The end of the noughties saw a dramatic culling of marketing publications: Media Week, Revolution, Marketing Direct, Promotions & Incentives, Precision Marketing – the list goes on. B2B Marketing asked observers how they think marketing news and analysis is evolving, and what impact this will have on the profession, both in terms of practitioners and brands.
“People are talking about the portfolio mix now,” says Andy Cook, director of markets, insight and communications at the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA). “Whereas before it was just events and print, now it’s 30 per cent magazines, 30 per cent online and 30 per cent events.”
This formula differs according to sector – so effective market segmentation has proven critical to publishers. “Plumbers aren’t going to be online all day, whereas a professional white-collar worker might be,” he explains.
Every day, marketers are bombarded with information. For this reason alone, it’s crucial to communicate information in the right format. Katy Howell, managing director of social media and online agency, Immediate Future, is a fan of Twitter feeds for marketing content. “They keep me hot to trot when I pick up a phone to a client,” she says. “Marketers are strapped to their computers, reading Twitter and RSS feeds – these can provide a real time barometer of information.”
Observers tell us that none of this means, however, that magazines, in their traditional format, are redundant. “You only need look at people on a train to see that people are still reading print,” says Ray Jones, head of communications and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). “But magazines need to know their readers. After this recession, normal is not normal any more. We’re not writing so many letters and we’re not sending smoke signals, either. Our culture is changing and magazines need to evolve.”
Online communities are growing
Magazines undoubtedly need their online counterparts, given that the Internet is now the first port of call for many seeking information. “[Our] hunger for real-time information cannot be satisfied by print media, a classic example being the huge surge of interest in the 25 minutes following the death of Michael Jackson, which led Google to believe they were under some sort of cyber attack,” points out Brendon Johnson, SEO director of Greenlight.
Online communities are increasingly being seen as critical to the future of online content consumption.”Social media and B2B are beginning to really hop now,” explains Howell. “B2B is built on relationships. It’s easier to create neatly defined groups in B2B – whereas consumer groups keep changing their shape. They’re ‘blobby.'”
For this reason, both marketers and journalists can benefit from a presence on platforms like Twitter, building their own communities. Such a participatory approach is both strategic and results driven, and can help to build a brand – and ultimately sales or subscriptions, too.
Quality content is key
Here, it’s important to note that insightful – and exclusive – content doesn’t come cheap. Immediate Future’s Howell stresses the need for magazine publishers to develop brands which are regarded as a trusted source of information. This, in large part, boils down to the quality of the journalism. “Magazines need to build their brands – and publishers need to invest more in journalists,” she says.
Any writer who can provide analysis, distilling some of the information overload, which is now such a feature of our society, is offering a valuable service. “It can’t be a ‘free content fest’ any more,” says Scott Knox, managing director of Marketing Communication Consultants Association (MCCA).
“I would pay for content. But I’d want the right information, from sources that I trust,” he adds. In the same way, for B2B brands in this digital age, quality content marketing can position a company as a thought leader and push it up the search rankings, helping a brand stand out even in a crowded marketplace.
Will content be increasingly paid-for?
Readers may be pleased to hear that many experts are sceptical about the long-term benefits of paid-for content models for publishers. “I don’t think it’s necessarily the answer,” says the CIM’s Jones. “It boils down to delivering what your customers want, then the advertisers come to you. With paid-for, you could end up with a very small circulation.”
However, many also believe that specialist comment could adapt to a paid-for model more easily than news. “While the BBC exists, it would be difficult for national newspaper to start charging for news online. But specialist, value-added comment is different,” says the PPA’s Cook.
Robert Keitch, chief of membership and brand for the DMA, is also dubious about how successful migrating to a paid-for model will be for many publishers – especially publishers of news. “If Murdoch is to be successful in erecting a paywall around the TimesOnline, then he must give his readers desirable content that’s unique,” he says.
What is key is offering something that can’t be found elsewhere for free. “More often than not I won’t pay for online content as it’s likely to appear somewhere else,” says Paul Stallard, account director, Berkeley PR. “But I would argue that people pay the subscription for the FT online because it publishes valuable financial information that can’t be found elsewhere.”
Magazines as educational vehicles
Knox expresses concern that the death of too many marketing titles could lead to the industry becoming ‘introvert.’ “You need to know who’s doing what,” he says. “I think marketers – especially client side – are now less knowlegeable than they’ve ever been.”
Heather Westgate, chief executive, TDA, agrees. “When it comes to reading the more considered, in-depth and intelligent editorial analyses, print is still the superior medium. As an agency leader, I encourage my team to make time for both digital and print marketing publications as part of their continued professional development,” she says.
What is in no doubt is that we are in the throes of a publishing revolution and the lessons learnt today will shape the industry for years to come.
How would you like to read business information? Let us know by commenting on our blog post: www.b2bm.biz/marketing-mags-blog
The media agency’s view
Jonathan Barnard, head of publications at media agency ZenithOptimedia points out that £1bn a year is still being spent on magazine advertising in the UK, with half of this on business magazines.
“What is happening is that there is more substitution of magazine functions online,” he says. “Large chunks of classified advertising have moved away from print. Magazines have now lost around 30 per cent of their advertising. The magazine advertising industry has shrunk from £1.5bn in 2007 to £1bn in 2009 – this is partly due to the recession and it puts a huge pressure on the remaining titles.
“I’d say it’s unlikely we’ll see any real growth in magazine advertising in the next few years. But, having said that, a future without magazines is a long way off.”
He adds, “In the free versus paid-for debate, business media are more likely to pull it off than consumer magazines or newspapers. I’m surprised by the amount of newspapers talking about charging for content at the moment, because news is easy to get from many different sources. Business magazines providing niche information would find it easier to charge; it’s easier to ringfence.”
