Overview
The UK business media market is growing rapidly and at the start of 2008 is estimated as a £23bn industry according to research commissioned by the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), the magazine and business media trade association.
What is business media?
The most diverse sector, business media incorporates many different product areas: magazines, journals, newsletters, online services, direct marketing, exhibitions, directories, management reports, list rental and more... Many companies have products in many of these areas and some well-known brands run across nearly all of them.
Print
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker... whatever job people do, they all have their own business or professional magazines - well over 5,100 titles in total being produced by around 1,400 companies.
These publications are split into two types: some (about 30%) are 'paid for' - bought on subscription or from a newsagent - and therefore only partially funded by advertising
The rest are controlled circulation magazines, distributed in most cases free of charge to professionals who match the publishers target audience - essential as their sole revenue source is advertising.
Business and professional magazines are seen as essential reading by nearly all decision makers in every industry sector. This makes them a fantastic advertising medium delivering a targeted and engaged audience - a survey conducted by the PPA showed that 96% of sales and marketing directors consider B2B magazines best at providing effective advertising for their marketing campaigns.
Additionally, in print, you will find a wealth of directories (and databases), catalogues, journals and published reports; produced either in conjunction with a magazine or as standalone products often offering more varied and tailored sponsorship opportunities.
Live events
There's still no better way to do business than face-to-face and there's no substitute for showing and seeing products and services in person - annually there's well over 16,000 business-to-business events organised in the UK.
Trade exhibitions and conferences are the most widely offered events and are viewed as highly effective for finding new customers and suppliers. As well as working perfectly well as a standalone medium, live events are a natural extension of an already highly regarded print publication.
As well as the traditional exhibition stand, sponsorship packages cover everything from being the main headline sponsor with signage at the event, logos on the exhibition guide, website and any email communications, to being on the carrier bags you're given to carry all the bumf you pick up, to being the logo on your name badge.
In an increasingly electronic world, the way we communicate information is changing however opportunities to interact and network in person are still vital. There's huge value in being one of the sponsor companies at a conference where the leading industry pioneers are speaking, gaining kudos by association.
Online
Half of printed business magazines now have an online counterpart; some are free-to-air and funded by advertising, others by subscription only - either standalone or in conjunction with a print edition.
For a full review of online as a medium, see our dedicated section.
As far as online affects the business media sector, there are two main impacts...
For the business marketeer, the internet is simply a new medium in which to advertise - banners, buttons and pop-ups are found on the vast majority of websites, including this one. There's some snazzy technology - your advert can pop-up if someone moves their mouse over a specific word within an article, you can dabble in sponsored search, but essentially it's either display advertising or classified advertising.
The main reasons online has become so popular with a B2B audience is because you can distribute information quickly so it's great for news, and in many cases the return on investment can be far more accurately measured.
Professional/commercial access to the internet is hugely widespread and rarely a barrier nowadays. This high level of penetration, combined with the ease of access and the speed of the medium is resulting in more pure-play online products emerging all the time. For the business market, a significant portion of online revenues are set to come from paid-for content as much as traditional advertising.
Pureplay consumer will lead the way in online and other forms of new media, the key to success for business and professional media owners is sorting the wheat from the chaff, not jumping onto every new available bandwagon but really thinking about what will add value to their customers.
Read on...
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