B2B publishing has quietly become one of the healthier parts of the industry. The trade press that once lived on display and recruitment advertising now earns more of its money from subscriptions, data, events and membership, and private equity has noticed.
The shift meant giving up some old habits. Controlled circulation made sense in print, but open websites gave away what the magazine kept for qualified readers, and the publishers doing best have taken back control of their audiences through registration and paywalls. The Lawyer moved from an advertising-led business to one where paid content brings in over 40 per cent of revenue.
Don’t delude yourself because the barriers to entry in publishing are now non-existent.
Amanda Barnes B2B media
Specialist knowledge is the defence. AI makes generic information close to worthless, so the value lies in proprietary data, tools readers rely on in their daily work and journalism only a specialist could produce, as Computer Weekly's Post Office investigation showed. Print hasn't vanished either. Some publishers now sell it alongside digital at the same price and let readers choose.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on B2B and trade media, from subscriptions and data products to events, print, consolidation and specialist journalism, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
We asked Amanda Barnes, chief executive of Faversham House, what does best practice publishing look like in B2B media? This is what she said…
Rory Brown has enjoyed great success in business media. Having last year sold AgriBriefing and now following new paths in the B2B space, he takes some time out to tell us what he has learned on his journey so far…
Print is certainly not dead, says Chairman Mark Allen. However, you need to offer readers choice and be neutral and agnostic about the outcome.
The Lawyer has been on quite a journey, successfully transitioning from a controlled circulation ad-driven model to a high value enterprise subs one. Andy Baker talks Meg Carter through the key stages and what they’ve learnt along the way.
In the first of our new ‘Digital Horizons’ series, Tom Lake, director of product and technology at Infopro Digital, looks at the tech opportunities and challenges facing his company and the wider B2B sector.
The future of B2B lies in serving your sector in three connected ways: information, intelligence and events.
John Barnes, chief digital officer, William Reed Business Media, tells Ciar Byrne about how the B2B media sector is managing the digital transformation journey.
Computer Weekly deserves much credit for its role in investigating the Horizon IT scandal. Dickon Ross looks at what lessons other B2B journalists can take from their work.
The general expectation is that the buying and selling of media brands is going to increase significantly in 2025. A number of companies have been quietly building up their war-chests during a wobbly 2024, reports Jim Bilton.
If you’re thinking of setting up a membership scheme, be prepared to play the long game because success doesn’t come overnight.
It’s easy to get carried away with words; to exaggerate or overhype everyday events. But the challenge when describing the recent changes in the US market is how to do justice to what really were seismic events. John Harrington looks at what happened
Too often we take our printers for granted. We don’t give them a lot of thought, until something goes wrong, when all hell breaks loose. Not all printers are the same, and price isn’t always the best differentiator between them. Choosing the right pr
Former Marie Claire editor, Marie O’Riordan, has swapped consumer publishing for customer publishing ... and has found it a liberating experience! John Brown’s new editor-in-chief tells Meg Carter about the dynamism of the sector and about the immine
The winners of The PPA Awards 2009 were announced last night with IPC’s Nuts and Reed Business Information’s XpertHR winning consumer and business media brands of the year.
The Mail Consolidators Association is working with a select number of industry stakeholders striving for improved quality in international mail consolidation, presentation and delivery.
Defying the recession, Touch, an international B2B publisher that provides information for the pharmaceutical, medical and energy industries, announced at its AGM that it was continuing to grow its online and journal readership.
Dorling Kindersley has announced a new publishing partnership with one of the UK’s leading cookery magazines delicious. The two book deal was brokered by DK’s Stephanie Jackson, Luigi Bonomi of LBA, and Seamus Geoghegan of delicious. Magazine.
Conor McNicholas, currently editing IPC’s music title NME, has been appointed as the new editor of BBC’s Top Gear magazine.
In a report published this month, the Stationers, a City of London Livery Company, predict that by 2020 the demand for graphic papers will have declined to the level of the last decade of the 20th Century!
BBC One’s Famous, Rich and Homeless star John Bird, Founder of The Big Issue magazine, which is sold by homeless people is to launch in Lahore, Pakistan.
Seymour Distribution has announced that it has secured the contract to distribute Fire Publishing’s entire portfolio of magazines, with effect from 1st July 2009.
VNU Entertainment Media UK Ltd have appointed dsb.net to manage customer management for its range of online and offline products from The Bookseller.
Visitors to the Historic Dockyard in Chatham this Saturday will have an exclusive chance to experience Kent’s War, a unique website created by the KM Group.
Nstein Technologies has announced that Newssift, a business insight tool launched by FT Search Inc has launched its beta powered by Nstein's TME (Text Mining Engine).
The APA, the representative organisation for the customer publishing industry, has launched a new an initiative to engage media planners and continue to bolster the growth achieved by the medium.
