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.
If your direct marketing gives your prospect a warm glow, then you’re well on your way to making a sale. A well crafted compliment is one way of achieving this. According to Jennifer Menten, flattery will get you (almost) everywhere - when you’re woo
General George S Patton is widely considered the best field commander of World War II and was certainly the officer most feared by the Germans. His success was based on rapid offensive action and an understanding of how people react in the field. Pet
Magazine teams are going to crazy lengths to give their covers extra newsstand appeal. As Peter Genower shows, the only limit is the imagination…
Selling magazines at the newsstand is getting harder. Ensuring availability for an increasingly unpredictable consumer, whilst satisfying environmental demands for less wastage is a challenge, not made any easier by the continuing uncertainty caused
Over the years, there have been countless calls for the channel-wide cooperation needed to address US magazines’ mounting single-copy challenges and capitalise on the category’s opportunities. Karlene Lukovitz sees some signs that this might, at long
Many publishers say that their titles “include…”. They should say “give you”. Some use humour when they should be selling. Still others refuse to use copy on outers. They’re making mistakes, says Andy Maslen, that could be avoided.
It’s a question which, just a few years ago, would have been unthinkable, but one which now keeps some of the sharpest minds in magazine publishing awake at night. Answers are needed if magazines are to have a bright future.
Easy living, passionate people and long long lunches, Italy is a country where the term ‘maniana’ is adopted as a lifestyle. Not then an obvious choice for publishers wanting to explore overseas markets. However, according to Paride Forte, the Italia
Over the last ten years or so, Tim Weller has presided over the launch and subsequent rapid expansion of B2B information provider Incisive Media. A passionate advocate for B2B, Tim tells Lucy Aitken why it is such a vibrant sector and outlines his pl
Whilst the latest ABCs were anything but all-gloom, there were some worrying trends: editorial inconsistency, me-tooism and short term marketing tactics which could come back to haunt. Lucy Brunning applauds the winners, but urges all publishers to i
It’s not just the domestic postal market that has seen upheaval of late. The international market is changing rapidly too. Old certainties are disappearing, but are being replaced by new opportunities. Ian Phillips analyses the fast evolving internat
The combination of pressure at the newsstand and improved direct marketing skills has raised the standing of subs departments at many publishers. Subs are taking a bigger share of the marketing budget than ever before and are growing their share of t
Wiley-Blackwell had a conundrum. It had a well respected title, appreciated by its audience, but with a readership in slow but seemingly irreversible decline. The solution they came up with had nothing to do with cutting edge technologies or new mark
In September 2007, the PPA organised a number of initiatives to promote the magazine industry, under the banner Magazine Week. An important part of this was a series of events run in Guildford called Magazine Town. Jim Bilton, who project managed the
When it comes to analysing costs, are you a ‘big pot’ kind of person? Chucking everything in, and then working from a single total cost figure, is a superficially attractive approach, but it does mean that you have little idea of, and therefore littl
