One thing is sure – the German publishers know how to throw great summer parties. Check online for photos and videos of the recent Weka Sommernachtsfest 2010 and the Elektronikpraxis Sommerfest 2010.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Germany, Online

Publishers in the electronics industry continue to prove that print magazines are refusing to die quietly. Hanser has announced the launch of a new title, MED engineering, which is aimed at designers and developers.

Th publication will launch in November with issues available at electronica 2010 and ComPaMED (17 to 19:11:10, Düsseldorf). In 2011 six issues will be published in German, and we’re promised an English language version by the end of 2011.

I’m always pleased to see new publications launch, and perhaps this is an indication of what might happen to magazines in the future: we may see fewer electronics titles, but I think it’s likely that there will be more vertical publications that include electronic design in their remit. With distribution costs falling as digital magazines are finally a competitive option, we may see the launch of many more vertical titles.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Hanser

The design of Electronics Weekly has been updated to a “cleaner and more modern” look. Interestingly one of the changes is to reduce the number of stories highlighted on the front page – presumably to encourage more people to read through the magazine in a linear fashion.

The 23rd to 29th June 2010 issue is available here: http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1P4c1f3e1febf94979.cde

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Electronics Weekly, UK

From June 2010, EO News is reducing its frequency to once per month, and with no issues planned for July/August and December issues off the schedule, leaving June, September, October and a joint Nov/Dec issue left this year.

We understand that EO News will go entirely digital in 2011, and the content will focus on news and analysis for managers in electronics companies, with a total circulation anticipated to be around 25K.  It’s good to hear that most articles and interviews will continue to be written specifically for the title by the editorial team: there is no intention to cut costs by relying on contributed articles.

Elettronica Oggi and Elettronica Embedded are expected to be unaffected, remaining as they are in terms of frequency and content,

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Elettronica Oggi, EO News, Italy

David Morrison has joined the Power Systems Design editorial team, and will be writing a regular column covering Recruitment and Career Development that will be published in PSDE as well as the North America and China editions. David is well known in the power field, working as editor and publisher of How2Power.com. He previously held the role of Editor-in-Chief of Power Electronics Technology (PET).

I think this is a great move for the Power Systems Design family of titles, strengthening the existing roster of well-known regular contributors (Dr. Ray Ridley of Ridley Engineering and Ash Sharma of IMS Research). It may also give us an insight into the future of the media in our sector: it’s easy to see how the industry may end up with a small number of publications that are able to assemble large teams of contributors, whilst these journalists are also entrepreneurial publishers, running their own online publications to both generate income and also to establish their expert credentials.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Editors, Europe, Online, PSDE, USA

Although the economy is beginning to pick up, advertising budgets are lagging somewhat. This makes it tough on publishers, many of whom continue to struggle to make money. I’m not going to delve too deeply into the well-worn publishers argument that says if you believe PR works in a particular publication then you should also invest in advertising, although it is fundamentally true that if we don’t have sufficient advertising investment then there won’t be any publications to carry PR.

So what can publishers do? Well many are becoming increasingly aggressive to companies that don’t advertise. One [high quality] publication has said that they will “act appropriately when considering editorial coverage” for a client who has advertised with them in the relatively recent past, but doesn’t have them on the schedule this year. Another publication (not in the electronics industry) has sent out a PowerPoint presentation that can only be described as a crude, over-the-top hatchet job on its competitors. This presentation “analysed” a competitive title and included the comment “Perhaps charging for a subscription is a sign they are getting less support from their advertisers?” It promptly claimed on the next slide that their own paid-for circulation represented high quality readers!

What’s the solution? I hope that both sides will step back and become more reasonable. Good advertising campaigns work. Good news stories benefit the publication and the readers as well as the company being promoted. I just hope that we don’t end up either having to negotiate editorial coverage when we place advertising schedules and equally that trade publications don’t end up being a footnote in the Wikipedia article on the tragedy of the commons

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Misc Marketing

Another electronica year, and unsurprisingly M&T will again publish the official show daily. Although this isn’t really a surprise, the facts are impressive: four issues, an editorial team of 16, and a total of more than 60,000 copies – this is a huge undertaking! Perhaps the idea of a print publication for a physical trade show is becoming a little antiquated, but with trade show attendance in Germany remaining strong, and half the content of the show daily in English for international visitors, I’d expect the show daily to be an editorial and commercial success again.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, electronica, Shows and Events

Thomas Industrial Media and European Business Press have got together to launch a new French title, Electronique C&I (Electronique Composant & Instrumentation). This is the second title in the electronics sector that has been launched since the closure of EPN France and the merging of Electronique and Electronique International (following the launch of ElectronicSpecifier France).

The new title will be edited by Alain Dieul – previously the editor or EPN France – and has a promised circulation of 10070 print readers and 3510 digital readers, exceeding the circulation of the market leading title ElectroniqueS by about 1/3. We’re promised three issues this year – May/June, Sept/Oct and Nov/Dec, and the title should have a quarterly frequency in the future.

Of course there is also a publication website, although this has a somewhat different brand of www.electronicselect.com. The brand is builds upon Thomas’ other “select” site for the industrial market.

The rate card is very similar to that of ElectroniqueS, with pages coming in slightly cheaper, but ElectroniqueS generally offering lower cost for fractionals. Of course Electronique C&I will offer a lower cost-per-thousand by virtue of its larger circulation. At this stage, all online ads are offered in a simple RoS CPM basis (apart from welcome ads, of course), although as traffic builds I’d hope to see some more innovation.

It will be interesting to see how the editorial content develops, although the publication is likely to be clearly placed in the “product book” category. It’s interesting that – despite many predictions – product books are still clinging to life (and represent the majority of publications in France). Whilst I do believe that there is – and always will be – a value in having new product coverage, I’m not convinced that another product book in France is the right thing for the market. My concern is that the success of the product book is primarily down to the much lower editorial cost, rather than a desire to meet the needs of the readers, and it will be interesting to see if both ElectronicSpecifier France and Electronique C&I will prosper in the long term.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, electronicspecifier, Electronique C&I, ElectroniqueS, France

It’s always sad to see publications close, even when you know that the publisher has already made the decision to stop publishing. I started this morning optimistically, enjoying David Manners’ view that there has been “one heck of a turnaround” in our industry. Then I was brought down to earth by the following email:

Dear M Maynard,

Our parent company, Reed Elsevier, announced in July of 2009 its intentions to substantially exit its Reed Business Information U.S. publishing business, while retaining other businesses. Over the past several months, multiple publishing brands have been divested. On April 16, 2010, we announced the closure of the remaining publishing brands and their associated products and services. Consequently, the April 2010 issue was the final issue of Semiconductor International Magazine and our web sites will cease operating as of April 30, 2010.

We are proud of the role we have played in informing our industry over the years and it has been our pleasure to serve you.

Regards,

The Staff of Semiconductor International Magazine

I know that publishing faces a very challenging future, even if the recovery proves to be strong and sustained, but even so I wonder whether some publishers might be wondering if they were a little too hasty in making decisions to close publications. At Napier, we’ve seen our clients deliver very impressive results as we pull out of the recession, and I hope that a recovery in marketing spend across our industry will help ensure the security and stability of the electronics media around the world.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Online

Apple announced last week that they were introducing a new mobile advertising format, the iAd. The new adverts will work on the yet unreleased iPhone OS 4 and run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. AppScout gives a good overview of the limited information about iAds that has been made available to date.

Although mobile adverts are usually associated with consumer advertising (all the demos Apple gave were of consumer ads and in-game advertising is probably the going to be the biggest user of the format), I think the new format could have a significant impact on our industry, and many other technical B2B markets. Here’s why:

Trade press publishers are increasingly looking towards digital distribution, and many are talking of iPhone/iPad reader applications. iAds presents an opportunity to charge a premium for rich media advertising at a time when most marketing managers view adverts on digital copies as less valuable than print.

iAds will allow more control, allowing advertisers to be sure that their advert has been seen. This will overcome the concern of many advertisers that people will not view the page on which their advert is placed (a situation that is analogous to placing ads in a print copy, but one that appears to concern marketing managers more in this age of measurable digital marketing).

iAds will present a revenue opportunity to the companies providing the digital magazine technology. As competition hots up in the digital space, I expect the cost of publishing digitally to drop dramatically (in fact it’s pretty cheap already), and any way of increasing revenue will be jumped on by the likes of Nxtbook, Ceros and the many other players in this market.

iAds will allow a pay-per-impression approach for advertising associated with digital magazines. In one stroke the question of digital magazine readership disappears, making advertisers more comfortable about advertising in digital copies.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, Misc Marketing, Online

After a brief affair with the BPA, the next EPD audit will be from the ABC. This isn’t surprising: with some major titles no longer auditing circulation, I think that EPD should be applauded for continuing to get 3rd party validation of the circulation.

As I mentioned in the previous post, with the incorporation of EM&T within EPD, the circulation of EPD will grow a little to 24K, and insiders confidently tell me that the audit will show 100% to be requested within a year. Although I can see benefits to the more stringent approach taken by the BPA, advertisers will definitely reap greater benefits from publications that are investing in larger, newer circulations rather than spending more time jumping through the hoops to get a BPA audit.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, EPD, UK

EM&T, the production and test print title from IML is to merge with EPD. The EM&T content will be a section within EPD in print, although I understand that IML is considering allowing digital subscribers to request just one or other of the two titles. It’s sad to see EM&T disappear from the UK publication roster, although the good news is that the move will see EPD’s circulation increase to 24K (13.5K print and 10.5K digital).

I’m reassured that this change will not impact EMT WorldWide, which has grown into a website and email newsletter with global reach.

Tags: Digital Magazines and Print Publications, EM and T, EPD, UK