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Napier News News and comment about the European electronics media
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Congratulations to Outram Research, whose PM7000 power analyser was ‘Highly Commended’ in the Electrical Industry Awards Test & Measurement category. Outram is a fairly new client for Napier, and we’re delighted that they have done so well in such a prestigious award. Many congratulations from all of us at Napier to Outram on their well-deserved success!
Inware is promoting a new way to create an immediate electronic link between readers of print titles and advertisers. The publisher is encouraging advertisers to include an electronic tag that can be snapped by a camera on a smart phone and used to jump immediately to relevant online content.
This is a great move, and with the increasing use of internet enabled phones from blackberries to iPhones, is likely to be something that will grow and grow. Our research has shown that when reading magazines engineers are often not close to a PC, and don’t like to type in long URLs into their phones to get information. This approach bridges the gap, and unlike other Microsoft technologies is available for smart phones running a wide range of different OSs.
I’d bet on adoption of this technology growing pretty quickly across all markets, although in industries such as ours, where the delivery of detailed technical information is important, the technology looks particularly applicable. Kudos to Inware for being an early adopter!
Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, EiN, ESE, Inware, Italy, Misc Marketing, Online, Research
François Gauthier has been named as Editor in Chief of the new publication Electroniques, which was formed by merging Electronique and Electronique International. His responsibilities start with the first issue of 2009, due to be published on 20th January.
At the same time, Pascal Coutance has been named Editor in Chief “délégué”, responsible for the development of the Electronique.biz website. Pascal has been charged with development of other online channels, such as mobile and introducing new advertising formats. Interesting he will also define a strategy for for new products that are either chargeable as premium content or reserved for magazine subscribers. We’re promised an updated site will be launched at the start of 2010.
It’s taken a little while to get these two editorial positions confirmed, although I don’t read anything into this delay. I am, however, interested that there are clear plans to put some kind of paywall around content on the web, and wonder how easily this can be done. By limiting people who can access content, you’re going to limit page – and therefore advertising – impressions, so any such move must be made with care, otherwise it could end up reducing, rather than increasing overall revenue. Keep checking back at www.NapierNews.eu for more information on how this project develops!
Tags: Advertising, DATE, Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Editors, Electronique, ElectroniqueS, ESE, France, Online
Claiming the first issue was a “tremendous success”, Weka has announced that Energie&Technik will continue publication in 2010. Issues are scheduled for March 10th, May 31st, July 16th and October 1st. At times like these, which present huge challenges for publishers, it’s great to see Weka launching new titles and being rewarded for their confidence.
Tags: EiN, Energy&Technik, ESE, Germany, Weka
Users of the Google Webmaster Tools may have noticed that the page rank information has disappeared in the latest release. As Susan Moskwa of Google explains on a support thread:
We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.
Susan refers readers to more information that reveals that there are over 200 different “signals” that can affect how a site is crawled, indexed and ranked. In fact Google started discussing omitting PageRank from the tools in 2007 (who says the Internet moves fast?). PageRank was often over-emphasised by SEO professionals because it was a nice, easy number that could be presented to a client, so this move is a clear indication from Google that it really isn’t the key metric. For more information, have a look at a great post by Derek Powazek about SEO myths (thanks to TWIG for the link).
The first Elektronik ecodesign prize has been awarded to Stephan Benecke of TU Berlin, for his thesis about "Energy Harvesting in micro systems technologies“. This award, which is presented during the Elektronik ecodesign congress, is given for an exceptional masters thesis about “green” electronics. Proving that the award is international, second prize was awarded to Andreas Köhler, Lund University Sweden, for "End-of-life implications of electronic textiles – Assessment of a converging technology".
It’s great to see that Elektronik, and co-sponsors Rittal, are encouraging young engineers, and I hope that this award goes from strength to strength in the coming years.
Tags: Awards, Electronics, Elektronik, ESE, Germany, Sweden
The organisers of BATTERIES 2009 have announced that the event was attended by 350 delegates, which is a strong showing from a niche show. Unsurprisingly they also announced the event will continue next year, running from 29th September to 1st October 2010. the organisers have sensibly chosen to keep the same venue in the French Riviera, a location that must help attract attendees!
The proceedings for BATTERIES 2009 are also available and can be requested by contacting rveyrac@lepublicsysteme.fr.
Tags: ESE, France, Shows and Events
Elektronik Informationen is planning for 2010 with confidence, announcing three special issues covering “Electromechanics & Electronics Packaging” (April), “Optoelectronics & LED Technology” (June), and “Smart Engineering” (October). Smart Engineering will cover efficiency, ecology and sustainability in electronic product development. These special issues will each have a circulation of 22,000, and be in addition to the normal monthly magazine.
It’s great to see a title like Elektronik Informationen planning to expand in 2010, and they have definitely picked some exciting topics to cover.
On a separate note, Elektronik Information is moving to Eversbuschstrasse 134, 80999 Munich, Germany. Their telephone numbers will remain unchanged.
Tags: CIE, Electronics, Elektronik, Elektronik Informationen, ESE, Germany
EPD has opened the voting for the 2009 e-Legacy awards. You can vote online at http://www.epdonthenet.net/awards_vote.aspx.
These awards are unique in the industry, and the use of a public vote to decide the winner is a great approach. Of course I’d strongly recommend that you vote for Jennic and Esterel, two Napier clients that have been recognised for their contribution to environmental design and security.
In a widely-expected move, Electronique and Electronique International are to merge, forming a new title, ElectroniqueS. Given the state of the advertising market, and other factors specific to France, the move is a logical one, with the new title resembling a relaunched Electronique, although the editorial content will be bolstered with material to appeal to management, purchasing and other non-design engineer readers.
The good news is that the frequency will be higher than Electronique, with “at least” three specials enhancing the basic 11 issues per year. The publishers also promise a free digital version, and I wonder whether this might be a route to expand the circulation beyond the relatively modest 10,000 that are planned for the launch.
In the French market it’s no surprise that ElectroniqueS is not going with an aggressively low-priced rate card. In fact advertising rates are higher than Electronique both in terms of the page rate and the cost per thousand.
The website electronique.biz is already a single port of call for everyone in the French electronics industry, so there are only a few changes such as the addition of white papers.
Online display advertising continues to be offered on a sponsorship, rather than cost-per-impression, basis. Disappointingly the online rates have also increased, whilst traffic growth appears to have slowed – May and June both showed a increase of less than 10% over the previous year, much lower than the previous few months.
The new white paper service offers a guaranteed number of downloads, with the contacts that download provided as leads., It’s great to see that there is a guarantee of a minimum number of leads, although at around €100 per lead, the cost is higher than many in the electronics industry are willing to pay.
The daily and weekly news emails will continue, and new vertical newsletters will be launched. Embedded and Display will both have monthly newsletters, whilst quarterly emails will be issued about automation and telecom/RFID.
Overall I think that the print and online offering looks good. It will be sad to see France drop to just two mainstream titles, with no news title, which must offer great opportunities for someone to launch an online-only title in the country. I’ve seen this happen in the French IT press, so it would not surprise me if we see some new launches. It’s disappointing to see the prices edge up, and arguably value for money drop when measured in terms of cost per impression. ElectroniqueS will doubtless be the premier title in the market with a strong editorial team, and so I’m sure it will be a success. The high rates, however, may present an opportunity for an aggressive push for market share from EPN France.
We are still waiting for the editorial team to be finalised – check back at Napier News for all the latest!
Tags: Advertising, Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Electronics, Electronique, ElectroniqueS, Email, EPN, ESE, France, Newsletters, Online, USA
The organisers of SAME have announced the following statistics for this year’s event:
The event also created interest amongst electronics publications, with more than 15 press representatives attending. SAME is always a small, focussed show, so numbers are never huge, but to have got almost 900 attendees at such a event must be regarded as a real success, particularly in today’s tough economic climate.
Tags: Electronics, ESE, France, Shows and Events
Hot on the heels of the launch of electronicsBOM.com, MMG has announced that Electronics Sourcing North America will be launched in April 2010. The title will launch with a circulation of over 40,000 electronics purchasing professionals, a new list that the publishers say has been 100% telephone researched from orginal SIC codes.
The launch pad for ESNA will be at the “Electronics Distribution Show” in Las Vegas and the circulation, editorial and design will take the same approach as Electronics Sourcing UK & Electronics Sourcing Europe.
It’s great to see the MMG continue to show confidence in our industry, and have the courage to continue to launch new products despite the economic situation. I hope that their confidence proves well-founded and that they show the US that magazine publishing is really not dead!
Tags: Electronics, Electronics Sourcing, ESE, Europe, MMG, Research, UK
