Power Systems Design will be launching into North American at APEC in February 2009, giving the publishers, AGS Media Group, the power electronics media franchise with broadest geographical reach. The title will have a 32,000 circulation, and will be edited by Cliff Keys (who will also continue to edit PSDE).

The launch coincides with changes at competitive title Power Electronics Technology as David Morrison steps down as editor in chief (he has been replaced by Sam Davis).

This is a pretty gutsy move: obviously the recession and the problems within the US-based media have passed AGS Media Group by! I’d like to think it will also turn out to be inspired: if you can make a business work in a down market, then it should boom when the market turns. Some clients do like the convenience of global titles, and from a competitive point of view it may turn out to be just the right time. Most of all, I’m pleased to see publishers investing in new publications reaching more engineers: this has to be welcomed by anyone who wants to get their message out to the electronics industry.

Tags: Print Publications, PSDE, USA

Dr.Ray Ridley, the well known power supply guru and contributor to PSDE, will be running a 4-day power supply workshoop from 29th September to 2nd October 2008 in Bordeaux, France. Delegates will also receive a copy of Ridley Engineering’s POWER 4-5-6 software. For more information and to download a registration form, visit the Ridley Engineering website.

Tags: France, PSDE, Shows and Events

Pretty much every title in the industry offers an electronica package to boost advertising around the world’s largest electronic components show, so I don’t try to cover every one in Napier News – simply contact Napier if you want to know the options. PSDE, however, have again put together an interesting offer, with advertisers in the electronica Show 2008 issue (October 2008) benefitting from an advertising audit atudy as well as the pretty standard bonus distribution at the show and the opportunity to feature products in three electronica special ePowerPack e-newsletters.

Tags: electronica, PSDE, Research

The Munich court of appeal has overturned earlier court rulings that restricted the branding of Bodo’s Power in the case between Bodo and AGS Media, publishers of PSDE. I don’t think this makes a huge difference to the two titles, as Bodo’s Power has re-branded pretty effectively (and clearly the word “Bodo” is more important to the magazine’s brand than “Systems”!). We understand that there are other issues to be resolved by the courts, and will report on them if they will have an impact on either title. From our point of view, however, the more successful titles in Europe, the better!

Tags: Bodos Power, PSDE

Congratulations to our client, ACAL, who were named by Power Systems Design Europe (PSDE) as a finalist in their 2008 GreenPower Leadership Awards for their Extreme Capacitance article authored by Louise Early. The photo shows Steve Carr picking up the award from PSDE editor Cliff Keys.

Tags: Awards, Clients, PSDE

The fight between PSDE and Bodo Arlt, who left the magazine to start Bodo’s Power Systems is something we’ve not given much coverage to within Napier News. As there was no way for us to know exactly what happened, we didn’t want to comment. We also don’t carry opinions from either side. We’ll continue the “no comment” approach throughout 2008, but will highlight any important news.

The latest news in the battle is that a ruling was issued that is scheduled to come into force on 15th February. This ruling covers the use of the title “Bodo’s Power Systems” for a free-of-charge trade publication, and also that there were a number of other design elements that could no longer be used. We understand that Bodo will appeal against this ruling, and we’ll cover further key developments in the future.

Tags: Bodos Power, PSDE

The PowerSystemsDesign.com has been redesigned, with a nice new look and google-powered search. The site is an archive of content from the magazine, and doesn’t provide a regular newsfeed. We think this is fine – in-depth content on power systems: trying to compete with the electronics news sites is just impractical for a European vertical title.

Tags: Online, PSDE

The publishers of Power Systems Design Europe and China magazines have created the annual GreenPower Leadership Awards program. The selection of winners is beautifully simple: articles on the Power Systems Design Europe eNewsletter bearing the GreenPower logo that get the most [hopefully unique!] clicks will win.

The winners will be announced at the PSDE podium discussion at PCIM Europe 2008, and will also be published in the May 2008 issue of Power Systems Design Europe.

Tags: Awards, PCIM, PSDE, Shows and Events

Despite the predictions, magazines still refuse to die! Power Systems Design Europe has announced that their circulation has grown 11.5% in the last year. With many magazines allowing circulation to fall slightly – presumably as a route to keep advertising costs per page flat – this is a very welcome investment. It’s even more impressive with the intese competition between the European power titles.

Tags: PSDE

Power Systems Design will launch “ePowerPack” in September 2007. With both print and online versions, this new product will let companies reach 54,000 power electronic design engineers in Europe and North America directly, as well as appearing as a new section in Power Systems Design Europe.

Tags: Direct marketing, Europe, PSDE

Santana Communications, the publishers of PSDE has conducted some research amongst its readers. The survey has a respectable sample of just over 300 responses, which represented a response rate of 10.8%. Although these surveys are always compromised by the desire of the publisher to portray their title in the best light, we think there were some interesting results – particularly when yuo compare the results of the two other power titles. The circulation overlap with Bodo’s Power and PEE are almost identical – both around 60%, with PEE apparently having a higher requested readership. Around half the respondents read PEE and Bodos Power at least “frequently”, but there was a slightly larger preference for occasionally looking at PEE.

Unsurprisingly, given the sample used, around half of the respondents would choose PSDE if they could only have one magazine. Here again, PEE with 30% choosing it as the only title just beat Bodo’s Power which was the top title for 20% of the respondents.

What do these results mean? Given the falling-out between Bodo and PSDE, there would inevitably be an incentive to both show PSDE in the best light, and also to minimise the results for Bodo’s title. Despite this potential source of bias, we think that PEE did well to outscore Bodo’s Power, especially given the proactive marketing of Bodo’s title. It is possible that the reletive newness of Bodo’s Power reduced the preference for the title, and we will be very interested to see how the results might change in a year’s time.

The complete report about this survey is available here.

Tags: PSDE, Research