EE Times Europe has refreshed the layout of the website. The new design maintains the familiar EE Times look, so readers should not have any major problems with the new site.

At the same time EBP has quietly shifted from the EETimes.eu domain to surprisingly unwieldy electronics-eetimes.com. The old local domains such as eetuk.com route to individual landing pages, although the content on these pages is the same as the site’s home page. This presumably allows EE Times to easily reverse their decision to drop the local sites.

Quite why the European site has chosen to switch domains hasn’t been made public. A quick whois lookup shows that the ownership of all the “old” domains has not been transferred to EBP, suggesting that perhaps they didn’t gain control over these domains when acquiring the rights to publish EE Times Europe.

A quick search on Google for “EE Times Europe” brings up results from the old eetimes.eu in first place, eetuk.com is next, and then results from eetimes.com appear. The new domain electronics-eetimes.com makes its first appearance at seventh in the SERP. Searching for “EE Times” didn’t produce any results from the new domain until the third page.

Of course this is early days for the domain and the old eetimes.eu domain continues to redirect to the new domain, so I don’t expect any immediate problems other than perhaps email newsletters getting caught in spam filters until recipients whitelist the new domain. The long-term implications, however, are interesting. Presumably EBP is trying to increase the total traffic to the EE Times Europe site, rather than focusing specifically on growing a European audience. Whether this is what advertisers want remains to be seen. I’ll also be watching to see if EE Times Group decides to do anything different with the “old” domains.

Tags: EE Times, Online

I’m delighted when publishers see new technologies as an opportunity rather than a threat, particularly when they use that technology to launch new media products. A great example of grabbing these opportunities is the launch of Electronics-video.com, a new site that provides a YouTube-like resource of videos that are all relevant to our industry.

I’m a great believer that video will be an increasingly important medium for B2B technology marketing. Like any other medium, however, distribution is the key to success. Although there is good distribution through some of the existing publications, as well as other sites such as Dev-Monkey that are focussed on video content, I think Electronics-video.com fills a glaring gap in the market: attempting to provide a resource of all relevant video content along with basic curation into channels, and have been talking to the site owners for some time about the idea.

In addition to allowing anyone to upload relevant videos, the site also allows users and publishers to pull videos from YouTube. This approach makes it really easy for marketers to post once on YouTube and then pull in the video to Electronics-Video.com. By avoiding the need to upload twice the site saves time and will – I’m sure – encourage more people to upload video.

Given that much of the content will be available on other sites, Electronics-Video.com needs to deliver just one thing: views! If the site can deliver a reasonable number of views, and if the various paid-for promotions that the site plans to offer result in a significant number of views, then I’m sure it’s going to be a great success. I’m optimistic about the future of the site – in fact the first two vendor channels are both Napier clients!

Tags: Electronics-video, Online, Video

I’m delighted to see that Electronics Weekly has launched a blog about test and certification that is written by our client TRaC. The engineers at TRaC have superb knowledge about this subject, which is not surprising considering they are the leading UK test and certification company. They’ve been supplying posts to EW for some time, so the blog already has some fascinating posts.

Tags: Blogs, Clients, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, News About Napier, Online, UK

ED Europe was the first magazine in the European electronics media to opt for an entirely digital distribution, a move that has been reasonably successful, particularly in terms of readership as they achieve one of the highest open rates in the industry. Despite the popularity with readers, they have attracted relatively few advertisers, a problem that I believe is down to their instance that advertisers us a text box format.

Not any more! I’m delighted that Penton has decided to let advertisers use conventional display formats such as full page and half page adverts. Although the landscape layout will mean most advertisers need to modify their copy, they will be able to place adverts with graphical content and a corporate look and feel.

I’m delighted that Penton has made this long-overdue move, and I’d predict that the option of a more conventional layout will increase the number of companies placing adverts in ED Europe during 2010.

Tags: Advertising, ED Europe, Electronics, Europe, Online, Penton

Many agencies are experimenting with social media: at Napier we’re very active using a range of online tools to improve our communication and that of our clients. I’ve recently received a copy of an extremely interesting dissertation about the use of social media by PR agencies written by Sophie Plastow that is based upon new rese4arch. I’d thoroughly recommend that anyone working in or managing an agency reads it: if you want a copy you can request one from Sophie.

Tags: CIE, Clients, Email, ESE, google, Misc Marketing, Online

MTE has launched a new website, which has a nice layout and great content. But more interestingly the site is branded Embedded News (www.embeddednews.co.uk). The old MTE URL, www.MTEmag.com still works, redirecting to the new site. The new URL is surely going to help attract a wider range of readers and advertisers, and it will probably be a great benefit for SEO, but I hope that the new branding doesn’t reflect a lack of focus in the magazine.

Tags: Europe, Micro Technology, Online, UK

Clean/green technology is one of the hottest industries at present, giving publishers a great opportunity to launch new titles. Last year we saw Weka launch Energie & Technik as a sister title to Markt & Technik, and to start the year we have a new publication from Elektroniktidningen. ctsweden.se is a web-based publication that claims to be the first independent, technology focused news site about cleantech in Sweden. With the same website infrastructure, editorial team and advertising salespeople, the site should be an extremely cost-effective extension to Elektroniktidningen’s portfolio. It’s great to be able to write about new launches at the start of 2010, and I look forward to other publishers announcing new launches in the near future.

Tags: Advertising, Elektronik, Elektronik Tidningen, EPE, ESE, Online, Sweden, Weka

Once you have launched EE Times Europe? Richard Wallace has decided that the right thing to do is to look for the Next Silicon Valley, and has launched a website of that name. As some of the larger publishers struggle with the transition from paper to digital, I’m convinced that there will be opportunities for small independent publishers to carve out niches for themselves. Richard clearly has the talent to do this, and personally I’m delighted that he is addressing the electronics industry around the globe, including Europe.

Tags: EE Times, Electronics, EPE, Europe, Online

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

A couple of recent announcements demonstrate that large publishers – particularly in the US – are working to create better digital magazines. Hearst has teamed up with Skiff to create a “magazine e-reader”, whilst several publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc.have joined forces to define a “storefront" – i.e. a consistent portal for accessing digital magazines.

The fact that publishers are putting resources into ensuring the technology for reading electronic magazines develops rapidly is great news. I’m also much less worried about the impending battle between publishers and digital media companies such as Apple and Amazon, provided that there is a way to distribute controlled circulation titles. In fact digital distribution may not only provide the valuable information about who has read a magazine, but would also allow other readers to get copies even if they fall outside the terms of control (assuming that publishers do continue to manage their terms of control!). Advertisers and publishers can then argue about whether the additional readers justify a higher rate, although hopefully everyone understands that controlled circulation is worth A LOT more than uncontrolled circulation.

One thing, however, does worry me. Although it’s not surprising the main focus of activity is in the USA, I really don’t want publishers using delivery platforms, whether “storefronts” or e-readers to compete. I’d like the publications with the best content to win, rather than those from the publishing houses with the financial resources to invest in delivery technology. This has to be a particular concern in Europe, as many publishers – particularly in the electronics media – are relatively small companies. Having said this, I can’t see that any publisher is going to win by fragmenting the delivery systems: there is no way anyone would accept having to own multiple e-readers to allow them to read titles from different publishers that have chosen different hardware platforms. As long as the publishers strive to create the best content and make it available on all platforms, the hardware manufacturers work on producing the best e-readers, and the readers are allowed an unrestricted choice of publication and platform, then we could see a dramatic recovery in the financial fortunes of magazine publishers.

Tags: Digital Magazines, Misc Marketing, Online

2009 has been a dreadful year for publishers, and so I’m delighted that I’m going to end the year with a post about the launch of two new titles. ElectronicSpecifier will launch a monthly pan-European digital magazine in January and a French language title in February. There hasn’t been an announcement about a French website, but I’d confidently predict that unless the magazine is a failure, the site will follow fairly early in 2010.

Unsurprisingly both titles are planned to be “product books”, although I understand that the magazines will also include some industry news.

The launch of a pan-European digital title is easy to understand. ElectronicSpecifier has a strong pan-European list that will provide a circulation of more than 45,000 and a partnership with Hearst that could add another 20,000 readers. Their French list is just over 8500, which could increase to over 10,000 with Hearst’s data.  And of course once you have an editor for the website and a good database, the incremental cost of publishing a digital magazine is very low.

After the recent decisions by Reed and Groupe Tests that left the French market with just one magazine, the launch of a French title isn’t surprising. In fact I know of at least one other publisher with pretty advanced plans for a French print title.

The ElectronicSpecifier titles will use NxtBook as their technology platform. Although not quite matching Ceros, who I think is the industry leader in terms of the reader experience, NxtBook should provide a great platform for the magazines. Unsurprisingly multimedia adverts, including video, animation and sound will all be offered from the first issues.

I’m confident that these titles will prove successful. Firstly these titles are fundamentally low-cost, and I would expect advertising rates to be aggressive. The database has also proven itself to be effective, generating good open and response rates, even though the demographics are not as comprehensive as some other titles. And clearly the French title is entering a market desperate for more publications: in fact I’d say that this launch represents ElectronicSpecifier winning a race to announce a new French title.

ElectronicSpecifier has a clear advantage over digital versions of print titles: the magazine can be designed for on-screen reading and to work synergistically with the web. Replicating a print magazine digitally just doesn’t work, even on large high-resolution screens. Better layout will improve open rates: just look at the “designed for digital” Electronic Design Europe, which has outstanding open rates despite using a simple PDF format for distribution. We’ve not yet seen a product book specifically designed for digital, but I hope that ElectronicSpecifier have the confidence to get away from the format of product news in print titles. This format was designed to drive enquiries through the old bingo card system. In digital titles you just don’t need all the detail: if I’m looking for a product in a digital title all I need is a couple of sentences giving me the main facts about the product, and I’ll know immediately if I want to click through to the full story and datasheet.

I don’t, however, think that the recent flurry of digital titles means it’s all over for print – at least not yet. Open rates for digital titles are low, and few advertisers values a digital reader as highly as a print reader.

Over the next few years, however, e-book readers are going to improve dramatically from the pretty shambolic offerings that we have available in Europe. We’ll then have the standards fight – similar to Betamax against VHS. Eventually there will be one great e-book platform that frankly is better than carrying round a big pile of books and magazines. When this happens, the reading experience will be great, magazines will be delivered direct to your e-book reader, and open rates will rocket. It’s even possible that in the future a digital subscriber will be seen as more valuable than a print reader, although this is a long way off.

Tags: Advertising, Digital Magazines, Electronics, electronicspecifier, ESE, Europe, Online, Reed, Video

Although there has been no official announcement, I understand that one result of the sales of EE Times Europe is that local sites will be dropped, meaning that EE Times will no longer provide news in French and German. Although the publication had a number of local sites, the dropping of the other sites (Israel, Eastern Europe, etc) is unlikely to disappoint as the differences between the local and European sites were minimal. Although the crowded German market is perhaps a good reason why EE Times might not gain a significant share, it’s disappointing to see yet another publisher pull out of France. It’s inconceivable that the French market can only sustain one publication, and I hope to be able to tell you of a new launch in France before the end of the year.

Tags: EE Times, Europe, France, Germany, Israel, Online