Research: Blogs Are Hurting B2B Publishers

TechWeb brings us a gloom and doom research report stating that business to business trade media will see print ad spending decrease due to blog advertising, sponsorship and content opportunities. “Users are finding alternatives to paid trade sources: mostly ad-supported content and user-created content from blogs."

Hogwash.

OK, this research will come true if business to business publishers react like a deer in the blogosphere’s headlights.

But The Washington Post and Newsweek show one way to integrate blogs into online content to being a new, valuable dimension to a print magazine’s online presence. You don’t even have to create a blog in these scenarios.

Instead of reading this research, business to business publishers should be defining and analyzing their corners of the blogosphere. All it takes is a few search engines and some quality time online. This foundation will help them create a strategy on how they can integrate consumer-generated media into their publishing models.

The sheer volume of business to business trade shows are the most obvious untapped opportunity. Consumer-generated media, including temporary event blogs, should/will alter trade shows significantly:
* New product shots on Flickr
* Show daily podcasts with interviews
* Blog reports on key speeches and show floor buzz
* Incentivized research encouraging non-attendee participation
* Fun gimmicks like ranking the show's best tchotchke giveaway

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg and everyone involved in the show (publisher, organizer, exhibitor, attendee, non-attendee) can benefit.

TechWeb notes “trade companies are likely to continue acquiring online shopping, social networking, and blogging-related companies in an effort to expand their businesses online.” Well trade media is the original niche, or micro, media. Who better to take advantage of the blogosphere? Business to business is near and dear to my heart after 13 years working in this sector. I’m rooting for them.

UPDATE: Marketwatch Media Editor Jon Friedman adds jet fuel to my torch for mainstream media (MSM) in his post entitled "Recapturing the vitality of magazines."

Give American magazines their due. In recent years, publishers' laziness and lack of innovation have essentially enabled blogs to hijack the intangible buzz that the MSM crave. In fact, the Internet is playing such a profound role in our lives -- while gaining advertising revenue at traditional publishers' expense -- that it has all but driven the MSM into a crouch.

Still, magazines occupy a cherished place in our society. Sure, you can print out a page from a Web site and hold it in your hands. And you can put a framed copy on a wall in your home or office. But sorry: A printout won't look as good as the real thing.

The American Society of Magazine Editors is celebrating the medium's vitality, relevance and creativity by holding a competition to identify the best 40 covers of the past 40 years.

Classic covers can uncannily bring back all kinds of memories and can even herald the beginning of a new era in pop culture. These covers remind us all how much magazines can enrich our lives.

I happily remembered my wayward youth when I saw a hilarious National Lampoon cover from 1973. Unabashedly un-PC, it showed an adorable dog with a pistol pressed against its right ear. The caption said: If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog.

tags: advertising, blogs

Comments

[pete]

I do think there's an element of truth to this. Many of the blog -- like this one - are just easier and more convenient to read that the mountain of B2B publications.