The State of B-to-B Media in 2008
By Adam Dewitz on November 29th, 2007
FOLIO magazine just held their The State of B-to-B 2008 webinar that provides an outlook for B-to-B media in 2008 based on survey research conducted by FOLIO earlier this year.
Key points from the Webinar:
- Revenues and profitability generally up
- Print advertising still dominant revenue contributor (But remains flat)
- Online is the fastest growing sector
- Events also a strong contributor
- Print costs are increasing due to materials and distribution pricing
- Costs are outpacing revenue
- Finding staff with print and emedia savvy is a problem
The webinar also included some verbatim quotes from the survey respondents that provides a picture of the problems publishers are facing.
On Revenues
After a couple years of relative stability in print (flat to down single
digits), I am expecting next year we will see a much bigger decline in print
on average across the industry as economic issues within certain markets will
likely lead to a pull back from some of the larger advertisers.
—James Ogle, CFO, Cygnus Business Media
The ’same-old/same-olds’ hold true for next year—higher postage and
possible paper price increases continue to put pressure on print. Served
market and overall economic enviroment will influence our businesses.
—Don Pazour, CEO, Access Intelligence
On Costs
Rising production costs (paper/postage) will not help us a I think it is
hard to maintain margins without a deadly focus on page yields when ad
pages are a challenge to increase in a material way.
—James Ogle, CFO, Cygnus
There is an out-of-control escalation of paper prices. A tight paper
market has been created by consolidation and an industry-orchestrated
change of the supply and demand dynamics.
—Dave Kamis, VP, production & manufacturing, Crain Communications
On Staffing
“It is difficult to find experienced talent that ‘gets it’ in the integration
of print and online for any job—sales, marketing or editorial.”
—Cam Bishop, CEO, Ascend Media
Main Content Feed
2 Responses to “The State of B-to-B Media in 2008”
By Michael Josefowicz on Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
After 7 years of years at major design school in New York, and now working at a Bottom of the Pyramid High School in NY, I just wanted to respond to Cam Bishop’s remark that “It is difficult to find experienced talent that ‘gets it’ in the integration
of print and online for any job—sales, marketing or editorial.”
Maybe the problem could be solved by less emphasis on “experienced” and more emphasis on the “talent” part.
Most of Generation Google (roughly 25 and under) students “get it”. They, not us, grew up in it. It’s second nature.
Maybe a more practical approach is similar to that used in the world of investment banking and consulting…and Google.
Find the really smart, the most passionate and the most talented, give them good management AND the time and space to let them do what they do.
My bet is that the good management is the hard part. Not finding the talent.
By Dr Joe Webb on Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
I’m with Mike J. Somehow, despite a “lack of talent” the industry still publishes.
This harkens back to 19th Century economist Frederic Bastiat, who is famous for his comment “Paris is fed” because of the spontaneous order of things — where people see chaos there is actually a well-functioning economic system — he’s a great read, even to this day. http://www.mises.org/about/3227
What I find more interesting is the “talent” that is sought is for old media. I strongly recommend reading how young workers are being discouraged in the publishing business at this article: http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2007/10/brain-drain.html
One of the most overlooked parts of the diversity movement is the need for diversity in age in organizations as a means of providing contituity between not just generations of people but generations of workflow methods and hands-on market understanding.
My experience has always been that always seeking “experienced” workers is a tacit admission of poor human resources management.