Business Media Blog

2008 A Bad Year for Business Media?

Paul Conley is regular blogger on matters b2b. He argues that publishers don't yet realise how bad 2008 might be. His analysis offers a stark contrast to the blind optimism of the PPA research published last week.



Hidden in his fears of a downturn is the harsh reality that media companies in this space don't really know what they are doing. They hope that digital plays will turn out alright but they don't know how to make it work (there are a couple of interesting exceptions which I might come to in the future.)



Let's be clear - the future is not about putting magazines online. It never was. Not even in 1996. And yet most business publishers do little else. Business to business advertisers are still sceptical about the power of online marketing. What is the point, they ask, of getting clicks? What should be done with these clicks. Many blue chip consumer companies with a trade arm have a corporate website and a consumer web site, but no trade site. Few know how to buy online media, and not many business media reps know how to sell it.

Labels: online magazines, Paul Conley

posted by Businessmediablogger @ 9:08 am