press release than a magazine, and it has the ugliest layout of any publication in my mailbox. But WJ has a relationship with its readers -- and with the rivers on which those readers make their living -- that any trade publisher should envy. The WJ has been publishing since 1887, writing about the folks who move freight along the waterways. And in the process, WJ has turned trade journalism into something akin to folk art. Each issue features a look at days long gone through photos of paddlewheelers and early steamers. There's a section each week on what WJ wrote about in the past (100 years ago this week the magazine reported on what was believed to be the first collision in history between a boat and a train! The train hit an elevated stage plank of the Reese Lee as it moved through a canal.)
But soft spot or not, I was furious when I read this week's edition of WJ. In an article on page 4, the WJ announced the retirement of William Evans Jr. who has been WJ's reporter on the Gulf Coast for more than 25 years. I have vague memories of meeting Bill at an event or two, and I remember him as a likeable man. But in the article about his retirement it says "While covering river news, Evans also actively represented the business side of The Waterways Journal, selling advertising..."
Selling advertising! While covering the news!
Now there may not be much I can do to convince folks at WJ that such activity is simply and utterly unethical. I'd guess that they aren't embarrassed by what they have done. But I did want to take a moment to tell people at WJ that I and other B2B journalists around the country are embarrased for you.
Full disclosure: Many of WJ's journalists have been covering transportation for most of their lives. Carlo Salzano, who writes about federal regulation of the rivers, was one of my first bosses in the business. He was an editor at Traffic World magazine, which also covered the freight industry, when I was a reporter there in the early 1980s. I haven't spoken to him in more than 15 years, but I'd be willing to bet good money that Carlo has never sold an ad in his life.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising, newsletters, business media, journalism ethics

Lebhar-Friedman to buy Dowden

Lebhar-Friedman, the privately held parent of such B2B magazines for the retail industry as "Drug Store News" and "Chain Store Age," plans to buy Dowden Health Media. Dowden serves the medical world with newsletters and magazines such as "Contemporary Surgery." Dowden's journalists won't have to relocate to L-F's offices in New York City. According to a story in Folio magazine, Dowden will operate as a standalone subsidiary and will keep its offices in Montvale, N.J.

Wal-Mart news service

I just love this idea! VNU has launched a news service dedicated entirely to developments at the world's largest retailer. VNUsmartsupplier.com will cater to those thousands and thousands of businesses that sell to Wal-Mart. The site will offer original content on marketing, logistics and similar issues. Editors have also archived articles from such retail-focused magazines in the VNU family as Progressive Grocer and Convenience Store News.
Check here for details, but be advised. The site wasn't up yet when I published this post.

Advanstar veteran on B2B hunt

Robert Krakoff, the former chief executive officer of Advanstar, is looking to buy B2B media properties. And he has plenty of cash. Krakoff has formed a partnership with multibillion-dollar investment fund Blackstone Group to look for acquisition opportunities. (Click here for details on my least favorite Web site.)
There's been speculation in the B2B world that Mediapost is ripe for a takeover.
Other possible targets include almost anything owned by debt-burdened Primedia Business.
For a look at how Advanstar was run when it had debt problems, look to this insider view.

Mediaweek site redesign

Mediaweek has redesigned its Web site. And I couldn't be happier. The new version is crisp, professional and demonstrates an understanding of Web design. The old site was...well...one of the blandest, ugliest properties in B2B publishing.
I'll take some credit for the changes, since I've been pushing for improvements for awhile now.
Click here to see the new look. Note that the site is loading slowly and will give you a glimpse of the unattractive old version before the new property appears.

About.com for sale

Primedia is selling About.com. Potential bidders include AOL, Google and the New York Times. Before I say another word, it's time for some disclosures. I was a producer at CNN's online division when parent company Time Warner merged with AOL. It was a disaster. I fled in the ensuing bloodbath of fiefdom feuds. I landed a job as an executive producer at About.com, a compendium of Web sites with a citizen journalism bent. I was still at About when it was purchased by Primedia. I moved up the ladder at the new company, eventually winding up a vice president.
But the merger didn't work. The culture clash between magazine "professionals" and online "entrepreneurs" was intense. Civility was rare. My tiny corner of the Primedia world was even stranger. Primedia had earlier purchased the Intertec collection of B2B magazines. And those properties were being overseen by Industryclick, an online venture powered by arrogance that mimicked the early business model of Verticalnet. My position required that I deal with everyone -- Primedia big-wigs, About.com guides, trade-publication reporters, Industryclick codewriters and more mid-level executives than I could count. And everyone seemed to strongly dislike everyone else.
The About/Primedia merger was a disaster. And I'm glad to see the deal is at last unraveling. At this point, the sale will have little to no effect on B2B. Kelly Conlin put an end to the attempts to integrate magazine and web operations. And Primedia separated its trade-publishing business from its consumer properties. The online wings of the B2B unit are gone -- Industryclick, ABZ, Digibid, etc. Web sites, email newsletters, etc. are now run from within Primedia Business by the exceedingly talented Prescott Shibles, who worked for me back in the old days.
I'm going to bet that the N.Y. Times winds up buying About. The Times has been late in adopting the ethos of citizen journalism. Buying About would give them a leap forward. More importantly, About is the king of the targeted ad. And newspapers need new advertising revenue sources now that Craigslist is taking over the classified business.

Redundant names

National Trade Publications, a family-owned company based in upstate New York in the town of Latham, is changing its name. Henceforth the company, which publishes titles such as "Professional Carwashing & Detailing" and "Cleaning and Maintenance Management," will be called NTP Media. The new moniker is meant to convey that the company has moved beyond print into Web properties, e-mail newsletters and research services.
The new name seems redundant to me. Publications are media, and until folks forget what NTP stands for, the company is likely to be known as National Trade Publications Media.
That's still considerably better than when some genius at Primedia decided to change the title of that company's B2B unit to the hilariously redundant -- Primedia Business Magazines and Media.
I worked there at the time. And to add to the redundancy silliness, my title was changed to vice president for online content and editorial.

Best of the Web

I was happy to find that WardsAuto.com had won the Best of the Web award for premium sites from min magazine. The revamp of the Wards properties a few years ago nearly killed some of the most talented people on my team at Primedia Business. It's good to know the work paid off. (Disclaimer: I still hate the look of the public version of WardsAuto with its strange spacing, unnecessary time coding and bland colors -- all the result of the in-house content management system I've complained about before.)
And I'm thrilled that WardsAuto beat out Variety.com. Regular readers of this blog know I can't stand that property.
One of the winners of min's Editorial Excellence award is VNU's NationalJewler.com. Please take a look at the writing on this site. It's clean, crisp, news-oriented and free of cliches. It's simply lovely.
For the full list of min's winners, click here.
And while you're at it, bookmark this B2B site from one of min's creators.

Pass the tissue

Paperloop has sold Tissue World magazine and three related tradeshows to United Business Media. Tissue World, which covers the toilet-tissue manufacturing industry, will become part of UBM's CMP Asia division, a move that highlights UBM's belief that there's growth to be found in B2B industries in Asia. One of the shows that UBM bought is an annual event held in China.
Paperloop will retain the Pulp&Paper family of publications.

Deals and errors

Folio: has a special feature this month on the top magazine deals of 2004, including the sale of Thomson Media, parent of the Bond Buyer and American Banker; a purchase by a group of displaced Primedia Business executives; and the sale of Hart Publications.
Check out the series. There's a lot to be learned there.
There's also something to be learned from seeing the absolute mess of errors that these articles contain. Take a look. Note the run-on words throughout. The very first sentence of the piece about Hart contains such errors as "fundmanaged," "investmentteam" and "variouslyreported."
That's a result of the shovelware that Primedia uses to move magazine copy on to the Web site. Back when I was a vice president at Primedia, I had many an argument with other executives about the absolute uselessness of our in-house software system. I also had a slew of disappointing conversations with editorial staff who didn't think they should have to clean up the copy once it arrived on the Web page.
Here's some advice. Never use shovelware. And always take responsibility for the final product.
Let's hope that Folio's new owners get this problem solved.