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Napier News News and comment about the European electronics media
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The IET has issued a call for papers for its System Safety conference that will be held in Manchester, UK on October 2010. Abstracts are due in by 1st April, with final paper submission by 4th June 2010.
Tags: Call for Papers, IET, UK
After the decision by EE Times Group (formerly TechInsights) to hold on to ESD Europe, rather than include it in the recent sale of EE Times Europe and Microwave Engineering Europe, I was disappointed to see the recent decision to move to all-digital distribution and cut frequency. Initially a 10-issue 2010 editorial calendar was produced, then an announcement was posted on Embedded.com/Europe and a new media pack issued telling of the change of strategy.
The European website www.embedded-europe.com has been closed, with all content integrated into www.embedded.com. Although I can see the logic of this move it’s disappointing that European visitors to the site will have to search for local content rather than the site using geo-targeting to highlight European stories along with the global content, nor is the site offering a URL with a European-orientated feed of news. I’m told we can expect this to be added in the future.
The magazine has also switched from 10 issues to 5 issues in 2010, with entirely digital circulation, although I’m told that the editorial content will be specific to the European edition with minimal re-use of material from the US ESD. The layout will be changed completely, moving to a screen-optimised format on the Nxtbook platform similar to recent EE Times special editions. The layout is nice – similar to ED Europe in some ways, but offering full page adverts as well as leaderboard and MPU fractional ads. It’s great to see a publisher recognise the need to optimise the layout for the readers, whilst allowing advertisers to use familiar formats with high visual impact. We’re also promised special editions, which will be driven by sponsors.
The digital magazine circulation is a little confusing. The new media pack promises:
The digital issue goes to over 100,000 subscribers and will be seen by over 50,000 European web users.
25,000 ESD global digital subscribers via email link.
30,000 ESD Europe subscribers via email link.
50,000 EETimes and TechOnline European subscribers via email link.
50,000 unique European visitors to Embedded.com every month.
So in addition to the European subscribers, anyone currently receiving the digital version of the US title who is based outside of Europe and the US will get ESD Europe – i.e. they’ll get both the US and European digital issues. The EE Times and TechOnline European database will also be used to deliver unrequested copies, and there will be links to the digital title on Embedded.com.
So what circulation should we assume for the title? To me the circulation we can be sure is really valuable are just the 30K requested European subscribers. Although there may be other high-quality recipients, at this stage they’ve not requested the title and it remains to be seen whether the move to a large headline circulation is clever move, or whether it will just dilute the quality of the existing ESD Europe database.
ESD Europe has also quietly slipped in a rate increase (full page rates were $2100 last year, and are now $3000: an increase of about 40%). The extra circulation might go some way to justifying this increase, and there are no surcharges for flash or video adverts, but most advertisers I know value digital magazine less highly than print.
The European Embedded email newsletters will increase in frequency, appearing twice a week, which will hopefully increase loyalty to the brand, as well as ensuring the database is well maintained.
It will be interesting to see the success of the new publication. In merging ESDE and ESE, It’s not clear to me why there is value in circulating a European title outside of Europe, but if the format is as good as the EE Times specials, and with Colin Holland remaining in the role of Editor in Chief, I believe that the quality of the editorial and the easy-to-read layout will ensure good readership. From the advertising viewpoint, TechInsights acquired a significant number of UK-orientated advertisers who presumably will be unenthusiastic about the broader reach of the title, and may choose other UK, whilst global advertisers might question why they need to advertise in both the US and European brands to reach people outside of these two geographies. As a believer in the eventual move of most magazines in our industry from print to digital, however, I’m hopeful that ESD Europe will be a successful title.
Tags: Advertising, CMP, Digital Magazines, ED Europe, EE Times, Electronics, Email, ESD, ESE, Europe, IET, Newsletters, Online, TechInsights, UK, Video
Thanks to everyone at the IET for such a great evening at their annual awards last night. With around 500 people at the event and over 300 attendees, it’s clear that the IET continues to go from strength to strength.
Our client, Jennic was a finalist – yet more recognition for this great company, who has also been named as one of the top 30 Cleantech companies this year, and it was also nice to see Dr. Martin Sweeting from the University of Surrey – my old university – receive the Faraday medal.
Tags: Awards, Clients, IET, Shows and Events, UK
The IET, organisers of RTIC 2010, has issued a call for papers. The conference welcomes submissions discussing more efficient traffic management, public transport and information systems.
Tags: Call for Papers, CIE, IET, Shows and Events, UK
Popular veteran editor John Walko is to retire from TechInsights at the end of this month. John has amassed many achievements during his time as a technology journalist, spend 33 years at UBM (owners of TechInsights), 24 ofthem covering the electronics industry.
John started with UBM writing for chemistry and chemical engineering related titles (Manufacturing Chemist, Process Engineering) after which he joined The Engineer, where be began covering electronics. John then moved to the recently launched Electronics Times as News Editor, moving up to Deputy Editor and finally Editor of the title. He has launched Communications Systems Worldwide as well as CommsDesign.com, and also worked on EE Times as part of the CMP US organization. Most recently John has covered communications, writing articles that have been published throughout the global EE Times network, as well as continuing his work on CommsDesign.com.
It sounds like John is unlikely to have a quiet retirement as he tells me that there is a long list of places that he and his wife plan to visit. At Napier we’ve enjoyed working with John over the years and would like to wish him a fun and enjoyable retirement.
Tags: CMP, EE Times, Electronics, IET, TechInsights
Luke Collins, who edited the features section of the IEE Review a few years ago has returned to the Institute (which is now the IET) to edit the communications section of E & T. Luke has an amazing background, having been editor of Electronics Times as well as viewing the industry from a different point of view as a principal analyst at Dataquest. Luke is interested in interesting stories from freelancers and is easy to contact via the communications.editor@theiet.org email address.
I often feel that the technical B2B magazines are under-rated by people outside of the industry. But here’s some good news: Dickon Ross, editor of the IET magazine E&T, has been named Editor of the Year at the prestigious British Society of Magazine Editors Awards. Dickon has done a great job at the IET, and he launched and still edits Flipside, a magazine that aims to excite children (including my young son that loves the title) about engineering.
It’s great to see a editor in our industry recognised with an award, and I’m particularly pleased to see Dickon win as he is an editor with a great record of radical innovations as well as driving continuous improvement.
The IET and Electronics Weekly are jointly organising a Programmable Hardware Systems Conference to be held on the 8-9 October 2008 in London. I hope that the event will be a success, and will drive more collaboration between the IET and EW in the future: combining the resources of the UK’s professional body and largest-circulation magazine should ensure the success of the event, and may even begin to chip away at the myth that UK engineers don’t like attending trade shows!
The two-day event includes the conference, a table-top exhibition and a networking dinner. To find out about speaking opportunities contact Johanna Czako.
Tags: Electronics Weekly, IET, Shows and Events, UK
Last night the IET held a launch party for Engineering and Technology (E&T), their new flagship title that now integrates the various IET vertical titles. Apart from a great evening (a party with vodka jelly and a chocolate fountain!) the new title really impressed us. Somehow the magazine has managed to cover an incredibly diverse range of engineering subjects at a level all engineers can understand, without making the editorial superficial. The articles are long and in-depth, and the content remains strongly orientated towards electronics. The design is fabulous, and must make E&T a contender for the best looking technical magazine.
Of course the circulation of 150000 means that most electronics industry advertisers will only be targeting a small proportion of the readership, yet with a reletively low cost-per-thousand readers, this may not matter. Contact Napier to find out more about the new E&T.
This is one of the most interesting online ideas for European electronics engineers that we’ve seen for a long time. The new IET Discover system is a social network along the lines of Digg and Del.ico.us that allows engineers to manage and share bookmarks. It’s clearly not a new idea, but to focus specifically on the electronics community might create a truly useful research tool that intelligently links information. In true Web 2.0 fashion, IET discover is labelled as still being in beta! Cool really has arrived at Savoy Place!
The big question is will it work? We really hope that it will, but can see difficulties. The two big problems with any social network are Metcalf’s law (with a small user bases the site will have limited value, so growing to a critical mass is tricky) and social spam (if the links are all provided by suppliers trying to promote products the value of the information is limited). At Napier, we’d love to see this solution become a valuable resource for European engineers. Currently it’s a long way from being the electronics industry resource, but we strongly recommend that you try it and let us know whether you think it will succeed.
The IET has issued a call for papers for their seminar on Wideband and Ultrawideband Systems & Technologies that will be held on Thursday 6th November 2008 at Savoy Place, London. The organisers are encouraging submissions about both theory and applications in areas such as communications, localization, radar, and imaging. Submissions within the general areas of antennas and propagation signal processing, information theory, circuits and systems, and biomedical engineering are also invited.
Abstrects are due by 27th March 2008, with notification of acceptance by 8th May 2008, and full paper submission due on 9th October 2008. To submit an abstract, visit the event website, or contact Napier.
Tags: Call for Papers, IET, Shows and Events, UK
The IET plans a dramatic shake-up in their magazine portfolio in January 08, increasing the frequency of the flagship title, Engineering Technology, from 12 to 21 issues a year. This magazine will also include coverage of the industries that are currently addressed by the professional magazines, killing off these seven vertical titles.
The move is an interesting one as the IET has always been driven by “special interest” groups focussed on particular topics. The new publication appears to be an attempt to create a “New Scientist” for engineers. At Napier we think this is probably going to be a good move, giving engineers a more rounded view of technology, presumably attracting more advertising and perhaps reducing cost. If the depth and quality of the specialist technical articles are maintained, this could make Engineering Technology a signifiantly more influential media channel for electronics companies, although the breadth of the IET’s membership means that this will remain a technology publication, and will not become a pure electronics title.
