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.
What else are you selling to your readers in addition to their subscription? If the answer is “nothing” then you are missing a trick. Successful publishers have realised that the real value of a subscriber is in what else you can market to them. Pete
In the final part of his data series, Qbase’s Gary Olive urges you to think outside the box. Opportunities that were just pipe dreams a few short months ago are now in play but you need to think big to realise them.
Collectively, specialist magazines are massively important to the industry. Yet, individually, many of them are small-scale and are often produced by independent publishers who feel very vulnerable to the forces that are currently shaping the supply
Perpetual motion and no rest are the secrets of success for business titles in the newstrade – that and having quality product. Martin Parr, newstrade manager of Reed Business Information talks us through the ins and outs of marketing RBI’s titles th
Of all the sets of eyes pawing over the recent concurrent release, perhaps the most critical and analytical were those belonging to the media buyers. Steve Goodman, director of press at MediaCom, looks at the underlying trends and sees a buoyant sect
We spend a lot of time ranting and raving about supermarkets and perhaps not enough time studying them. A better understanding of how the big multiples operate would not only put publishers in a better position to negotiate with them but would also h
What stops us testing; arrogance, ignorance or both? As with circulation modelling, everyone pays lip service to testing, but surprisingly few actually do it; odd really, when you consider that an intelligent approach to testing is one of the charact
Australia is UK publishers’ second largest export market. This is despite the fact that its population is a third of our own spread over a land mass thirty times our size. On top of that, it’s quite a long way away. Vicki Day, of Australian distribut
In our last issue, Barbara Cardy recounted how, in May 2001, she launched In The Buff – an erotica magazine for women. Here she chronicles her ongoing struggles to build subs through increasing her profile in the sex industry. Will scoring PR success
Your database is one of your most valuable assets, but extracting maximum benefit from this asset requires work. It needs to be regularly updated and enhanced. Objectives need to be set for both data quantity and data quality and, as Andrew Guy write
Data protection compliance is a minefield. Too many direct marketers have failed to keep abreast of the legislation and are, says Jenny Moseley, risking prosecution. Getting it right will keep you on the right side of the law, help foster a culture o
The acid test. Your marketing database is ready to use and you’re under pressure to show results. The answer, says Qbase’s Gary Olive, is a communications strategy based on customer segmentation.
On 11 November the PPA held its annual Magazine Subscriptions conference at the Grosvenor House in London. Over 25 different speakers across 13 different seminars and presentations were squeezed into the day. James Evelegh went to the Creative Master
The UK’s ethnic communities now number over 4.5m (approx 8% of total population). This is a sizable market, made accessible by its concentration in London and a few other large cities. James Evelegh talks to Ethnic Media Group’s Mike Chinnery about t
“And what do you do?” That dread cocktail party chat up line is so easy to answer if you’re a dentist, lawyer, banker, soldier or dustman. But what if you’re a circulation director? Here, Dennis Publishing’s Julian Thorne tries to explain, in just 16
