R&I and CMO win ASBPE magazine awards

Reed Business's Restaurants & Institutions and IDG's CMO have been named the magazines of the year by the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Congratulations to all involved.

R&I, which publishes 20 times a year and covers "the entire foodservice industry, including chains, independent restaurants, hotels and institutions," collected the ASBPE honors for magazines with circulation of more than 80,000. It was judged for its performance in five editorial categories, including excellence in reporting and writing, design and reader interaction.
Certainly R&I is deserving of the honor. It tends to publish information-dense stories that feature crisp writing. More importantly, the stories tend to be well sourced and brief. For example, if you're willing to put up with a very intrusive registration process, take a look at this piece from April. The writer quotes four sources by name and title and tells the story in fewer than 700 words. If you spend anytime at all looking at B2B magazines than you know how rare it is to find a story that quotes more than one source. Or, even worse, are B2B publications that routinely use unnamed sources without justification.
I'm a little less impressed with R&I's interaction with readers. There is a feedback function, but it only generates an email form rather than giving readers access to a comment function or discussion board. On the other hand, simply publishing reporters' names and email addresses online puts R&I ahead of many competitors.
CMO, which topped the other nominees in the less-than-80,000-circulation category, is one of my favorite B2B publications. In particular, I like CMO's design both in print and online.
The publication is also unafraid of new media. It has webcasts, RSS feeds and staff-written blogs .
Most importantly -- and I can't emphasize this enough -- CMO understands the new culture of journalism in a way that is still very rare in the B2B world. Take a look at the right-hand side of this page. Those are links to CMO's new media rivals and competitors. Few trade publishers have enough faith in their own products to provide such links. Even fewer trade publishers are willing to abandon the myth that they are the only voice in their industry. CMO, however, recognizes that it is part of a conversation. That's particularly valuable for a magazine that covers the marketing industry, where powerful online voices such as Corante's BrandShift have arisen.

Immersion journalism and spatial annotation

My idea about immersion journalism -- in which "users" retrieve a story with cellphones and PDAs by following visual prompts in the real world -- received a little bit of attention. Check out what the Poynter Institute's Steve Outing said here. And if you can read Italian, take a look here.
My posts on the subject, which focused on the role that technologies such as Grafedia could play in this new form of storytelling, also generated a few emails. One of which pointed out that the idea of footnoting or hyperlinking the real world is part of a larger movement in art called spatial annotation.
Check out this site for some thought-provoking examples.

Topic channels planned for Folio, Event Marketer

Red 7 Media will soon launch new Web-based, editorial products for two of its B2B magazines -- Folio and Event Marketer.
Both publications are planning topic-specific channels that cover niche areas in their industries. There's much to be said in favor of the move. I tend to think that there's growth to be found in B2B publishing by drilling down to serve smaller niche areas.
Also of note is that the new channels will feature RSS feeds. That's a first for Red 7. And in the era of information overload, topic-specific RSS feeds are the way an ever-growing number of people prefer to get news.
Event Marketer has a list of its channels here. You'll be asked to register for the site before you can proceed to the 34 topics such a "tents" and exhibit design." But as of last night, most of the channels were empty and still "under development."
One of the few channels that is functioning covers "experiential marketing." Take a look.
If you're anything like me, you'll find there's something about the product that feels inappropriate.
The channel's sponsor is Polaroid, and the company is getting some nice play for its money. Polaroid's logo appears directly under the channel name. The description of the channel has copy that sounds like it came from Texaco Star Theater or one of those other 1950s variety shows. "Welcome to the Experiential Marketing Channels page, brought to you by Polaroid Corp." Polaroid also gets an ad in the upper left-hand corner and an "About Polaroid" section on the left side that lists how the company can help at events. Polaroid's name and logo are also featured in two white papers available for download on the channel.
As a reader, that sort of advertising overkill makes me suspicious.
As a journalist, what is most disturbing to me is that the channel hasn't drawn a clear line between advertising and editorial copy.
The channel has two articles sections. One is written by Events Marketer's staff. The other says it is "sponsored by Polaroid," but that is misleading. The section isn't just "sponsored by" Polaroid; the section contains articles seemingly written by the company's public relations staff.
Click on either type of story and the articles appear in nearly identical templates. The font is the same. The ads are the same. The color and layout are the same. The only difference is that the Polaroid-provided articles carry a small disclaimer that they are "sponsored by Polaroid."
That's a clear departure from the ethics guidelines set by American Business Media, which say the "layout, design, typeface and style of special advertising sections or custom publishing products must be distinctly different from those of the publication."
Although I suppose it's possible that people in the events industry may not care about such things, I don't think readers of Folio -- a magazine about the magazine world -- will accept such a blurring of the ethical line.
I like Red 7 Media. I like its publications. I know and respect the company's executives and journalists. Perhaps that's why I'm so troubled by this. I expect more from Red 7. I certainly expect more from Folio, which I see as a leader in the publishing world.
I don't know yet what Folio's channels will look like. There's nothing on the site about the channels project. Perhaps Red 7 has a better plan for Folio. I hope so. I hope, too, that someone at the company will rethink the Events Marketer channels.

Is something going on at Reed Business?

There have been a number of changes in editorial at Reed Business of late.
Variety reports that Marianne Paskowski "is stepping down in mid-July as VP of editorial development and editor-in-chief of Multichannel News." Folio reports that "Chemical Market Reporter laid off six editorial staffers last week, including editor-in-chief Helga Tilton and executive editor Patricia van Arnem."
I spoke to a few folks at Reed who tell me the changes are coincidences and not evidence of plans for companywide layoffs or restructurings.
Nonetheless, I'd be a little worried if I was at Reed.
ADDENDUM: I've received an anonymous email that tells me Reed Business is adding staff, despite the recent layoffs and resignation. The writer points toward the mediabistro job listings, which has two recent ads from Reed for senior editors.

A look at B2B history

BtoB Magazine has a special five-year anniversary issue (the anniversary was actually in March, but let's not quibble) that has some fantastic stuff about the craziness in our industry during the past few years.
If nothing else, a look through the issue refreshed my memory. For example, in a discussion about the nearly forgotten concept of the "e-hub," BtoB talks about Covisent, which hoped to be the online marketplace for the auto industry. There was a period of about four weeks in my life at Primedia Business when we were obsessed with Covisent. Our plan was to provide news and information for the site. We came close to a deal, but we never closed on the sale.
Remarkably, I had forgotten all about that until I read the BtoB issue.
Look, there's some fun stuff here, including a column by usability guru Jakob Nielsen.
But if you do nothing else, take a look at the column by Rance Crain, who seems to share my worries about the growing influence of Wall Street investment firms in trade publishing.

Trouble with sale of Primedia Business

Now that potential buyers have done their due diligence and gotten a good look at Primedia Business, the sale of the company may be in some trouble. Folio magazine reports that the folks who had been interested in buying the unit aren't so interested anymore.
According to Folio, part of the reason is "a perceived loss of experienced management" at Primedia Business. The article quotes one source who says “There is so much legacy knowledge and relationships that left.” That same source complains that “there doesn’t seem to be a coherent strategy.”
No kidding.
I think it's been pretty clear to anyone who even glanced in Primedia's direction that things have been a nightmare for ages. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm the former vice president for online content at Primedia Business.) Primedia's owner -- the private investment firm KKR -- knows a hell of a lot about money, but doesn't know much at all about business or people.
The result was that quality products that had been run at a profit for years fell under constant pressure to reduce costs and "grow" revenue. It was akin to inheriting a fine piece of farmland that had fed the family for generations, reducing the flow of water to the crops and demanding that the earth yield more corn.
At Primedia Business, the land turned barren. There were endless rounds of layoffs. Products were bought, run into the ground and then closed. Good magazines and good workers were hurt. A lot of talented people got pushed out the door. A lot of others fled.
Nonetheless, there is still value at Primedia Business. The company still has some good journalists. There are even a few talented executives who survived.
I promise you this: whoever buys the company will be pleased with it. There's nowhere to go but up. And I assure you that the place is crawling with people who want a chance to work for someone other than KKR.

More on immersion journalism with Grafedia

I guess I'm not the only person to think that Grafedia -- which brings the idea of hypertext into the real world -- has potential as a journalism tool.

I received an email from John Geraci, the man who invented Grafedia, saying much the same.
"That's exactly the sort of thing I envisioned when I started Grafedia," John said. "But it's hard to find someone to take on a project like this, and the ordinary people who come to the site and try Grafedia out don't seem inclined toward that sort of thing."
Well I'd like to think that the readers of this blog aren't ordinary people. And I suspect that someone will pick up on the idea of immersion journalism.
For B2B journalists, the easiest immersion story would involve a trade show. Visitors to the show could use cellphones and email devices to access stories about companies at the show, find product reviews, retrieve video interviews with company executives, etc.
But I think my friends at College Media Advisers may find more complex and interesting concepts to explore through immersion journalism.
For example, imagine that a historic and well-loved school building in your town was slated for conversion into apartments. Story "users" -- we can't really call them "readers" -- could wander through the building. Grafedia could direct them to photos in context -- showing what the room they stand in used to look like. Grafedia could also point users to audio files of children in the playground, to videos of a school basketball game, and give directions to the home of a nearby elderly person willing to share his memories with visitors.
Or imagine that it's budget season. Some social-service agencies in your community will be getting an increase in funds. Others are slated for cutbacks. An immersion story could lead users through your town as they visited agencies, listened to interviews and met with politicians, agency workers and clients.
I can imagine dozens of such stories. I'm sure you can as well.
People who couldn't "visit" the immersion story could visit a Web site with a simpler multimedia version with many of the same components.
Not only could immersion stories prove to be remarkably moving and effective pieces of journalism, they would be a fantastic way to teach multimedia skills to journalism students.
What do you think?

Looking at digital editions

A press release in my inbox tells me that PennWell will begin publishing digital editions of four B2B magazines -- Laser Focus World, Cabling Installation & Maintenance, Industrial Laser Solutions and Vision Systems Design -- through Texterity.
And a quick visit to Texterity's site shows me the company has collected a slew of customers for its service of rendering print editions into pdf-like versions for the Web.
I've said that I'm not crazy about digital magazines. I prefer that people repurpose their content for the interactive medium of the Web. Nonetheless, publishers do seem to like these things. And now it's possible to get audited numbers for digital editions. So I suspect the popularity of these products will grow.
Given that, I have to say that I prefer the products created by NXTBook to those of Texterity. I just really like that audio file of a page being turned when I move through the "magazine."

Creating immersion stories with Grafedia

In Brooklyn, where I live, it's not unusual to come across cryptic graffiti written in blue. To the artists, hipsters and others familiar with system, the graffiti is meant to mimic the hyperlinks of the Web. It's part of an emerging multimedia tool called Grafedia. If you send a message to the web address in the graffiti, you get back a message that is somehow related to the place the graffiti appeared.
For a better explanation, check out this article by the Associated Press.
I have a sense that Grafedia has potential as a tool to create a new form of journalism -- immersion stories. Imagine a feature article that requires readers to participate physically in retrieving information. Readers could wander through a place related to a story -- the area around the World Trade Center in New York, a state capitol building, a park or a tradeshow. When readers come across Grafedia, they type the address into their cell phones, send a text message, and retrieve more of the story. It would be possible to use Grafedia to point the audience to human sources that they could interview themselves. The messages sent via Grafedia could include videos, background music or narration (similar to a tape-recorded walking tour.) As far as I know, no one has created a story with such interactivity. But I'm willing to predict that someone will soon. The power of linking the multimedia world with the real world is too powerful to ignore.

Looking beyond ugly sites and silly leads

I was leafing through a copy of the Journal of Accountancy and came across one of those how-to-blog pieces that every B2B magazine in the world seems to be running.
The article is worth noting for three reasons:
1) The print version of this piece looked pretty good. Graphics, fonts, etc. all worked nicely. It wasn't breathtaking, but nor was it awful. So why oh why does the article look so bloody ridiculous on the JofA Web site? How is it possible that at this late stage in new media a B2B publisher like JofA doesn't seem to care about how its brand is presented online?
2) Granted, the author of this piece isn't a journalist. But she is an author, and I assume that someone at JofA edited the piece before it appeared. So what's with the silly lead paragraph? Why do so many pieces about citizen journalism sound so goofy? Why do so many articles in trade magazines, regardless of subject, have such a gee-whiz-watch-me-write-something- funny feel to them? If I could get one message across to every trade journalist in the world, it would be this: "Don't be cute."
3) Even when I dislike an article, I often find something of value in it. And in the JofA piece there's a link to a site dedicated to CEO bloggers. Click on it. Take a look around. There are some interesting folks on the list, including a guy who runs a sheet metal company, a woman who runs a technology consulting firm and public-relations guy with an interest in Voice over Internet Protocol telephony.
Is anyone from the industry you cover on the list?

What is citizen journalism, anyway?

Now this is something the media world needs.
Poynter's Steve Outing has put together a lovely overview of the citizen journalism movement. Not sure what citizen journalism is? Take a look. Know what it is, but not sure how your company should participate? Take a look. Ready to make the jump and wondering what your first step should be? Steve says it's "Opening up to Public Comment."

L.A. Times' wiki editorials raise questions

In keeping with an earlier post today about participatory media and the power of groups, take a look at what the Los Angeles Times is planning for its editorial page -- a new, conversation-driven product called a wikitorial.
But before you get too excited, take a look at the questions being raised by some of the leading supporters of citizen journalism.
Jeff Jarvis notes that the Times failed to discuss its idea in the blogosphere, thereby failing to use a citizen-journalism approach to citizen journalism. Ernest Miller suggests that editorials -- which by definition have a point of view -- may not be the best product to build through the neutral-tone, collective mindset of wikipedia. Ari Soglin, however, applauds the Times for at least attempting an experiment in citizen journalism.
Here's how the L.A. Times communicated the news to its readers.

You, me, us and participatory media

So much has changed so rapidly in media and technology that it's sometimes hard to keep track of the overall theme. But in this special report, BusinessWeek reminds us that the change is being driven by the basic, human need to participate.
Peer-to-peer file sharing, collaborative game development, group production efforts such as Wikipedia, guerilla marketing techniques, offshore research and customer-service functions connected via the Web, camera phones and Flickr, open-source software and the community journalism movement are all part of what BusinessWeek refers to as the "Power of Us."
While reading the report, make note of how well Businessweek uses the online medium to tell its story. There are slideshows, links to related stories, external links, clickable functions for stock quotes and a Web tour.
There is also a comment section. So you, too, can participate in the discussion.

I told you these guys were good

The Lawrence Journal-World -- the newspaper that I think everyone in media should be watching -- has won an EPpy award for best Internet news service by a small publication.
Take a look at the full list of winners here.
Then take a look around the LJW site.

Avoiding clichés in your writing

The last time I wrote about bad writing, it generated a wee bit of anger.
If anyone gets uptight this time, they can take it up with Tim Porter. Tim has a wonderful post today about the abundance of cliché-filled headlines that appeared upon the death of Anne Bancroft.
Careful observers may wonder why I would link to a post about good writing by someone who misspelled Bancroft's name. Trust me -- it's still worth reading.
If you write for a living, please read it. Please.

Trade mags are best way to market...for now

Marketing Sherpa has an interesting piece that gives some insight into B2B media users.
The article is about marketing to engineers, but everyone in the B2B press -- advertising, editorial, circulation, etc. -- should take a look.
Here are some of the highlights:
In a survey by Penton's Machine Design magazine, 96.5% of respondents said "trade magazines were their number one source for getting information about suppliers."
Furthermore, when engineers are looking to buy, they tend to bypass Google and the other major search engines and go with niche search tools. "Specialist search engines such as GlobalSpec and ThomasNet.com have literally millions of engineer professional users, many of whom bypass the major search engines altogether when they need a very specific item."
But most interesting to me are the comments of Brian Renaud, director of engineering at Arbor Network, who doesn't use traditional media to learn about products. "Renaud bypasses trade magazines. He has his calls screened. And he throws away his direct mail. But Renaud does read blogs and forums. He mentioned a few pertaining to his industry – Slashdot was one – but he is also a frequent reader of security and software development forums, places where engineers gather to discuss problems and how to solve them."
I suspect that each day brings more customers like Renaud to the market. And the B2B publisher who doesn't respond soon, may soon be too late to respond at all.

More awards and a new blog for B2B journalists

The Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association has announced the winners of its 26th annual awards for excellence in B2B journalism. Take a look at the list of winners here.
Unfortunately, NEPA -- which says it represents electronic publishers -- doesn't have much of a Web site. There are no links on the awards page. So you'll have to search elsewhere for information on the winning publications. (FULL DISCLOSURE: United Communications Group, or UCG, is the winner of nine awards. I work on several products for UCG's OPIS unit, which covers the petroleum business. OPIS won first place for a single-topic newsletter for a special report on oil prices.)
If you want to hear more about awards, check out this post about the American Society of Business Publication Editors Northeast regional awards. There's an interesting idea mentioned about combining internal awards with editorial training.
That post, by the way, is part of the brand new blog by the Boston chapter of ASBPE. Take a look around. Sign up for the RSS feed.

Building B2B blog networks

This should worry every "traditional" publisher in B2B.
John Battelle is planning to combine a group of "high-quality, high-authority" blogs that cover technology into an offering he calls FM Publishing. Old media types who tend to discount the blogging world would be wise to read up on Battelle. This is a guy who made his mark and his money in print publishing. He's one of the co-founders of Wired magazine, arguably the most important publication of the past 25 years.
Read about his plan here and here.
I've said before that the standalone journalist -- operating without the help or the hassles of a traditional media company -- poses a threat to B2B publishers. Now here comes someone who understands both technology and publishing with a plan to link standalone journalists into a single product.
How long will it take before someone does that in another space?
For example, look at agriculture. There's nothing to stop a few core ag journalists from heading out on their own to cover their niches. Combine them with a blog or two by ag economists, maybe something from a veterinarian, a commodities trading expert and something like this, and suddenly you have a product that poses a threat to "National Hog Farmer."

CORRECTION: EDN and feedback

Matthew Miller, executive editor of EDN Online, wrote in to offer a "clarification" to a recent post of mine. But Matthew is being kind. I need to post a correction, not a clarification.
In a recent post in which I complained about B2B media companies that don't take advantage of the Web's advantages, I said that EDN's new Web site didn't have a feedback/comment function.
I was wrong. EDN does have a feedback function on its new site.
Take a look at his comments here, and follow the links therein to get a look at what the folks at Reed have done.
Editors should make particular note of what Matthew sees as an advantage of allowing readers to send feedback on stories. "The feature provides the editors with "grist for the mill"--ideas for followup stories, a litmus test on the importance of issues, and so on."

Asking customers to be bloggers

I love this idea!
Pennsylvania is asking people to travel around the state and blog about it. The hope is that by arming "regular" folks with blogging software, the state can boost tourism.
There's potential here for a similar offering from a B2B publisher with the courage to let readers be reporters.
Why not ask a few readers to blog about a trade show?
How about a blog that follows a reader through the search for a new job in the industry you cover? Or even better -- a blog by a reader about his first year in the industry. Find a young, verbal, ambitious person among your readers and let him share what life is like "out there" where your readers live. (There's a fair number of intern-written blogs already. I'd like to see one by a more established professional.)
How about a group blog by readers on an overseas trade mission?
I'm pleased whenever a B2B media company embraces the tools of citizen journalism. I look forward to the day when some publisher decides to embrace the citizens themselves.

More on missing links in B2B media

Crain has relaunched Business Insurance magazine and its Web site. I haven't seen the hard copy. I have seen the Web site, and I'd call it a partial success.
Take a look. You'll see the Business Insurance site DOES have a comment function. I'm thrilled to see it.
On the other hand, Business Insurance is NOT using hyperlinks in the copy. I remain completely perplexed by journalists who don't use links online. Journalism is a service industry. Our job is to provide information and access to information. Failing to use links isn't just bad business, it's bad journalism.
I've complained a lot about B2B's seeming inability to comprehend online journalism's advantages. The Poynter Institute's Steve Outing weighs in today. Take a look.
Also worth noting today is a story in Wired magazine about a new film that looks at that early form of online conversation -- the BBS. The guys in the film were apparently playing online before I was. My earliest memory of conversations through computers involved a friend trying to explain Kermit to me.

Why not take advantage of online's advantages?

Lately I've grown more frustrated by one of my pet peeves -- when B2B journalists working on the Web fail to take advantage of the medium.
Today I posted something to the ABM blog, noting my disappointment with a recent article about how traditional publishers can take back the Web. The article, published in Folio, failed to use any Web-journalism techniques (linking, "bite-size" copy, feedback functions, etc.)
Yesterday I complained about a bunch of B2B publications that publish on the Web, but fail to use hyperlinks in their copy.
Now comes word that Reed Business is revamping EDN magazine and the EDN.com Website.
Reed has some good ideas, including providing "greater coverage of global trends" and adding a "Research Update' section to the magazine.
Reed also has a nice new tagline -- "Voice of the Engineer." And Reed promises "more quotations and perspectives directly from designers, as well as a greater platform for engineers to share ideas and opinions with peers."
That's fantastic. But a look at EDN.com shows that Reed has NOT added a feedback/comments section that would allow users to post comments directly on the site. (NOTE: EDN also publishes two blogs, which DO have comment functions.)
I know there is the potential for trouble in letting users post to a site. I've struggled with the issue myself. I've gone from allowing comments, to banning them, to allowing them again and removing the rare post that offends me.
Reed is one of my favorite B2B media companies. I'm often pleased and impressed by the work of Reed's journalists and publishers. So let me be frank with my friends there:
The days in which a B2B publisher can claim to be the voice of an industry are rapidly disappearing. The industries we cover have found their own voices. They no longer need a magazine in order to converse. That's what citizen journalism is all about -- journalism's consumers speaking to journalism's producers. The best that we can do now is to facilitate conversation.
For an interesting look at the power of feedback functions, read this.
CORRECTION: 6/8/05 This post contains incorrect information about EDN.com. Please read the full correction here.

The potential of the lone, new-media journalist

There's a nice piece today in American Journalism Review about the growth of the standalone journalism movement -- in which talented reporters use new-media technology such as blogging, RSS feeds, podcasts, etc. to market their work directly to users.
I've written about the subject before and said the potential for the lone journalist in B2B is enormous. I've urged journalists to consider heading out on their own; I've urged publishers to be aware of the competitive threat now posed by their staff and their readers.
The piece in AJR focuses on the growth of the standalone movement in community journalism. But if you're at all interested in editorial or competitive issues (and who wouldn't be?), you should take a look.
If you still have doubts about the power of a lone journalist armed with new media tools, take a look at this. The About.com network had 22.6 million unique users in April, making About the 10th largest Web site in the United States, according to Nielsen. I've argued before that the citizen journalism movement began at About. There's a nice essay on About's history at Howard Sherman's blog. Take a look. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I was an executive producer at About, where I worked with Howard. After Primedia bought About, Howard moved up the ranks, while I moved to Primedia Business. Today Howard runs the editorial operations at SmartBrief, where I do some work on e-mail newsletters.)

Jay Rosen on journalism education

A few days ago I expressed disappointment in a new effort to revamp journalism education. In brief, a handful of elitist institutions said they were going to spend a lot of money to look at how reporters are trained.
I made a suggestion that some truly innovative schools be included rather than just the tradition-bound Ivy League universities. In particular, I mentioned NYU and Jay Rosen.
Now Jay has weighed in on the journalism education issue.
I'd urge all my friends at College Media Advisers to read what he said.
It's brilliant.

Disposable video cameras at CVS

If you've been thinking about video blogging, but didn't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a camera, you have run out of excuses.
Drugstore chain CVS says it will sell a disposable digital-video camera for less than $30.
Go get one. Then take a look at vlog.com.

If it's online, link to it

If you worked at a radio station, wouldn't you use audio recordings? Wouldn't you use interviews and sound bites and sound effects?
If you worked at a television station, wouldn't you use video? Wouldn't you use clips and blue screens and Chyron graphics?
If you worked at a newspaper, wouldn't you use print? Wouldn't you use photographs and illustrations and words?
So why would you work online and not use links?
Take a look at this article on BtoB online. It's a fairly interesting piece about a new search tool at Forbes.com. But god help you if you want to actually take a look at what the article is discussing -- because the writer hasn't included links in the copy.
That's not unusual at BtoB online, which seems not to understand its medium. It's not unusual anywhere at Crain. Take a look at TVweek.com, which also seems not to have noticed that it's published on the Web.
Failing to understand the advantages of Web publishing is fairly common among B2B companies. For example, Lebhar-Friedman's Drug Store News (free registration required) is generally a fairly Web-savvy site. The design is crisp, there's a feedback function on stories to send a letter to the editor, and you can email stories easily to friends. But there are no hyperlinks in the stories themselves.
Compare those dump-the-text-on-the-Webpage abominations with this very simple use of the Web by Farm Progress. Take a look a look at this article about a court document. You'll see that the writer had the good sense to link to the document in question.
Or take a look at CFO, which I've said before is one of the best publications in our industry. CFO seems to understand Web journalism...sometimes. It links externally in its blog, but tends not to use links in its online articles.
I've heard the arguments against linking. They range from the cowardly (we don't want our readers to leave our site because they may not come back) to the stupid (our content management system doesn't allow for links) to the lazy (I don't have time to add links).
Let me say this as clearly as I can -- none of those arguments are valid.
And let me ask you this -- how would you react to an editor who said he didn't use photos in his magazine because photography was too complicated to learn, distracted from the text and was time-consuming?
Wouldn't you fire him?

Blog helps search for missing B2B publisher

David Koch, associate publisher of Sourcemedia's DM Review, disappeared during a hike near Vancouver on May 25.
His family has published a blog to publicize the search.
Say a prayer for David and his family.

B2B media in the global economy

"Do you speak any other languages?"
That's one of the first questions I ask journalism students and newcomers to our industry. Just as our industry is being changed by new media, our customers' businesses are being changed by a global economy. The B2B publisher who understands that will prosper. The journalist who is prepared to report from Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, etc. is worth three English-only staffers.
It's always fun to track developments in international B2B. And in recent days I've come across some new sources of information.
Check out Colin Crawford's blog. Colin works for IDG, a big player in overseas markets, which just increased its investments in Vietnam.
Then take a look at Paul Woodward's site. Paul tracks B2B media in Asia. Among the things I learned from his blog is that CMP is closing some Singapore-based print publications (while keeping a tech-centered Web site.)
And don't forget Hugo Martin, who follows B2B developments across the globe from Berlin.
And make sure you bookmark the website of Trade, Association and Business Publications International, the group that works "to bring together editors working for English-language publications worldwide, and encourage a common dedication to editorial ethics and excellence."

Standalone journalists and salaries

There's a piece in Folio magazine about the multi-skilled, multi-talented, multimedia types that do the work of many at small magazines. The writer of the Folio article concentrates on the role of such people in production. I tend to think of the true value of the standalone journalist as his ability to produce news for different media -- video, print, audio and electronic.
Either way...both of us agree that this is the future.
I've said before that the traditional journalist -- tied to one set of skills in one medium -- is becoming obsolete. I wouldn't hire someone who can only write or only operate a camera or only design for the Web.
And there are indications that the marketplace agrees. Take a look at this salary survey from Mediabistro. Click on the section about the Northeast. You'll see that jobs in online/new media, where the software-based skills of multimedia are the norm, are paying considerably more than one-medium gigs in trade newsletters, local newspapers, local TV news, professional journals or the wire services.

You can't control a revolution

An attempt by a Colorado newspaper to organize local bloggers isn't working, according to Poynter's Steve Outing.
Terry Heaton isn't surprised.
Heaton is a blogger and a former television executive. Among his insights: "...giving people access to tools under a canopy isn't the blogosphere, and I'm not surprised people aren't breaking down the doors to get at it" and "Citizens media isn't something you can manufacture. It's already there, and the wise mainstream players will find ways to support — rather than try to own — what's going on."
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know my mantra by now. Bloggers aren't the enemy. They are your readers. And they want to talk.
Perhaps it's time for an addendum: They want to talk when and where they please about whatever interests them. That may be a particularly tough lesson for B2B companies, which often present themselves to readers as the "voice of the industry" they cover. But in the new media world, there are many voices. No one publication or group has a monopoly on discourse.
Don't seek to censor the conversation, decide the topics or select the voices.

Write less, spend less in editorial

There's an interesting piece in Folio magazine about how to save money in editorial.
In brief, the idea is to be brief.
"Readers, however passionate, rarely have time to wade through long features and lengthy special reports—the stuff that magazines used to be made of. Today they want less, not more, from magazines," according to John Brady, a magazine consultant.
I agree with Brady's concept, but wish he'd said a little more (no pun intended.)
Look -- if there's one thing I know it's that B2B writers tend to write too much. I can't remember -- or perhaps prefer not to remember -- how many times I've suffered through wordy lead graphs that don't pertain to the story. I'd be hard-pressed to name 10 B2B publications that aren't littered with strained metaphors, unneeded transitional sentences and multiple, ill-chosen adjectives. Yet I'd also be hard-pressed to name a single publisher who wouldn't prefer larger numbers of short stories to fewer numbers of long ones.
So why are things such a mess?
B2B writers are often stuck in a trade-magazine style of insipid, wordy prose. The reasons for this are multiple: lack of training, a perceived need to fill a news hole, self-identifying as a writer instead of as a reporter, ego and pretension, etc.
The way to get an editorial staff to write fewer words is to teach them to write better words.
For more about concise writing, click here.

Thomas Register drops print

You can argue all day about whether or not print is dead. Lots of folks like to do that.
But at Thomas Register, the argument is over.
Thomas says the 2006 edition of the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers will be last print version of the industrial directory.

Another B2B sale to Wall Street types

I'm a little disappointed to find that VSS has sold the Hanley Wood publications to JPMorgan Partners. I'd held out hope -- perhaps naively -- that the B2B properties would be sold to a B2B publisher.
Certainly there is some positive news in the deal. JPMorgan paid good money for Hanley Wood -- some $650 million. That tends to boost the asking price of Primedia Business and other B2B companies that are now on sale (see my fellow B2B media blogger David Shaw for a look at the numbers behind the deal.)
But when I look past the money, I see trouble.
I've worked for Wall Street publishers before. Henry Kravis controls Primedia through KKR. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of my fair city, is the owner of Bloomberg News. The two men hold the two top slots on my list of the Five Most Repugnant People I Have Ever Known.
I've written before about the clash between the distasteful management style that brings success on Wall Street and the supportive environment that fosters the subject-area expertise that B2B publications need to prosper.
Here's hoping that JPMorgan sees something of value in the values of our industry.

Chicago, South Korea and the blogsphere

I had a wonderful time this weekend in Chicago. The weather was perfect. The city, as always, was nearly so. I was there to speak at a convention about something other than B2B media. But as luck would have it, I wound up talking at length about blogging.
Much to my surprise, only two people in a crowd of 30 or so had ever heard about blogging or citizen journalism. Much to my pleasure, almost everyone seemed thrilled by the possibility of participating in the discussion about subjects they care about, rather than being passive consumers of lecture-style journalism.
While I was in the Windy City, Dan Gillmor was on the other side of the planet in South Korea, speaking about citizen journalism in the land of ohmynews.
I wish I had brought a copy of his speech to give to my group in Chicago.

No blogging for awhile, I'm traveling to Chicago

When I'm not thinking about B2B media, I'm thinking about yoga. And if I'm not thinking about yoga, I'm thinking about sayoc. And when I'm not doing any of those things, I'm thinking about applied behavior analysis.
This weekend I'll be giving a presentation at the Association for Behavior Analysis convention. Wish me luck.
I don't expect to do much, if any, blogging while I'm gone.
Talk to you on Tuesday.

Changing journalism education

I applaud any move to improve journalism. As I've said more times than I can remember, this is an exciting and challenging time in our business. There are new ways to distribute content. New styles of writing have emerged for the post-objectivity world.
Change is here. Journalism must adapt.
But I tend to doubt that much good will come from the announcement that a group of journalism schools is going to spend $6 million "to elevate the standing of journalism in academia and find ways to prepare journalists better."
By my way of thinking, the core problem in journalism is an arrogant attachment to the elitist ways of the past. So bringing together a bunch of elitist schools -- Harvard, Columbia, etc. -- is probably not the best way to foster change.
I'm far more interested in what's happening at my alma mater at the University of Missouri than I am in what the media elite in New York and Cambridge think. Why isn't the University of Kansas, which has the advantage of being based in Lawrence, part of this project? How about the University of South Carolina? Or smaller schools such as Northwest Missouri State (where I serve on an advisory board.) Heck, if you have to include a school from New York, why not go with NYU, which has at least one leading thinker on staff?

Those guys who bought the Advanstar properties

There's some coverage in the Boston business press of the private equity group known as the Audax Group, which bought a good portion of the B2B properties of Advanstar. Audax has formed a new company called Questex (what is with these silly, we're-so-modern names?) to run 23 trade publications, 20 exhibitions, 25 conferences and 50 websites covering technology, industrial and specialty products, beauty, travel and entertainment.
Audax is one of those massive investment groups with tons of cash and a penchant for the leveraged buyouts. Similar groups such as KKR, which owns Primedia, and VSS, which owns a bunch of things, are already major players in B2B publishing.
Audax owns a slew of companies, including Readymix Concrete and the Boston Herald newspaper.
After complaining earlier today about a B2B publisher that did such a lousy job of covering itself, I have to point out the Boston Herald failed to mention it is owned by Audax.

New direction and misdirection at GIE Media

There's a lot of change at GIE Media, publisher of such B2B titles as "Golf Course News" and "Secure Destruction Business." Earlier this month, Chris Foster was named president and chief operating officer of the Cleveland-based publisher. Now comes word that Mike DiFranco has joined the company as Group Publisher, Manufacturing. All this is good news. Foster worked at GIE previously and developed the company's Internet systems, where GIE is often well ahead of competitors. (For example, just yesterday I was talking about how few discussion boards there are at B2B publishers. But there is one at "Pest Control Technology" and a number of other GIE sites.) DiFranco is a 30-year veteran of our industry who most recently served as a vice president of Penton Media. But I'm not using this post to praise GIE. I'm using this post to condemn it. I don't know how many times I have to tell people in B2B that we are in the information and communications business. That means we communicate information. We don't hide it. Check out this annoying article about Foster that appeared on the "Lawn and Landscape" site. The writer, and I don't know if it's someone in public relations or in editorial, managed to tell us all about Foster without telling us what, if any, is Foster's relationship to company chairman and chief executive officer Richard Foster. The same piece also appears here and here. Is it possible that the writer didn't think that was a question worth answering? Or did he or she think that no one would wonder if GIE is a family-run company? And it's not as if this don't-tell-anyone-anything-of-interest style is a one-time problem. Check out the article about DiFranco in PCT Online, which contains this cryptic line: "DiFranco brings with him the popular Today’s Medical Developments magazine as GIE Media expands its leading portfolio of B2B publications to include manufacturing publications." Huh? Does that mean that GIE bought the magazine? Or did DiFranco buy it from Penton and then resell it? Is this a joint venture of some kind? You can read the article all day and never find an answer. How can anyone in our industry think this is acceptable? Does anyone at GIE think that their readers don't notice these gaping holes in their stories? Do people at GIE think this helps their credibility as journalists and publishers? Doesn't anyone at GIE realize that their readers aren't idiots and they are insulted by such foolishness? And lastly, is this sort of half-assed reporting the norm at GIE?

The risks of discussion

It's only been a few weeks since I reopened comments on this blog. I've been happy with the feedback; I've been pleased with the chance to speak more with readers.
But I remain wary. When I was at About and Primedia, monitoring chat rooms and discussion threads was a constant hassle. Folks tended to get nasty, and civilized discourse was often hard to find.
The Ventura County Star has been suffering from this of late, but moved quickly to contain the problem.
Today Vin Crosbie reminds us of Godwin's Law, which says that given sufficient time all online discussions will deteriorate into name-calling foolishness. (Thanks to API's CyberJournalist for pointing me toward Crosbie.)
So I urge B2B publishers to proceed with caution in this area.
On a more optimistic note, the B2B audience tends to be smaller, older and more educated than that of the mainstream media. That makes it less likely that we'll see the sort of ad hominem attacks that plague mainstream media discussions.
Another problem has emerged as feedback functions have grown more popular. Spammers have taken to littering discussion threads with garbage.
It is possible to reduce both spam and fury by requiring registration. Certainly many B2B publishers and bloggers will choose that route. In the meantime, I remain hopeful that the desire of the B2B world to share and learn will outweigh the risks of opening ourselves to feedback.

Citizen journalism, About.com come full circle

In an announcement that attracted considerable attention in the blogging world, Jeff Jarvis, the noted blogger and advocate for all new media forms, quit his job last Friday. Jarvis will be writing a book, working at the journalism program at the City University of New York and -- of particular interest to me -- consulting for About.com.
Regular readers of this blog know that I was once a producer at About, overseeing content covering small business, careers, automobiles, personal finance and B2B. Regular readers also know I argue that the citizen-journalism movement and its best-known manifestation -- blogging -- began at About.
I've been waiting to see what Jeff plans for About. Now Business Week's Blogspotting has published an interview in which Jarvis says "About starts with this incredible army of people putting out 500 guides. It's my hope that they can become a platform for distributed media. A locus and starting point for new and great things."
Read the entire interview here.

A grab bag of information of interest to B2B media

There are a number of things worth looking at today, so I'm going to point you in several directions.
1) Rex, who is guest blogging at ABM's MediaPace, had some interesting things to say about podcasting and B2B media. Take a look. Make sure you read the comments section, where I mentioned some podcasts of interest to our industry.
2) Speaking of ABM, there's new revenue data posted on the trade association's site. Things have improved for B2B publications.
3) Yesterday I posted some thoughts on changes in advertising and how they mimic changes in editorial. And many have been the days when I've talked about the need for B2B publishers to make their Web content compatible with the Firefox browser. Today Wired magazine has an interesting piece about how Firefox has become a leader in new-style marketing.
4) It's time for another series of awards. Folio's deadline for the Ozzies and the Eddies is approaching. Follow the links here for more information.
5) Advanstar has completed the sale of a slew of properties.

Congratulations for a B2B media blogger

One of my fellow B2B media bloggers has reason to celebrate.
David Shaw's newest venture has launched. Take a look at ERI: Extended Retail Industry Journal, a B2B magazine and website that covers the world of retail logistics.
It's too early to say whether the magazine will make it. Lord knows ours is a very competitive industry. But it looks to me like David and his team may have found an underserved niche hidden in what I've said may be the most overserved industry in B2B publishing.
If you've ever been involved in a product launch, you know what an exciting and stressful process it is. The hours are long, but the rewards can be great.
Good luck, David, and congratulations!

Changes in ad world mimic editorial challenges

I don't write a lot on this blog about advertising. That's not my area. But I appreciate the creative efforts and salesmanship that bring in the revenue to fund our paychecks.
And it's worth noting that our brothers on the other side of the divide in journalism are experiencing the same sort of new-media upheaval that we're seeing on the editorial side.
In today's New York Times there's a fascinating look at how advertising clients -- concerned by anti-corporate sentiment, blogging, ad-skipping technologies such as TiVo, etc. -- are demanding new approaches from advertising agencies.
Check out these quotes, and note the similarity to issues in editorial: "The advertising business is undergoing an upheaval, forcing executives to radically change how they do business" and "It's unclear if the traditional agencies will be nimble enough to halt a slow decline" and "The big agencies also face a throng of hip new rivals, which have pounced on the opportunity and are looking to steal business" and "'There's an incredible ability to cling to what's been done because there's a comfort in that."
Take a look at the article. Strike up a conversation with someone from the advertising staff. Ask them if they are hearing dissatisfaction with traditional B2B ads. If they haven't heard a complaint yet, let them know they will soon. Sophisticated advertisers, just like sophisticated consumers of news, are demanding new ways of doing business.

Converged news, standalone journalists and pay

Fellow journalism blogger Doug Fisher posted a comment this weekend regarding my recent post about the converged newsroom. Doug wanted to point out the work being done at the Ifra Newsplex at the University of South Carolina. And Doug is right. If you're looking to build a multimedia newsroom for the future, take a look at the Newsplex.
Speaking of converged newsrooms, there was an interesting post in the blogsphere this weekend about editorial staffers in the new, multimedia environment.
At Businessweek's blog, they seem to be worried that the demands of producing content in a variety of media formats may lead to the "death" of the beat reporter. Their thinking -- born of a lunch with an unnamed media executive -- seems to be that multimedia skills are so time-consuming, difficult and specialized that some new breed of highly paid super producer must emerge. Such people would have little time for traditional reporting.
That's nonsense.
Multimedia is not difficult. It's not time-consuming. Any knucklehead can master these technologies. You can't demand a salary premium for skills that are in abundance. I'd predict that within another year or so almost every entry-level journalist you could find will have the skills to work with audio, video, digital photos, etc. etc. etc. If anything, that would push salaries lower. There is one core journalism skill that determines salary -- storytelling. If you can acquire information and then present it in a compelling fashion, you are worth more than the person who cannot. That is true regardless of medium.
On the other hand, I think Businessweek's Stephen Baker is dead right about the type of person who can succeed in this new environment. "They will know how to harvest the knowledge of experts and citizen reporters alike, and will fashion new journalistic products out of various media. They will have entrepreneurial skills and many will create their own brands," Baker said.
That's as good a description as you'll find of the standalone journalist. And as I've said before, B2B journalism is particularly vulnerable to competition from such people.
For another look at Businessweek's take on the converged newsroom and the reporters of the future, check out Jeff Jarvis' post.

ABM, Folio and the rants of a single malcontent

The I-hate-the-ABM-blog controversy has been fun. And it has been good for page views (mine and theirs.) And there seems to be no end in sight to the craziness.
Here's the latest:
Last night Folio published an article about the disappointment that many of us have experienced with MediaPace.
But shortly thereafter, and much to my pleasure, Rex of Rexblog arrived at ABM.
That would have put an end to it. Rex is fabulous. All of us can learn from him. I expected the ABM blog to improve instantly.
But now the public relations guy at ABM has sent a nasty letter to Folio complaining about the article. Among his complaints is that reporter quoted the "rants of a single malcontent" (that's me!) and did so "without offering any credentials." (Note to curious people who don't know how blogs work. Use your "mouse" to "click" on the words to the right that say "About Me" and your computer will show you a brand new page that talks About Me!)
Rex -- god bless him and his belief in transparency -- published the letter on the ABM site.
But within minutes, the entire post was removed.
At 2:24 today, I posted a comment on the ABM blog seeking an explanation as to what happened to Rex's earlier post. I have waited an hour, but they have not yet responded.
I can't imagine that ABM would try and censor Rex. But I suppose anything is possible.
I still have Rex's post and the letter in my browser cache. I also talked with the Folio reporter. He confirmed that ABM did send the letter to him. He gave me permission to use it here.
Here's what it looked like:

Dylan,
Your story on MediaPace was neither fair nor balanced. The tone of the piece (obviously set before you spoke with American Business Media) was based on the rants of a single malcontent – a person you anointed as an authority without offering any credentials. This approach is a journalistic blunder from the onset.
You neglected to mention that ABM labored for months in research and development of MediaPace with guidance from proven blogging experts (I gave you names and Web sites), ABM members across the globe, and its committees. Furthermore, you portrayed ABM’s new Blog Committee chair as one of its critics, and incorrectly stated a strategic shift that has not been adopted.
You also neglected to mention that, among the nearly 1000 visits MediaPace experienced this week alone, were postings from proven business-to-business leaders such as Jeff Reinhardt and Tom Cintorino. You neglected to mention that the intended course of dialogue on MediaPace has been abundant, creates a new level of discussion on business media’s critical issues (in line with our mission), and that its postings outnumber the same week’s postings of MediaPace’s most vocal critic. These are all points we discussed.
In such, you understated the mission of MediaPace, which, along with offering our members (including Folio:) a platform for discovery in this rapidly advancing medium, offers a forum for high level discussion on business media topics. Instead, you pandered to base critics without examining their motives, and presented a disparaging portrayal - aided by headline, placement, and lead - to a large audience.
Yet, the most disturbing and unprofessional aspect of this presentation is the way you malign the American Business Media logo at the top of your newsletter; a sophomoric tactic that treads very close to libel.
Remember Dylan, your audience is made of the best minds in media; hacking like this is transparent, a waste of time, and gives credence to those trying to undermine the leadership and courage of a 100-year-old institution. In your alleged examination (rife with grammatical missteps of its own) of a journalistic endeavor, you avoided the fundamentals of fair and balanced reporting - novice approach, tacky delivery.
Steve Ennen Director of Communications American Business Media

I'll resist the urge to call Ennen's letter the rants of a single malcontent. And I'll resist the urge to give ABM another lecture about transparency and blog culture. I'll even resist the urge to point out that ABM is a media association that may want to avoid blaming the media for its troubles.
Instead, I'll urge someone there to look at this article in a B2B publication about how to handle a public relations problem. It's a simple piece, written for beginners. It even has cartoons. One key tip when dealing with a reporter: Remain calm. Hostile responses or angry words only cloud your message.

ADDENDUM: Four hours after I asked for an explanation about the missing post. Rex said that he decided that his "personal blog would be a better place to do that kind of post." I'll be looking forward to seeing it there.

ASBPE announces award finalists

The American Society of Business Publication Editors has released the list of finalists for its Magazine of the Year awards. There are honors for a number of categories, divided by region and circulation size. In editorial, there are awards for a variety of areas, including feature writing, news analysis and on-site trade show coverage.
Of particular interest to me is that CFO magazine is a finalist in four editorial categories. I love CFO, and think it's one of the stronger news products in B2B. (FULL DISCLOSURE: CFO is owned by the Economist Group. When I was Midwest bureau chief for The Journal of Commerce, it too was owned by the Economist. I shared a gorgeous office in Chicago with some staff members of CFO, but never worked on the magazine.) One glaring omission from the list is National Jeweler, another of my favorite B2B magazines and a regular winner of our industry's honors.
Also make note of the accomplishments of CMO, which is a finalist for best new publication, best new web publication and best overall web publication.

ABM's MediaPace unpopular with me and others

It appears that I'm not the only person who has noticed the problems with ABM's foray into the blogging world. Folio magazine has published an article about the site's "growing pains."
I'm quoted in the article. Folio refers to me as one of "b-to-b media’s prominent bloggers." Truth be told, I prefer to be called Paul Conley, B2B journalism know-it-all. But I'm still pleased to be quoted.
Folio contacted me for the article by email the other day, and I shared my thoughts with the reporter. In the interest of transparency, I've posted the entire letter I sent to Folio here.
Since the folks at ABM don't seem to understand what bothers me and others so much about MediaPace, I'm hoping they will take a look.

Running the converged newsroom

When I speak to journalists about developing multimedia skills, I inevitably talk about the concept of the converged newsroom. I talk about how at Bloomberg we taught our print reporters to do television "stand ups" in front of an unmanned video camera. I talk about how at CNN our website reporters appeared as guests on our television shows. I talk about "repurposing" content for the Web. I talk about podcasting and video blogging and the tools of the standalone journalist.
Then I tell them to visit Lawrence, Kan.
Because no one understands the future of the news-gathering business better than Rob Curley of the Lawrence Journal-World.
If you're in Kansas, stop in and introduce yourself. If you're anywhere else, read this story about his appearance at Northwestern University.

A new site, a new tool and a new world

Anyone interested in the emerging field of citizen journalism should be reading Dan Gillmor. And everyone in B2B journalism should be interested in citizen journalism.
But if you tried to read Dan yesterday, you might have found yourself a little confused. Dan has moved his blog to a new location. And I suppose it will take slow folks like me a few days to find our way around the new place.
But even in the midst of the move, Dan managed to find something interesting to write about.
Check out this post about a new technology that gives yet another tool to the standalone journalist.
After that, take a look through Dan's site. If you can find the new location for his groundbreaking work on post-objective style, let me know. If you can't find it -- and if for some unfathomable reason you haven't read it before -- it's still available here.

Trade pubs and the global economy

Crain Communications is the latest B2B publisher to pursue a growth strategy in the emerging economies of Asia. Crain's "Plastics News" is launching an email newsletter to cover developments in China. The newsletter and a related website will publish in both English and simplified Chinese.
I've written about similar B2B ventures before here and here and here.
There's opportunity for any B2B publisher or want-to-be publisher in the world's emerging economies. And I expect that the pace of new product launches will only accelerate in the next few months.
There's particularly interesting news here for young journalists. This new global economy is one that requires language skills that are exceedingly rare in our industry. Nothing would add to your value in the marketplace more than skills in another language. Show me the journalism student who speaks Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic or another non-European language, and I'll show you the guy who moves to the front of the hiring line.

ags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters

ABM and the value of writing

Inevitably, when I have to work with a truly untalented writer, that person will make a point of explaining to me how they don't have the "time" or the "interest" to bother with things like punctuation and grammar. Sometimes these people will tell me that "the copy editors will catch" their errors. Sometimes they tell me that worrying about style rules and semicolons blocks their "flow." Sometimes they argue that their clichés and mixed metaphors are how they show their "creativity."
I try...and often fail...to convince such people that in order to write well, one must write with precision.
There's an example of this phenomenon on ABM's new blog.
Check out this indecipherable post about "strategic clarity."
Then read the comment section. You'll see my attempt to point out that clarity is required when writing about strategic clarity. You'll see my complaint that BECAUSE the writing was unclear, I have no idea what the writer was trying to get across.
Then read Saturday's post, in which the ABM says it doesn't want to use the blog to talk about writing, because it wants to talk about "valuable stuff" such as "strategic stuff."
Sigh.
There are two things I want to say about that:
1) I, too, like to talk about strategy. (Of the three other posts today to this blog, one is about VOD strategy). The problem is that the ABM blogger didn't write about strategy; he wrote gibberish. He only thought he was writing about strategy.
2) There are few industries in the world where writing is as valuable as strategy. B2B publishing is one of them.

New debate over new journalism

The New York Times calls "The Chronicle of Higher Education" a "usually staid academic magazine." I call it a B2B publication that serves college teachers and administrators.
Writer Tom Wolfe is calling it all sorts of nasty things.
Take a look at this piece that tells the story of how the Chronicle found itself in the middle of an argument about the history of "new journalism."
A NOTE TO B2B JOURNALISTS: Please do not read this post or the Times article or any of the material mentioned therein as a call to practice "new journalism." First-person reporting can make for glorious writing. But let's be frank. We journalists are a self-absorbed lot. And putting ourselves in the story is almost always a mistake that leads to pretentious, unreadable prose. In the B2B world in particular, "new journalism" tends to lead to that total nightmare of writing:
the I-just-flew-in-from-the-tradeshow-in-Vegas-and-boy-are-my-arms tired Reporter's Notebook.
If you want to emulate someone, then read up on the literary journalists instead. Get a copy of John McPhee's "Oranges." No one has ever written anything more lovely about an industry. Make note of what makes McPhee's work so interesting: enormous amounts of facts and anecdotes. In other words, think of yourself as a reporter, not as a writer.

B2B video possibilities

I hate it when the B2C media seems to move faster than B2B.
Yet in this article by the Associated Press, it seems that our brothers in the consumer press are well ahead of us in the fast-growing world of downloadable video.
I've written about this subject before, and wondered when someone in B2B would make a move. I still haven't seen anything interesting. And that surprises me. It would seem to me that this new, do-it-yourself TV distribution is perfect for B2B. Industrial training, continuing education, professional certifications --- all these are well suited for downloadable video on demand.
For example, Primedia already operates Interactive Medical Networks, which provides continuing-education courses on DVDs and by Web broadcast. But IMN does not yet offer video-on-demand services.
I'm looking forward to hearing about new VOD offerings from the B2B world soon.

Access Intelligence does some hiring

Things are pretty stressful these days at the properties owned by VSS. Most everything is for sale. And as Folio has reported, at least one sale isn't going smoothly.
But it's worth noting that at least one VSS-owned property -- Access Intelligence, formerly known as PBI -- is in hiring mode. The company's Satellite Group has added an editor, a marketing person and an events coordinator.

Open for comment

Never underestimate the power of a well-crafted phrase. Never compromise in the search for the right words to make your point.
Yesterday I read a post on my friend David Shaw's blog in which he quoted Steve Smith's description of the community discussions on agriculture.com. This line captured my attention: "These days, a Web site is less a magazine than it is a quilting bee."
That's how a good writer uses metaphor! That is the simple, lovely writing that I adore.
Smith was talking about how "AgOnline leverages the natural tendencies of the ag-world to swap stories and trust one another's experience in the field, and it should be a model to other b2bs that talk at, rather than with, their customers."
Reading that piece has convinced me to change my position and to reopen the comment function on this blog. Back when I started this venture, I allowed comments. At first, there were none. And I was saddened. Then, some appeared. And I was pleased.
But I continued to worry about the problems we encountered at About.com in the old days, when discussion groups and chat rooms were often dumping grounds for nastiness and ad hominem attacks.
And I pulled the plug on comments when I came across the first inappropriate posting to this blog.
I am still worried, and I may change my mind yet again. There are downsides to opening a conversation. And blog comment functions can be misused, sometimes in surprising ways.
But if I believe in the spirit of community journalism -- and I do -- then it's time to talk less and to listen more.

Students, podcasts and journalism

I've said before that journalism students of today need to embrace the changes of participatory journalism and the converged newsroom. The tools of community journalism have opened opportunities that were unimaginable when I was starting out in this game.
And in today's Wall Street Journal, there's an interesting piece about a student who landed a gig podcasting on behalf of the Denver Post.
Let me be clear -- I don't think anyone needs the help of the mainstream press to do this sort of work. The beauty of community journalism is that there are few barriers to entry.
The Journal piece also discusses some other podcasting efforts by mainstream B2C publications. It's worth a read.
In the meantime, I'm still waiting to see something truly interesting podcasts emerge in the B2B world. I trust that sooner, and not later, some entry-level reporter at some trade pub is going to impress me.

ABM blog may be missing the point

Perhaps the best thing about the blogging world is that the rules are still being written. We're free to disregard some parts of media's past and embrace new ways of communicating. Many bloggers have, for example, decided to abandon objective style and instead follow the lead of Dan Gillmor and others.
And although I would hesitate to say that the blogsphere has its own hard and fast rules, I do think it's fair to say that some guidelines have emerged.
And it looks to me that American Business Media's blog may not quite understand this new medium.
Granted, ABM's blog is new. And things are likely to change. Nonetheless, I'm more than a little disappointed.
ABM's MediaPace has yet to provide a single external link in any of its copy. Nor does it have any permanent external links.
And I'm not the only person to note that ABM is struggling with the ethics of the blogsphere. As this article in Folio points out, the folks behind the ABM blog don't seem to understand the idea of transparency.
My fellow B2B blogger David Shaw has also raised concerns.
I remain hopeful that ABM will do a better job of showing our fellow B2B journalists what is possible with the tools of community journalism. And I'll ask that someone at the trade association take a look at this post at Susan Mernit's blog about the shortcomings of corporate blogging.

Vance sells magazines to columnist

Vance Publishing has sold four magazines to a company run by one of its columnists.
Cotton Farming, Rice Farming, Peanut Grower and Soybean South were bought by Mike Lamensdorf, president and treasurer of One Grower Publishing.
Readers of Cotton Farming know Lamensdorf as the writer of the "My Turn" column.
Vance had earlier announced its plans to sell three of the publications. And I've already predicted that the sale clears the way for Vance to divest the rest of its food-industry publications.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Although I was once a senior writer at Vance, I did not work with the magazines that have been sold and I don't know Mike.

Audited numbers for digital magazines

It's getting a little easier to judge the reach of digital magazines. There are now more than 100 magazines, mostly in B2B, with digital editions audited by BPA.
As you'd guess, it's tech mags that dominate the digital space. And although eWeek tops the list with some 40,065 subscribers to its electronic version, it was the statistics on Electronics Weekly that caught my eye. A full 38.7% of EW readers are digital-only subscribers.
If you want the details, download the digital magazine known as Digital Magazine News.

Doc Searls on endorsements and ethics

I'll admit to being more than a little giddy today. Doc Searls, prophet of the Internet era and one of the writers of "The Cluetrain Manifesto," mentions me on his blog today.
And he used the words "excellent" and "interesting."
Now granted, I had to post a response to one of his posts before he was aware that I'd written on the same subject. But I'm still celebrating.

Product endorsements and journalism ethics

I've been trading emails today with a reader of this blog who was pleased by something I once wrote about her company. She asked about reproducing my comments in her company's marketing material. I declined, and she graciously accepted my explanation.
Now it occurs to me that our discussion might have some value for other bloggers, journalists, marketing folks and anyone else interested in new media.
Here is the email I sent to her. I'm not going to name her or her company, because it would violate a trust. She reached out to me openly and honestly, looking for guidance through the world of blogs. Here's what I said:

First, thanks for reading the blog. And thanks for getting in touch.
I'm flattered that you would like to use my comments in your marketing communications. But I don't think it's appropriate.
Let me explain. As you noted in your email, the rules of the blog world are new and often unclear. I offer my congratulations that you're willing to try and understand this new medium. I don't pretend to speak for other bloggers. And certainly there are those who would disagree with what I'm about to say. Nonetheless, here goes: I think the core beauty, the core purpose, the very essence of community journalism (of which blogging is a part) is that it involves conversation. That's a departure from traditional media, which tends to be more of a lecture. Part of that means that what I say on my blog sort of "belongs" to anyone who wants it. Anyone can quote from it, and I certainly hope that many people will link to it.
In other words, in a very real sense, I don't believe I "own" what I say on my blog, or what I say to other bloggers. My blog is something "I said" more than it is something "I published." And thus anyone is free to say "Paul Conley said x," and to link to my blog.
From a legal standpoint, that's in keeping with the "fair use" guidelines that are common in print media. As you know, the copyright rules are different for reprints. And I would guess that the same legal guidelines apply when someone reprints something from a blog as when someone reprints something from a newspaper. (Although I'm not sure if the courts have ruled on this issue.) And thus I would say that I retain the right to limit reprints of material from my blog. And I would not be willing to grant permission for you to use them in marketing material.
There is also an issue of credibility. The blog world is wracked by debate about whether blogging is journalism and about what ethical rules apply. But for me, the rules are simple. I'm a journalist by training. I've been doing this work for decades now. And I'm just not comfortable agreeing to endorse a product or provide a testimonial.
I hope that I have answered your questions. And I trust that you will have no problem finding others to endorse your product. Your company does good work. And if I were in another business, I'd be happy to offer a testimonial. But I'm a journalist, by inclination and by habit. And that must define how I communicate.
If you're interested, take a look at this post on the Corante blog about how companies can manage their brand identity in the blog world.
Thanks.

So what do you think? Drop me a line at correspond at paulconley.com

Craig, talented amateurs and B2B competition

The AP has published an interesting interview with Craig Newmark, the classified-ad entrepreneur behind craigslist. The focus of the piece is Craig's plan, still in its infancy, to create a pool of "talented amateurs" to compete against the mainstream media.
I welcome the effort, and I suspect that Craig will find some success. No one should underestimate the abilities of a man who has single-handedly altered the economics of the newspaper industry.
But Craig is interested in competing against B2C media. And perhaps the B2C media should be worried about talented amateurs.
But as I've said before, B2B publishers should be worried about something else -- talented professionals.
B2B journalism serves niche audiences. Our readers, unlike the average reader of a daily newspaper, are experts in our beats. The arrival of Internet publishing software allows these B2B experts to compete against established B2B media with ease and speed.
Consider, for example, Brandweek magazine, a well-established, well-respected, traditional B2B publication. Take a look. Read a few articles. Then visit the Corante group blog on branding. It's written and published by branding practitioners. After that, take a look at the gorgeous design and thoughtful articles of brandchannel.com, produced by consulting firm Interbrand.
The community journalism that Craig envisions for the B2C press is already a fact in the B2B world. Are you ready for a world in which your customers are also your peers, your competitors, your rivals?

NXTBook vs. repurposing content

In a post yesterday, I implied that I liked they way NXTBook makes offline content available in an online format. A reader of this blog wrote to ask why I, of all people, would say anything positive about such a system, given that I have previously spoken about the need to repurpose content for the Web, and that I have bad-mouthed other pdf-like attempts to put paper products on the Web.
Point taken.
As a general rule, I don't like the glorified versions of pdf files that publishers place on line. In particular, I've voiced disappointment at the efforts of my alma mater to create an electronic newspaper.
So let me clarify.
Creating content for an electronic medium provides innumerable opportunities to do things that simply cannot be done in a print product. And any industrious and talented journalist should take advantage of that. For a recent example of how to tell a story on the Web, check out this post by journalism teacher and fellow blogger Doug Fisher. For a look at how to write for the Web, read this piece by Jonathan Dube.
As for NXTBook, the simple truth is that I find the product kind of cool. It is not a substitute for multimedia content. But it is fun to play with.

Peeking at ABM, NXTBook and Primedia

Now this is kind of fun. American Business Media is posting a link to the tradeshow daily that Folio magazine produced at the ABM Spring Meeting. The daily is rendered Web-friendly via NXTBook, a system I like more and more each time I use it.
Take a look at what Folio has done. And explore the functionality of NXTBook.
And don't forget to read the article on the pending sale of Primedia Business. Folio is reporting that Primedia wants 13x earnings for the properties, a whopping half-billion dollars. Sources tell Folio that 10x earnings is probably the maximum that buyers would pay.