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.