You’re based in Germany, which probably has the best advertising support of any country in the electronics industry. So why did you decide to publish pan-European titles in English?
When we started ICC Media 10 years ago, the idea was to create a new kind of publishing house which combines traditional and new media to an Integrated Communications Concept. From the very beginning, it was – and still is – our strategy to offer a one-stop service for the MARCOM activities of our customers. As a small start-up we thought it might be better to focus on a niche and to stay away from the mainstream. The niche we choose was “Embedded”. In order do not make the niche too small, we decided to publish in English and to address whole of Europe, rather than Germany only.

Isn’t the cost of sending print magazines around Europe becoming prohibitively expensive?
Yes, it is expensive. Cost is heavily depending on the weight and is usually more than 1 EUR per copy. Mailing costs and printing costs are the two items which make print magazine much more expensive than digital ones. And this is the reason why many publishers are on the road to “digital-only”. But this purely cost-driven strategy is not in line with what the readers want – at least not in Europe. The majority still prefer to read on paper. The cost driven switch to digital is in the short term good for balance sheet of the publishing companies, but in the mid-term it weakens their position in the market.

Do you really think print magazines can survive in the next five years?
You may have anticipated my answer already: Yes, I am convinced that in 5 years print magazines will still be around in Europe – less than today, but print will stay alive. It is the 40+ generation that on one hand uses the Internet for searching for information and collecting information, but prefers reading on a piece of paper, rather than on a computer screen. The majority of the engineers in the Electronics Market are these “Best Agers”, especially in senior and management positions. Therefore it makes not only sense for publishers to stay active in print, but also for advertisers.
Everything beyond that is anyway crystal ball reading. For sure technology will step forward and at some point in the future there will a new generation of iPad-like devices available with a new generation of displays which allow the same or even better reading comfort than print magazines. Reading comfort combined with the possibility to download any magazine at any time you want will be the undertaker of the print magazines. But then, I might be retired already and will enjoy reading good books during overwintering on a warm Greek island.

ICC Media has been one of the first European publishers in our industry to use online video. Why do you think you were able to see the opportunity before other publishers?
On one side – the content side – ICC Media is very focussed; we are covering “Embedded” only. But on the other side – the media side – ICC Media is a broad ranger. As I said already, it is our strategy to offer a one-stop service for the MARCOM activities of our customers. To keep our service portfolio always up-to-date, we are watching very careful what’s going with new media, web 2.0, etc. Over the last couple of years – mainly driven by portals like You Tube – videos have become quite popular, even for professionals. Therefore we decided to invest into video. Just recently we have launched the embedded-news.tv video portal. We do not only create our own video content, but also promote videos of our customers to the readers/users of our media. As part of our one-stop service strategy we are also offering the production of videos and the hosting on our embedded-news.tv portal.

Does online video generate a significant proportion of your revenue? Do you have a target for how much revenue will be driven by video/multimedia in the future?
To answer this question I need to go back a little bit. We are not – and we have never been – a publishing house in its traditional sense. From the very beginning, we have defined ourselves as platform provider. We provide platforms where the embedded industry (our advertisers) can meet embedded systems designers (our readers/users). The key to attract readers is to provide relevant content. Relevance of the content has the first priority, format of the content is secondary. In the past, online platforms used to purely provide text-based content. Even today there is still much more text-based content (new product releases, white papers, technical articles, ..) around in our industry than video/multimedia content. But in the last years more and more content was shifted into rich media, especially into Flash-based videos and webinars. Therefore: Yes, rich media is already responsible for a significant proportion of your revenue. But: No we have no target for the future. We will always try to publish content (and advertisements) in the format most suitable for our readers.

ICC Media is running a number of virtual conferences. People have tried to make virtual conferences work for many years, so why do you think they are going to work now?
The answer is simple: I know that Virtual Conferences work, because we are practising this. This year we have started 5 Virtual Conferences already and all of them have worked so far – technically and in terms of visitors (typically 200 to 300 delegates are signing-up per event). It is our plan to do around 10 new virtual conferences per year now.
But there is a long way to go. We have tried for virtual conferences and webinars, for at least 5 years. We made several attempts to establish virtual events and we failed several times, mainly due to the complexity of the technology, lack of acceptance and lack of bandwidth at the users end. Now these problems have generally been solved. We have learned our lessons and now know how it works technically (the key is to keep it simple) and in terms of users acceptance. At the beginning of this year, we launched www.iccmedia-vcon.com, our own platform for virtual conferences. Currently there are 6 virtual events online on demand as archived versions.

Do you think virtual conferences will replace physical seminars, conferences and shows?
Virtual events will never fully replace physical events. But it is fact that the number of virtual events is rapidly increasing and that the number of physical events is decreasing. This is because “virtual” is so much cheaper and less time consuming than “physical”. But a virtual conference or virtual show can never deliver the same amount of interaction, socializing and networking between visitors, speakers and exhibitors as a physical event does.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?
This summer a lot of my spare time will be filled with watching football. I like football! But during the year I am not normally not too fanatic about it, unless there is a major tournament. Then – according to my wife – I get completely mad and spend hours and hours with watching not only all matches, but also all the pre- and post-match reports. Of course I am supporting the German team which normally gets quite far in the World Cup – normally as far as playing against Italy. Then we always loose. But I am sure this year it will be different.

Tags: Editors, Germany, ICC Media, Interviews

In our industry there is always a debate about whether engineers or journalists make the best editors, Personally, I think both can be successful, but as an engineer myself I’m always going to be particularly pleased when another techhie succeeds. So I was delighted when I got a chance to interview Ian Poole, who started his Radio-Electronics.com site as a sideline, and has seen it grow to the point that it now attracts more traffic than many sites from mainstream publications. Ian has a lot of interesting things to say about running a site, SEO and online advertising.

So you are an engineer who has decided to move into publishing. Are you nuts? Haven’t you heard about the financial challenges facing magazines?
Well in many ways I probably am nuts – but I have always enjoyed investigating how new technologies work and writing about them. As for the challenges facing magazines now, I would agree that things are very difficult, but at Radio-Electronics.com we have relatively low operating costs so I think we will be able to weather the storm and establish ourselves as a major player before long. Our aim is to carve a niche for ourselves now, allowing people to take advantage of good advertising rates especially at the moment when times are hard – but keeping them low even in the long term.

Why did you decide to start Radio-Electronics.com? Did you always want to make money from it?
No not really – tracing the site right to the very beginning it all started with some free web-space that came with an email address. Wanting make use of it and experiment with the Internet, I decided to use it to advertise some books I had written. This lead to becoming an Amazon affiliate, and then to attract visitors I needed to create good content. Taking out the Radio-Electronics.com domain name around 2002, the site has grown over the years and we now are developing it full-time.
We are now focusing on reaching the electronics engineers who make the fundamental technical decisions. The by-line for the site is “Resources and Analysis for Electronics Engineers.” We are taking contributions from industry experts to provide analysis, technology trends, case studies and the like, and this is under-pinned by the reference material which is written in house. In this way we aim to provide a useful knowledge resource for the engineering community

The site has just run Google ads until now. Why didn’t you try to get display advertising?
Up until recently, we have been doing quite a lot of electronics engineering consultancy work in addition to running the site. During this period Google Ads have been a good way of providing a small revenue without the need to commit time to going out to sell the advertising space. Selling advertising takes time, so we focused our activities on providing good content for the site.
Now we are devoting virtually all our time to the website, have decided to sell advertising to bring in the revenue needed to develop the site further. To help with this we have installed a full advertisement management system, upgraded the site, and now we have the ability to sell the advertising space properly.

What’s the difference in revenue between running Google ads and display advertising?
Google Ads are a great way of running small advertising campaigns on a low budget. However we have been trying to create a top quality website where top line companies feel happy to advertise. Unfortunately Google Ads do not provide much revenue – typically eCPMs less than £1, and often comparatively irrelevant advertisements come up on the pages. To enable the best results to be achieved we believe we need to work with the advertisers on an individual basis to place the best advertisements in the best positions. While many publications charge CPM rates above £70 dependent upon the position and ad format, we are significantly undercutting this, while still aiming to provide a good service.

Are the costs of running display advertising just the commission for the sales team?
A good question! And to give a straight answer – no. While we have to pay the advertising sales team, we have also invested a huge amount of time in creating good quality content as well as developing the appearance and functionality of the site. We plan to continue this trend but to do this we need to finance the site and grow it accordingly.

Google is planning to resell display advertising space in a similar way to their AdWords content network. So why are you recruiting sales people?
There are a number of ad marketplace sites out there. These are fine, and we may well use them to a small degree. However, to develop effective advertising campaigns, the advertising needs to be properly tailored to match the site and advertiser. This cannot be done so easily through the marketplace platform which is good to high volumes of advertisements to generalist sites. We are aiming at a niche market where content has to be up to date and highly technical to attract the right visitors. This type of site does not lend itself well to the marketplace approach.

Radio-electronics.com has got some impressive traffic figures without much promotion or a sister print title. How did you do it?
We have tried long and hard to create good useful content. We have seen the traffic rise, particularly in the areas where we have spent time providing the best content. We are always aiming for the “best on the net” (and we hope we achieve it) and this seems to pay off. We have seen traffic rise steadily and we now regularly serve over 300 000 pages a month.

Do you think print magazines have a future? What about digital distribution of magazines?
I love reading print magazines, but they are all finding it more difficult these days. I think there will always be some magazines around as we all love to read from paper rather than a screen. However I feel that the majority of electronics titles will go digital-only in one form or another before too long. I suppose that is one of the reasons why we have never considered having a paper version of Radio-Electronics.com.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?
I have plenty to fill my time – for example our daughter is getting married later this year so there is plenty to do in organizing that. However I also enjoy many other activities and pastimes – reading, music (of many sorts), eating out, travelling and photography – we visited some friends in South Africa last year and also went on safari for which I just had to get a long lens for the SLR – fortunately I managed to get some shots I was really pleased with. In addition to that we are also involved with our local church.

What’s your favourite gadget?
Mmm that’s difficult – possible the camera, or may be the iPod. Not sure which.

Tags: Editors, Interviews, Online, UK

ED Europe is a purely digital publication. So does this mean print is dead?

Absolutely not. In my opinion print publications will never be redundant. We humans read for many reasons such as pleasure, education, information-gathering and business requirements and for many people there is considerable enjoyment in reading a well-written, well-designed magazine or newspaper that is traditionally printed. There is also for some a desire to own well-produced books that perhaps form part of a personal collection.

I see no future print scenario that will emulate Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. ….now there’s a book worth owning.

From a B2B information perspective I think traditional print and electronic media can co-exist. The only proviso I would mention is that free circulation B2B print publications face sharply escalating costs on paper, printing and postage and therefore it is financially logical that B2B media companies will increasingly use electronic media to reach existing and new audiences

What are the benefits your readers see from a magazine that is delivered digitally?

Convenient delivery to their computer desktop, easy storage for reference purposes, easy to print if required. Individual pages or the whole thing can be emailed to colleagues, customers, etc.

ED Europe is delivered only as a PDF, whereas most other titles have some online system with animated pages and an option to download a PDF. Why haven’t you offered an online reader?

Unlike many PDF-delivered publications that are really print publications that have been adapted for, or in some cases just shoved onto, computer screens, ED Europe was specifically designed for PDF delivery. This provides numerous advantages for recipients. It opens in a landscape format that fits computer screens. Readers do not have to zoom in to read it or scroll around the page trying to find the story they want. Reader navigation throughout the publication is quick and easy and because of some very smart compression techniques we can produce a 26-page edition with lots of colour graphics that goes out typically as a 3meg file.

Let’s not forget here that ED Europe was created back in 2005 so it’s not unreasonable to call it a pioneering success in digital B2B media terms. It has during that time won three major awards in the USA.

On the subject of Flash-related animations in digital publications Penton Media is fully aware of these and plans to make full use of them.

Can you explain the difference between writing for a print publication and writing for a purely digital title?

In the case of ED Europe, there really is no difference. Because of the way it is designed we can run short news stories, full-length technical features and opinion columns in exactly the same way as a traditional print publication.

Now ask me that question relative to writing directly online and that’s a very different journalistic proposition. Penton Media editors now write directly to websites and the way headlines and other related information is written has to be within certain parameters that suit web journalism.

So we now see a complete Penton Media portfolio where editors write for traditional print, digital and online media

ED Europe launched an HTML email newsletter. Why didn’t you simply create a shorter PDF magazine to cover the news? What are the advantages of the HTML delivery?

Three reasons for that. ED Europe’s NewsLine newsletters provide readers with a fast, convenient, easily absorbed information service. For Penton Media it has created an additional revenue source while also doing the valuable job of driving traffic to our websites.

You have been one of the pioneers of online video in the European electronics industry. Do you see video continuing to grow as a medium in our industry?

Penton Media are committed to online video in a big way and yes I do see the use of video as a B2B communication tool expanding. Penton Media has an Engineering TV department that works in conjunction with publications and editors to produce very high quality professional standard coverage. For me and many of my editorial, colleagues at Penton one of the major video innovations has been the way in which we report on exhibitions. To be able to shoot a three-minute interview with somebody that has been deeply involved in the development of new products and technology and have them explain it directly to our design engineering audiences has to be one of the most immediate and informative ways of communicating complex information.

In addition to our editorially created video coverage Penton Media is now looking at hosting vendor videos on our websites. Conceptually, these are videos produced by companies that want to promote their products and as such can considered as being a modern high-tech form of advertising. Penton Media will be hosting these videos for a fee and the number of weeks/months the video will appear for will depend on the level of fee paid.

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?

Generally speaking the successful PR executives and PR agencies do a pretty good job of presenting and distributing information to the media.

But while we are on the subject of PR agencies I will just release one particular bee-from-my-bonnet. PR agencies in a bid to do the best for their clients will often promote the use of editorial columns to publicise the client. And why not? Its a powerful form of promotion that contains that all important credibility ingredient called editorial integrity; although sometimes I wonder, and call me a tad cynical here if you wish, if the real attraction is more to do with the fact that editorial coverage is free.

Without going into a full scale, force 10 rant here let me put the point simply. There are agencies with foresight that appreciate magazines do need advertising income if they are to stay in business. Sadly, there are others that will soak up all the editorial support they can without thinking that in the long-term publications are a business and understandably need to turn a profit or otherwise face closure; a situation that benefits no publicity agencies.

If an industry feels there is a value to having B2B media circulating in its sector then it needs to consider supporting that media with advertising.

And let’s get one thing straight; I am certainly not talking here about a pay-to-play editorial approach. Clearly, that would ultimately denigrate the content of any journal and would not serve the interests of either readers or advertisers. What I am saying is that all industry clients and their agencies should recognise that in the long-term maintaining independent, well written and well produced business media is in everyone’s interests.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?

Wining and dining with family and friends, travelling in Spain, playing classical Spanish guitar (badly)

What’s your favourite gadget?

A corkscrew

Tags: Advertising, Awards, CIE, Clients, Digital Magazines, Digital Magazines and Print Publications, ED Europe, Editors, EiN, Electronics, Email, EPE, ESC, ESE, Europe, Interviews, Newsletters, Online, Penton, Spain, USA, Video

I was delighted to be able to talk with Gote Fagerfjall of Elektronik i Norden. This publication is fiercely independent, which has allow them to innovate over the years, including being one of the first titles in our sector to add social media features to the site. EiN has managed to create a great blend of the conventional and new, and Gote’s views on the future of print and the difference between the IT and electronics industry are fascinating.

In the past you had a close partnership with TechInsights/CMP, but have remained very independent. What advantages are there of being a relatively small publisher?
Independence is important for many reasons. The most obvious one is the need to react quickly to changes. This is much easier in a small organisation. A small organisation also tends to be more efficient, which is very important these days.

How successful is the digital edition of Elektronik i Norden? Do you think digital delivery is the future of magazines?
The digital edition is doing OK. We’ve been running our own system for almost two years now and everything seems to be working nicely. Now it’s time to take a few more steps, but we’ll come back to that later.
Digital delivery is of course extremely important, but it doesn’t really replace the printed paper. New stuff seldom replaces old stuff (the telephone didn’t replace the railway, even though some people thought it would).
On the web we have an online edition plus a digital version of the paper. The digital version of the paper could be seen as a substitute for print, but in reality this is not the case. Maybe we will see 100 percent digital delivery in the future, but I’m not convinced.

Is it difficult to create a title for both print and digital delivery? Does the readability of the digital version suffer?
It’s not that difficult to create a title for both print and digital. The online edition is of course different and the digital version of the paper is quite readable on a normal screen. The tabloid size is not a problem.
This year has been tough for all publications in our industry, and Elektronik i Norden is one of the titles that has reduced print frequency. Can local-language titles service small markets survive?
Yes, it has been a tough year. But the reduction of print frequency is actually something we have been discussing for several years. Combined with the online edition, one printed paper per month is OK.
Local language titles makes a lot of sense. It would of course be possible to have a localised version of an international paper, but in reality it wouldn’t be much cheaper to produce (if at all). The electronic industry in our area is quite healthy and local presence and local content is vital.

Elektronik i Norden has been one of the pioneers in adding social media features, with the comments facility on your website. It seems, however, that many stories don’t attract comments. Do you think the comments are successful, and how do you decide this?
Social media features are nice, but we haven’t been pushing them up to now. I’m certain comments will be more common in the future, but probably not at all to the extent you see in the IT domain.

In similar industries such as IT, independent blogs have become a significant medium. Yet in electronics there are few independent blogs, with most blogs part of the online presence of a large publication. Why do you think electronics is different?
Again, the electronics industry differs quite a bit from the IT industry. This has always been the case. It might change a bit as the software content grows in the electronics industry.

What changes do you expect to see over the next three years in the European electronics media?
The online electronics media will mature over the next three years. Plus we might see a few “glorified blog sites”. News will probably still be the basis of the sites, but we will see more online workshops, online exhibitions and other new ideas where interactivity is important.
The future of the printed electronics media is harder to predict. It depends totally on the action of the advertisers. But from the reader’s perspective, I think a combination of print and online is essential. It’s so much faster to leaf through a paper and most of the time you really have no need for interactivity. Reading a technical article on the web takes at least twice the time compared to reading it in printed version. And if you want to read outdoors or on the bus/train there still isn’t an alternative to print.

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
I would like the companies to check where the designs are actually made. Then they might realise the importance of using and supporting the European electronics press. Most European papers have a hard time and one way of cutting costs is to discontinue the printed version. I think this would be very bad for the electronics industry.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?
There is so much to do and so little time to do it. I enjoy kayaking, sailing, cycling, reading, listening to music, carpenting and quite a few other things. And in a little while I will walk into my house and watch the latest episode of Simpsons.

What’s your favourite gadget?
My favourite gadget for the moment is probably my netbook. But I’m waiting for a much smaller and lighter version.

Tags: EiN, Interviews, Sweden

Why did you decide to buy EE Times Europe and MWEE only a few years after selling your magazine to CMP (now TechInsights)?
Although it seems to be only a few years, it has actually been 9 years! At the time (November 2000) when CMP acquired EBP, CMP desperately wanted to have European magazines to compete with Reed globally. Now as CMP/Techinsights / EETimes Group have realigned their business, they feel that they need to concentrate on their home market and work globally with affiliates ( in Europe, Asia, Japan).

What are the advantages of you owning the European titles rather than managing the publishing of them within TechInsights?
There are many: we’ll be able to make strategic decisions on our own, adapt the publications to the customer needs, and make long term investments such as the one we have already launched to create a new web site.

How will the acquisition change the way that the European titles are sold in the USA?
There will be no change at all as we always had our own sales team in the US, with Todd Bria on the West, Steve Priessman in the Midwest and East and Jim Lees covering Atlantic states.

What benefits will European advertisers see from the change of ownership?
We’ll be more Europe centric and will be looking at targeting the editorial content to the needs of our European readers both on line and in print. Also, we’ll invest more into readership acquisition and qualification.

You purchased the European DesignLines, which have a global audience, but TechInsights has retained Embedded Systems Europe, which is a European publication. Can you explain why you did this?
The Design Lines we have kept in our portfolio do address the European market and even if by essence these micro sites can be seen globally, the content is aimed at our core European readership. Embedded Systems Europe has been changed to ESD (UK) with a UK only circulation. Techinsights have a core competence in the Embedded field with a number of ESC events around the world and ESD fits nicely into their portfolio.

When do you think there will be a noticeable upturn in the European electronics advertising market?
The market is still very much depressed and advertising budgets have been cut to a minimum. However, we see some signs of an upturn online and 2010 should be much better online than 2009. With regards to print we’ll probably see much more activity in the second half of 2010 with the electronica 2010 exhibition being a key driver.

What’s your view of companies that don’t advertise, but expect their PR to be covered in your titles?
There are 2 different categories in such companies: the first one consists of all the small companies that think they cannot afford advertising and these do some PR which we are happy to publish to inform our readers about start ups and new technologies. The second category is more of a problem as they have money, have an extended PR department and expect their PR to be published but do not support the trade press with advertising. These companies in the end only hurt themselves as they do not take advantage of a medium that can help them create more brand awareness among the specifiers and buyers who are the publications’ readers. Plus the cost of an advertising program in trade publications is relatively small when you compare it with other expenses these companies make. If these companies believe in PR and in the magazines that publish them they ought to do some advertising. If they don’t they may find that in the medium term there will be no publications to publish their PR in.

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR and marketing in the electronics industry?
The one thing most companies seem to have forgotten about is that we are all in the same ecosystem: publishers create reader communities who buy companies’ products. A recent study by our partner is Asia Global Sources has shown that even in the Google age, brand is the key to success: engineers type in brands into the Google search engine rather than key words. And how do you get brand recognition? Mostly by advertising in print and online.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Listening to music – mostly classical, walking in open nature, mountains etc. Also I tend to spend a great deal of my free time working on the renovation of our second home in Périgord, France and visiting wineries in Burgundy, and Bergerac which has some top notch and relatively little known producers.

What’s your favourite gadget?
I am not very good at gadgets and I am not sure if I actually own any other than a couple of digital cameras and an iTouch MP3 player which I rarely ever use.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, EE Times, Online, TechInsights

Didn’t product books die out years ago?
Engineers have always been interested in finding out about new products. Look at the amount of pages that news and other titles give to new products. At EPN, we have made new products our speciality! It’s what we do best and so we focus on delivering new products from around the world to readers across Europe. The large amount of responses we receive to ‘bingo’ numbers via the web on each story supports this approach of give the people what they want!

What does a magazine deliver to engineers that they can’t find when searching the web?
Magazine editors are the ultimate spam filter! We choose the products that are of interest, that take the technology up a notch or which are truly new and different. The beauty of a magazine is that sometimes you didn’t know you are looking for something until you see it in the pages of EPN! It is also impartial and measured information about products, not the marketing department’s idea of a good story, which can be reproduced on some online sites churning out content. Editor’s ask questions on behalf of their readers, i.e. engineers, to make editorial particularly pertinent to their daily working lives; again, you won’t find that on a company’s website.

How do you balance your time between writing for the print publication and writing for epn-online.com?
Product stories that appear in the magazine also appear online so most of my time is spent writing these. I write some online-only product stories too. I also write some content for the online section, Industry News. These are news stories about a new Alliance or Industry body; a merger/acquisition or technology collaboration. However, EPN is all about products, so while these stories are of interest to engineers there is no product in them and are not as prominent on the homepage as Top Products. I conduct an Interview of the Week, another online feature, occasionally. This is a Q&A with C-level executives or technology experts; although I can only claim to dabble – Mick Elliott is the man for probing questions!

In similar industries such as IT, independent blogs have become a significant medium. Yet in electronics there are few independent blogs, with most blogs part of the online presence of a large publication. Why do you think electronics is different?
I must confess I hadn’t thought of the electronics industry being different. Writers become associated with a target audience. National newspapers have blogs of their columnists which are accessed through the newspaper’s home page. Perhaps with IT, blogs are opinion-pieces about whether a new OS is any good or more corporate news with what Google or Facebook is up to. Maybe electronics journalists aren’t as opinionated as IT ones! The audience is different. Engineers don’t get het up about whether one FPGA is more stylish, they clinically compare attributes and make informed choices. The electronics industry seems to have ploughed its own farrow, reporting intelligently via blogs on magazine homepages. At the risk of sounding immodest, EPN has two of the most qualified in their field bloggers, Mick Elliott reporting on distribution and Helen Duncan reporting on all things RF and Wireless – their posts are certainly independent!

What changes do you expect to see over the next three years in the European electronics media?
You are not the first to have asked! At the risk of disappointing you, I cannot prophesise a paperless office with online or digital editions soon. A few companies seem to value appearing in print above all else, so, I am not convinced that print will disappear by the time of the London Olympics! Maybe in another five to 10 years, when all the graduates today who are more web-dependent for information sources are in engineering jobs, the emphasis for content delivery will change.
However, I may be like the Hollywood director who dismissed Fred Astaire’s audition with the words, “Can’t sing, can’t act, can dance a little”! The real crux of your question is that no-one, if they are honest, knows what will be most popular and effective for everyone……

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
You’re going to limit me to one? ! OK, use someone who knows about publishing AND electronics. A knowledge of both will eliminate the following sins: putting management-speak or eight words instead of one in a presentation/press release; suggesting meetings without thinking what will the editor get out of this? (A story, should be the answer, not a cup of tea and a chat!); sending a press release containing all the information, and an image with the highlights superimposed on it – trust me, I’ll know to mention that it consumes only 8µA in sleep mode
And that’s me being restrained!

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?
Horse-riding. I live in London, but there are some stables nearby and when hacking across the lower fields, you would never guess that half of London was racing to get to the other side of London, a few feet away! When I go away with work or family, I always try and book up a horse-ride – you see nature differently on the back of a horse!

What’s your favourite gadget?
I am very attached to my Blackberry, but it’s a bit like chocolate – I have to lock it away sometimes!
Is a microwave a gadget?!
I might have said sat-nav, but I have had a few arguments with it lately when it takes me in a circle or the long way round!
Personal DVD players keep the kids quiet on journey which makes them worth their weight in gold!
Years ago, I had a solar-powered calculator that converted metric to imperial measures and Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa – that was invaluable! It’s probably an iPhone app now. I wish there was a portable barcode reader that could convert the world’s currencies in real-time so that I could confirm that it really is a bargain!

Tags: Editors, EPN, Interviews, UK

I was interested to hear about Elettronica 360, a custom publication created by Inware Edizioni for Italian distributor Comprel. In other industries custom publishing is big business, so it’s great to see a publisher see in-house magazine as an opportunity. I was lucky enough to be able to interview Antonio Cirella from Inware Edizioni about the project.

Is this the first time your company has published an in-house magazine?
Yes, we had few experiences in the past but Elettronica 360 is the first project of this type with a regular publication plan (3/4 issues per year).

Why did Comprel decide to use a publishing company, rather than create the magazine within their marketing department?
This is a key point, happy to answer! Small/medium sized distributors that mainly work in local markets don’t have internal resources to allocate for a major project like a magazine. Nevertheless, they do all provide a marketing and communication budget. The key is to allocate part of the marketing budget to create an great magazine in partnership with an experienced publishing house that has all the know how and resources available to support the project.

Why is a distributor launching an in-house magazine at a time when commercially publications are struggling and advertising prices are low?
This is another key factor. An house organ can give up-to-date information for customers, suppliers and (last but not least) internal communication. The purpose – of course – is not to compete with any of the commercial magazines, but just to reach the readers, suppliers and other related targets, with fresh information (technical and commercial) about the status of the company. All of this using part of the communication budget that normally distributors allocate to catalogue printing – and printed catalogues get obsolete very soon.

Who manages the advertising/sponsorship for “Elettronica 360”?
AThis is done by Comprel, which is free do set any co-marketing with franchisees and get funding from this action.

Don’t you think that in-house magazines such as “Elettronica 360” could compete with, and potentially take income from commercially published titles?
Not at all! I firmly believe that readership of commercial titles won’t be affected by house organs and also advertisers will look at them differently from commercial magazines. This is not an original idea, house organs have always been published (Rutronik, EBV and others) but now they can be published by smaller or local distributors! Elettronica 360 creates a new possibility for those who always have dreamed to have their own house organ but never managed due to time and resources shortage.

What are the benefits to readers of in-house titles such as “Elettronica 360”, which only cover a small proportion of the electronics industry – ie the products sold by Comprel?
They’ll get fresh information about Comprel, in a form that is similar to a magazine with extended commercial and technical information. As said, I see no overlap in readership between a commercial magazine and a house organ, Another point is that Comprel sales people use Elettronica 360 during discussions with customers as a sales tool. The customers/readers simply like it! And get more information about Comprel offering too!

Obviously you don’t have the same editorial freedoms when writing “Elettronica 360”. Do you enjoy having to always meet the demands of Comprel?
I like this question because it gives me the possibility to better clarify our role. We differ from other publishing companies mostly by the fact that we use an in-house editorial team to produce the articles published in our magazines. We have an network of around 60 freelance editors involved with our magazine editorial production. They are all engineers with a deep knowledge of several different topics and all capable of writing good articles (this is not always the case…). We can meet almost any requirement or commitment from vendors and our editorial plan is indeed very wide. These attitudes perfectly meet the requirements of an house organ editorial production, so we are not concerned about the choices of the client.

Do you plan to repeat Elettronica 360 experience in the future?
Yes. Our next goal is to produce an house organ in English language, for international markets. We are at the moment evaluating a couple of proposals.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Interviews, Inware, Italy, Misc Marketing

What do you most enjoy about your job?
There are so many things to enjoy.

Which areas of electronics interest you the most?
All of them! It’s very hard to separate the various issues of the electronics business, as they are so strongly linked. Components, EDA, manufacturing and test goes hand in hand. However in all cases I prefere the compact and limited solution that gets the job done. A humble microcontroller can be a fastastic component in the right application – and most solutions for power-electronics are often made for one specific purpose that’s solved “quick and dirty”. I am particularly fond of power-electronics, but having spent six years in the Danish Technical University dealing with this subject, it shouldn’t be a surprise? From a more bizarre perspective, I’ve always been fascinated by electron valves. Beautiful component – and in a few cases with superior performance compared to semiconductors.

It must be difficult for magazines in countries like Denmark, which are relatively small markets when compared with countries like Germany, France and the UK. Do you think that there will always be local Danish electronics magazines?
Good question! From a financial point of view (revenue per capita of the spoken language) Danish is the 18th most important language in the world – which almost puts the Danish on par with French! (these are OECD-figures, so they should be kosher). Denmark is also the most computer-literate country in the world and there are more printed titles per capita than anywhere else in the world. Also a lot of the International R&D is deeply founded in Denmark which means that there’s a substantial demand for technical information in the Danish society. Some claim that the Danes are the Jews of the North. It may be quite difficult discovering the Danish brands, but in a very subtle way, we are deeply involved in all walks of the business – financially, politically, technologically or otherwise. Companies knowing that the Danish design-footprint being very important in products from a large amount of international brandnames are usually doing quite well – so you should never underestimate the potential of small countries.

Do you think that paper magazines will ever be replaced by digital versions and/or websites?
A Danish philosopher once said: It’s very hard to predict anything – particularly the future. And having been proven wrong on a few occasions, I’m rather reluctant to have a rock-solid opinion about these matters. However, you may ask yourself a few questions: 25 years ago, everybody said that the computer would give us the paperless society. So far this is not the case. Also, after the introduction of the internet there are more printed titles now than, say, five years ago. Now, this should perhaps pose the answer in itself. And when you think of it: Apart from the flatscreen and the performance has the computer really changed since the introduction of the IBM XTs/ATs more than 25 years ago? No, not really. I think a useful digital version of the printed paper or magazine should be constructed in a completely different fashion. Personally I’d always prefer the lowest common technogical denominator that does the job – and a good printed publication is still hard to beat.

Do you have any plans to enhance the magazine or website over the next year?
Funny enough, Aktuel Elektronik is on the increase despite the present economical climate. Unfortunately our company also owns some titles within areas that are more or less affected by the economical downturn. This means that we don’t have as many editorial hands as before. This puts a hold to most plans of product development for the time being. This being said, our web-site runs very nice swiflets of the present and back-issues of Aktuel Elektronik, which is particularly interesting on our overseas markets (there are many Danish engineers working in both Silly Valley and China).
We are increasingly helping companies and organizations setting up conferences in Denmark. This seems to be quite popular. Also we’re placing video-interviews and productbased video-tutorials on our website. Our readers in Denmark obviously prefers the printed paper, so we’re making an effort to make different use of our website.

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
More international press meetings and seminars. This is not a waste of time of money, but it’s the perfect opportunity to show the readers the people behind the products – and in the end people do business with people – and no matters how good a product, you’d never buy it unless you trust the people behind the product.
Also companies should recognize the value of sucking up to the editors. Without PR, no sales. And without the deep, personal contact to the editors, no PR. The media are the door-openers for the business, and whether the companies like it or not without using the media as a megaphone to the end users, they’ll die. The companies should also appreciate the within this particular segment the editors are at least as technologically savvy as the companies themselves – combined with a deep contact to the markets that the varous companies want to approach. Hence: Take good care of the editors – and they’ll take good care of you. (Does this seem like a familiar approach?)

Do you personally prefer to get information in print or online?
Depends: Talking about press releases, I want to receive these as e-mail dedicated to me, in Danish, as a short and sharp word-document (10 to 15 lines are better than three pages of corporate blah-blah) and with a good picture attached as a jpg. When it comes to articles, I prefer a phonecall before any mails come through. This assures that the article could be useful. When I get my own information, I prefer to stay informed via printed media, whereas I can normally find exactly what I’m looking for in less then 10 seconds using google.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Sure you want to know? No, well, there are more things. It’s good fun to play with my kids on the Playstation which is connected to a 80″ TV-set. It adds some realism to Fifa ´09 or whatever. Also playing some decent rock’n roll (much into Rockabilly and Emo these days – yeah-yeah, I know I’m 30 years to old for the latter) on my Gibson Standard or Stick-bass. Also got a garage full of classic bikes and cars that require frequent attention. And, hey, then there’s my membership of the Malt Whisky Society (thanks to David Milne of Wolfson) – but sitting down for a profound chat with International collegues of the business over a pint or two is most enjoyable. What else? Oh yes, just published a book on Model Trains. Being part-owner of one of the largest model train shops in Europe this seemed like a wise move – so obviously I’m enjoy model trains too. Finally there’s the dear Mrs. who requires quite a lot of attention too (6′ of leggy blonde). As odd as this may sound, I like taking her to the after Xmas sales in London – which means about three days of shopping-frenzy up and down the Streets around Piccadilly and Covent Garden. And as long as I got my black Levis 501′s, a black T-shirt and black Doc Martins, I’m happy.
Finally hunting down peculiarities that collegues and PR-people around the world really like is part of the fun. I’ve always got an eye open for Mocca Chocolate Beans for Suzy (at Napier) or similar funny items with a Danish background. So if anyone out there needs anything odd Danish stuff, just let me know, and I’ll if I can find it.

What is your favourite gadget?
Right now? Must be my new 24-track Tascam Portastudio. I’m working on a record, and eventually the technology has reached a level, where the quality is fully up the CD-standard, and the price of the hardware is acceptable.

Tags: Denmark, Editors, Interviews

The relaunch of E&E is a huge change of direction for the magazine. Why did publish industry believe this was needed?
Media use has changed dramatically the last view years. Workaday life is dominated by time pressure and new digital media formats compete with print. As a consequence, publishing houses are forced to reconsider their magazine concepts and to redefine their positioning. With the concept of a print-magazine that provides fascination as well as even high utility in combination with our new digital newsletter E&E WEEK containing all the product news and current market-information, publish-industry is well prepared for this change.

What has been the response to the new magazine and to E&Eweek from readers?
This is very encouraging and overwhelming: We just got positive and constructive feedback so far. Apparently with the new concept we did get exactly the point and reach our core target group. People mainly mentioned the fresh layout, independent editorial content and the interplay between print and the E&Eweek.

E&Eweek has only attracted a couple of advertisers so far. What do you think has prevented others from trying the new format?
After seven issues of E&Eweek I am absolutely convinced, that the positive feedback of our readers will lead to success in advertising. Especially in Germany it is very difficult to convince people of something new – and it is even harder in times of an economical downturn.

One criticism of E&Eweek is that although it looks great, there are no active hyperlinks in the PDF. Why is this?
We do have active links placed in the event overview, in advertisements and some referring to editorial content of the E&E print magazine.

Is there anything you plan to change about E&Eweek or E&E Faszination Elektronik, or anything you wish was done differently?
The huge positive feedback from electronic developers confirms that the new direction is the right way for E&E. We still have a lot of new ideas we will introduce within the next months. The same applies to the E&Eweek.

Doesn’t the new format E&E Faszination Elektronik demand more work by editors than “conventional” electronics magazines? How can you sustain this commitment?
If you want to achieve high quality it usually means a lot of work. This is also true for the E&E. But in this case it means also a lot of fun and the chance to create something new. It is a great challenge, but in a positive sense of meaning. I’m sure we will – in cooperation with our readers, our clients, our freelance authors and the whole E&E-team – create a really good magazine that is worth the effort.

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
The companies are our partners – we need them to be successful. But with the different approach of the new E&E we need a new kind of cooperation which has to be much more bilateral than it has been before. The dialogue between the publisher, the client and the agency is essential for us and our new concept.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?
I have a wife and two cats – they all keep me busy most of the time. And I am a musician for more than 20 years. I spent a lot of time in my little studio – which of course contains a lot of electronic stuff.

What’s your favourite gadget?
I bought a Netbook in January and I am so happy with it – it does a good job for business and private purposes.

Tags: Editors, EuE, Germany, Interviews

You were editor of EPN, the largest circulation electronics title in Europe, and you decided to leave. What could be better than editing EPN?
EPN was great to work on, but after nearly 9 years with the RBI publishing group (a great deal of that time working on EPN), a change of scene was long overdue. Also being managing editor meant I really had a struggle on my hands to make time for writing articles that interested me. Too often you tend to just get tied down with all the admin and political stuff. Working on ECN and Wireless Design I get to write a lot more about the issues affecting the European market and that is much more fulfilling.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not writing about electronics?
Well as you know I have had a couple of books published, and so this has been a quite a big part of my life over the last 4 years or so. I have also been studying at Cardiff’s Art College, and have just completed the first stage of a degree in fine art. I love travelling, doing a variety of sports, and all the usual socialising stuff. I also follow the rugby, but being Welsh that is mandatory.

Do you prefer writing books to editing magazines?
I think they are both pretty good really. All of us in the electronics press like to have a little bit of a moan now and again, but in reality it’s a pretty good way to earn a crust. There aren’t many occupations that allow you to have such varied work. Meeting people doing cutting edge research, learning about new innovations, getting to speak to the industry’s real decision makers, and then being given a platform on which to voice your opinions about all this sure beats the monotony that a lot of my friends have to put up within their workspace. Books are a bit different. Obviously they are far bigger projects to embark upon, so they take a lot of leg work, and the process can be frustrating at times, but the rewards of getting something into the bookshops make it well worthwhile.

What are your plans for your next book?
Well, actually I am currently working on a third book, which looks at the relationship between art and science. It looks how these two subjects have interacted over the centuries; from the Quatrocento through the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods right up to the modern day.

Your books are only available in print, whereas you’re the European editor for Wireless Design and ECN, which have launched digital-only titles here. So what is the future – print or online?
For most of the time I was with EPN the main focus was on print, and though later on there was an increasing emphasis on web-based offerings, it was still the paper version that made up the majority of the readership. I think that there should be room for both print and digital. The editions of ECN and Wireless Design which are emailed to the readership here in Europe have a number of advantages. They are easier to search through, they can be archived, and they have less of an environmental impact. Also there is a lot more room to develop new ideas in terms of advertising. To complement this web-based editorial services are obviously far more immediate, and allow readers to get involved (in terms of commenting on blogs, etc). I still personally enjoy getting print magazines through the post, and I think a lot of other people feel the same, but it seems likely that the emerging generation of engineers and tech management will prefer digital and on-line publishing.

Why do you think people would read a digital magazine like Wireless Design Europe when there are competitors available in print?
I would say it is not so much a matter of how they get it, but more what they get. As Engineers want editorial that can help them in doing their job, what source that comes from is not something they worry about. Also, as mentioned, digital editions have several added convenience factors.

What is the one thing you’d like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
I have been dealing with the PR community for a long time now, and for the most part have had good experiences. I think, like most journalists, my biggest pet peeves would be when deadlines aren’t kept on material (although, to be fair, this is usually more down to the company being represented rather than the PR firm themselves) and when requests for information or interviews aren’t responded to in a timely manner. Another one, that I know a lot of my colleagues would agree with, is that firms often think in terms of just ticking boxes. For example, a PR manager will make a big thing about getting as many editors to meet with them at a show even if they have nothing new to say at that time. It means they can go to their bosses and show nice statistics and metrics with which to gage their success, but in reality it is just counterproductive. If you ‘cry wolf’ too many times, people won’t want to know any more.

As you are now writing for a number of titles, does this let you be more focussed on the technologies that interest you?
Yes, I would say so. ECN has a broad based editorial remit, but I really tend to concentrate on the technologies and application areas that are of particular relevance to Europe, or where European companies are leading the innovation. With Wireless Design it is great to be involved in a telecom-based publication again, as it is still a really interesting field, with plenty to write about.

What’s your favourite gadget?
It’s a little ironic I know, but I am still a bit of a Luddite at heart really. I am a lot more enthused by technological advance that can improve healthcare, enhance vehicle safety, or provide us with sustainable energy resources, than what is currently on sale in the high street shops. I’m not one of these people who just buys up any new consumer device on a whim, I really have to see the value in it first. But I think that having an element of scepticism is a good thing sometimes, as you can give an objective view of whether the technologies being touted are actually going to make people’s lives better. While at magazines like EPN, Telecom-Plus, and Hyperelectronics I had to sit through quite a lot of PowerPoint presentations where it was hard to see what real benefit would be gained, companies were trying to solve problems that were not there in the first place. Anyway, I guess my MP3 is the gadget that I get most use out of, though it is getting a bit battered now.

Tags: Editors, EPN, Interviews, UK

What do you most enjoy about your job?
I manage the contents of a magazine dedicated to the programmable electronic devices, which means I’m constantly updated and in touch with both the key suppliers and also with the designers and engineers that use these technologies in devices. This is what I enjoy in my job: to be active part in the spreading technologies and to see them applied in the most varied applications.

Which areas of electronics interest you the most?
Personally I’m interested in all of things that are electronics, but for sure, the area that I prefer is microcontrollers. Lately with the coming of the multi-Core systems this topic is even more interesting!

Readers have to pay for their copies of Firmware. Why would a reader pay for a magazine when there are a number of free ones available?
The articles published on Firmware magazine (www.fwonline.it) are written by designers skilled the electronics. Due this, the contents are very different from controlled circulation magazines that usually take contributions supplied from vendors. However we also have a mailing so lots of engineers receive Firmware every month, free of charge.

How do you cater for both people who work in electronics and people for whom electronics is a hobby?
The readers of Firmware are mostly engineers because the contents are technically complex and beyond the capacity of those for whom electronics is a hobby. For the hobbyists we have other magazines like Fare Elettronica (www.farelettronica.com) and “L’elettronica di Mr A.keer” (www.akeer.it) – a series of video DVDs that help people learn about electronics.

Do you have any plans to enhance the magazine or website over the next year?
We will improve the web site with many more extra articles that are not published in the printed magazine. Moreover we are working in order to publish Firmware in other European languages.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not editing Firmware?
About 4 months ago my son was born, so all my spare time is dedicated to the child. At the moment he gives me many things to do!!

Will the Internet kill printed magazines?
This is a good question. The Internet has already killed many printed magazines due the costs of printing and the the very low cost of electronic distribution: in fact thousands of readers can be reached in few minutes by sending a simple newsletter! The Italians readers still prefer the printed magazine and I think that this will be the case for some time. The magazines can be collected and can be browsed through without the aid of a computer.
Hmm… thinking, if we post a good article on net, the majority of the people prefer to print it and to read it rather than to read it on the PC’s monitor.

Do you personally prefer to get information in print or online?
It depends from the type of information that I’m looking for. If I need a tips or an information “to the flight” I prefer the online version, but if I have to read a complex argument the printed version version for me is essential. However I don’t hide to you that I often print documents before reading them!

What is your favourite gadget?
As I have already said, I’m attracted by anything that works with voltage and current, therefore my favourite gadget has to be electronic! Lately I am amusing myself with a multimedia hard disk that I’m using in order to store and show AVI video recorded using my camcorder. Obviously the subject of the videos is always my son, the little Del Corso!

Tags: Interviews, Italy

I’m so pleased to have been able to conduct a second interview so soon after the first one with Dr Matthias Laasch. I was delighted to be able to interview Dr. Achim Leitner, who took over as editor-in-chief of elektronikJOURNAL on 1st December 2008 from Rüdiger Hahn (although Rüdiger stays with the magazine as a senior consultant). Although Achim has a PhD in Electrical Engineering, previously he held the role of managing editor at Linux Magazin.

What do you most enjoy about your new job?
As you know, I’m kind of returning to my roots: After studying electrical engineering, I spent over a decade in the IT field, especially software development, networking, and security. That provides me an interesting point of view into the electronics field. I’m curious about everything that’s going on in the electronics area and now, I’m able to satisfy that curiosity. The other nice aspect of my new job is that I’ve inherited a
great journal with a great team of journalists which I really enjoy working with.

Which areas of electronics interest you the most?
Hmm, if you really want me to pick some, then I’d choose processors, microcontrollers and DSP, FPGA, as well as all the hard- and software tools.

Do you have any plans to enhance the magazine or website over the next year?
I focus on developing the printed magazine right now, so you can expect to see a stream of enhancements over the upcoming issues. The website is a joint effort of five journals in the electronics field and it has its own project manager, but still I have a heap of ideas how to enhance the service of the website as well.

What is the main factor that makes a press release interesting?
It has to carry real news and needs to be honest. As a journalist, I want to have the facts at hand without digging through a pile of marketing language. So if your write a release, please use clear language and get to the point quickly.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you’re not editing elektronikJOURNAL?
Well, I enjoy travelling, meeting friends and go clubbing. And there’s always something to fix in our appartment or some new device that I want to own.

Do you personally prefer to get information in print or online?
That depends. Researching for an article, I basically get information online. Easy to access, up to date, nearly unlimited amount of data and no paper to waste are clear advantages. On the other hand, when I want to explore a new field, read an article or a story, then I clearly prefer print. It’s so much easier to read, portable, independant from light and electricity that I can’t imagine to read everything on a computer screen.

What is your favourite gadget?
That’s a tough one as there is too much stuff to choose from. My all time favorite is the aged handspring visor (a palm clone) that has served me really well over a decade or so and still does. Currently, I’m eager to find a really usefull netbook that has a readable, high-res display, usable keyboard, all kinds of network connectivity, long battery times and still small, ultra portable and affordable.

Tags: Editors, Elektronik Journal, Germany, Interviews