I’ve been asked by Graham Prophet, editor of EDN Europe to highlight the fact that his email address is now gprophet@reedbusiness.fr. Graham tells me he still wants English PR material, despite the .fr extension, although I’m sure that fine wine and good food would be welcome!

Tags: Editors, EDN Europe

It’s not often I write about media packs, but the new EDN Europe media information is worthy of comment. The circulation is up to 19K – it’s great to see the number of readers recovering after what seemed a rather hurried transition to all-digital distribution. The new media pack is also the first I’ve seen in our industry with embedded video. I think that the magazine did a pretty good job on the videos – managing to include useful information that might otherwise have not made the document, whilst avoiding a tone of desperate pleading for adverts!

To be serious for a moment, I have been very impressed with the way that EDN Europe has incorporated video into their digital editions, and I’m also a huge fan of the Ceros platform they use. Not only does it produce a great rich-media document that opens quickly, but I can also download a very workable PDF version of the media pack.

Tags: EDN Europe, Reed

A few days ago Canon Communications LLC acquired four media brands from Reed Business Information-US: Electronic Design News (EDN), Design News, Test & Measurement World, and Packaging Digest. EDN Europe was not included in the acquisition, and will continue to be published from Reed’s Paris office. I understand that the acquisition is not expected to significantly affect the European title, and that EDN Europe’s digital magazine will continue as planned, which is great news for European engineers.

Tags: EDN Europe, Reed

Reed has decided to close EPE and EPN France, as well as switching EDN Europe to an all-digital circulation. I’ve written separate posts on each of the titles, but the extent of these cutbacks is shocking. It’s now time for new online titles with low-cost business models to launch: all these publications were able to generate a significant advertising revenue that would no doubt could be profitable for a different set-up.

At Napier we’ve seen the IT industry transformed with great online publications that generate great traffic and strong revenue. I hope there are entrepreneurial editors who can make the same thing happen in the European electronics media.

Tags: Advertising, Editors, EDN Europe, Electronics, EPE, EPN, EPN France, ESE, Europe, France, Online, Reed

Although not the first title to have 100% digital circulation (Electronic Design Europe has been digital-only for some years), the decision by Reed to switch EDN Europe to all-digital distribution will have a major impact on the European electronics media.

It’s disappointing to see Reed make such major cutbacks at a time when the industry appears to be recovering, but at least EDN Europe has escaped the fate of EPN France. Reed has also taken a realistic look at advertising rates, slashing them by two thirds, although the title will charge a premium for rich media and video content in the advert.

Of course the cut in advertising price is initially demanded because the circulation will, at first, fall dramatically (the digital circulation is currently only around 11K), but Reed confidently predict the circulation will more than double by the end of 2010. The good news is that Reed will continue to invest in high-quality circulation, promising that they will retain a BPA audit.

If Reed can create a business model that provides a significantly lower cost-per-thousand than print titles – and they certainly should do as the cost of digital distribution is so much less than printing and posting a hard copy – the move to digital circulation could be a success.

Tags: Advertising, EDN Europe, Electronics, EPN, EPN France, ESC, Europe, France, Reed, USA, Video

Reed has decided to close EPN France at the end of this year, despite the merger of Electronique and Electronique International from the beginning of 2010. This leaves just one major French publication. The EPN France website will also close at the end of 2009. The news was also announced at the same time Reed said they would distribute EDN Europe only as a digital title from January 2010.

I’m amazed that Reed feel they can’t make money with one of just two French titles. Although the German electronics market is somewhat larger than the French market, the vast disparity between the number of publications in each market makes no sense.

At Napier we saw a similar collapse in the French IT print media, but this resulted in a number of new online publications. The electronics market has yet to see many online titles driven by “real” editorial content (rather than simply taking press release content). It will be interesting to see if online electronics sites are launched to create new vehicles to reach French engineers: I’d certainly back any new launches as it seems any reasonable site would be almost guaranteed to succeed!

Tags: EDN Europe, Electronics, Electronique, EPN, EPN France, Europe, France, Online, Reed

EDN Europe has run their first animated flash advert in the digital edition of the magazine. The advert is on page 5 of the October 09 issue (NB this link isn’t likely to work for ever!). The animation is about as simple as it can get, so it can be regard as a bit of a test.

Even with a little animation, the Ceros platform remains amazingly quick. I didn’t find the advert too intrusive, but I didn’t find it that compelling either – the equivalent to a flashing neon sign. A quick visit to the Ceros website shows you how much more can be accomplished using the platform, with some great examples, especially from the consumer space.

In the long run it will be interesting to see what happens with electronic advertising formats in our industry. Will people just go for the “brighter flashing neon sign” approach, making the magazine garish and distracting when you read it, or will advertisers show the creativity to generate adverts that produce real interaction? Although I am worried that magazines could end up being filled with adverts that simply distract readers, effectively reducing the value of the editorial, I’m optimistic that publishers are sensible enough to step in and prevent abuses of the format. I’m also looking forward to developing interactive adverts with clients that will themselves provide valuable and useful content such as video, which are beyond the capabilities of print.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, EDN Europe, Online, Reed

Like several other publications, EDN Europe has moved away from the Olive platform. It’s disappointing to see that Olive couldn’t maintain their early lead in electronic publishing. In particular Olive seemed to have fairly long download times, whereas the new Ceros platform is much quicker. Although digital magazines still don’t match the experience of reading a paper publication, most people are now much happier to read their magazines in digital format than they were a year ago. Personally I believe that digital delivery of a magazine-type format will continue to grow in importance as readers increasingly accept the format over the next few years.

Tags: EDN Europe

Just in time for Embedded World, Reed Elsevier is to sell off Reed Business Information in order to try to move away from the volatile advertising-funded publishing business. Does this matter to Reed’s electronics titles? I guess the answer has to be a qualified “no”. Reed isn’t saying the business is unprofitable, and the titles appear to be doing OK, despite the tough electronics market. But perhaps the biggest problem is that the buyer that finds the £1bn or more that it would take to purchase RBI isn’t going to have the electronics titles top of their priority list. So potentially the electronics titles could be sold on again, or receive little focus from the new owner.

Whilst uncertainty isn’t a good thing in business, I don’t see this decision as having a dramatic impact on the titles in the long run. They make money, and we’d expect them to find an owner that wants to grow the electronics publishing business – even if they do end up being resold. Frankly if the magazines don’t fit the new Reed Elsevier model, then they are better off with a new owner. I’m optimistic for the future of EPN, EDN and the other titles, and believe that the difficulty of growing advertising revenue in the electronics industry will be a bigger long-term problem than any change of ownership.

Tags: EDN Europe, Electronics Weekly, EPN, Reed

The database manager merry-go-round in Europe continues, as Reed Electonics Group steal Sylvie Jalin from French rivals Groupe Tests. Sylive will work in Paris as circulation and database manager for EPN, EDN Europe and EPN France.

Tags: EDN Europe, EPN, France

EDN Europe and Darnell are to collaborate to bring a Digital Power seminar and tabletop exhibition to Europe sometime in 2007. Currently details are sketchy, and even the location (probably Maastricht) still not completely certain. The Darnell seminars, however, are recognised as great events within the power community in the US, and bringing the seminars to Europe can only be a good thing.

Tags: EDN Europe, Reed, Shows and Events