News this week: UBM to keep all Canon print titles

London, 1^st November: According to an article published by Folio, United Business Media (UBM) does not plan to shut down any of the 24 print publications the company acquired through the purchase of Canon Communications last month.

A UBM spokesperson was quoted saying that Canon’s non-electronic magazines will follow the same approach as the one used to manage all the other UBM titles under the renamed UBM Canon publishing group.

According to the Folio article, UBM has closed 35 print titles since the beginning of 2009, bringing the total of print magazines published worldwide by UBM to 106 titles. UBM reported a 15% drop in print sales to about US$164 million in the first nine months of 2010. Adjusted operating profit from print was approximately US$6 million – up from US$2 million during the same period in 2009.

RBI holds on to shuttered brands

Reed Business Information (RBI) announced that it will hold on to the brands of the unsold titles it closed last month. After stating that the company would shut down some 23 titles, other B2B publishers and former RBI staff lined up for the chance to acquire the assets of some of these closing titles.

RBI is retaining Chain Leader, Converting, Graphic Arts Blue Book, Graphics Arts Monthly, Purchasing, Restaurants & Institutions and Trade Show Week.

Since RBI made the announcement last month, the following deals have been inked:

MB Media, set-up by former RBI publishers, acquired Construction Equipment and Professional Builder, Building Design+Construction, Construction Bulletin, Custom Builder, Housing Giants, Professional Remodeler, SpecCheck, BDCnetwork.com, ConstructionEquipment.com, HousingZone.com, LogInAndLearn.com and VisibleCity.com.

Former RBI publisher, Dan Hogan, reportedly acquired Hotels and Foodservice Equipment and Supplies.

Peerless Media with the backing of EH Publishing, acquired Logistics Management, Material Handling Product News, Modern Materials Handling and Supply Chain Management Review.

It looks like RBI is waking up to some of the value it walked away from perhaps a little too quickly.

Where do the staff go when print dies?

In these potentially straitened economic times, there is much wringing of hands about job security particularly in the media industry's equivalent of the buggy whip business, print publishing. Two of my favourite bloggers touch on this today: Paul Conley in the US talks of the difficulties of making the transition from print to the online world, the obvious route:

I said that much of the industry had become "weighed down by the twin albatrosses of junk bonds and rising print costs." And I suggested that the "editors, salespeople and designers of B2B... walk away from print."

Meanwhile, Tom Crampton proposes the more radical solution of Singapore, although he does admit that its reputation for caning and censorship (not always in that order) may make it a less than obvious choice to the proud Pullitzer-wannabes of the New York Times.

Tom's post does, though, raise the interesting issue that print does not, yet at least, appear to be dying in Asia. If anything it's on a roll. I was told in Australia this week by one old friend who publishes a number of traditional trade magazines that they're all doing pretty well. We see B2B magazines in China growing at 20% a year and numerous new newspaper launches in India. There's no space in a blog post of this length to debate why or whether this is just the lull before the digital tsunami storms through the magazine and newspaper offices of Asia too.

Worth watching though...

P.S. Can anybody tell me why the URL thebuggywhip.com links through to the LA Times? A cruel observation by a laid of editor?

Fast growth disguises challenges

I have become increasingly convinced in recent months that print publishers in China and India have a problem: they are growing too quickly. When ad pages are still growing, there is less incentive to take some of the tough decisions being faced by their counterparts in the US and Europe.

However, despite the active environment for new magazine and newspaper launches in both the Asian giants, they are not immune from the underlying changes in the ways in which media is used. Once those changes begin to take hold, they will face challenges just as great as those trying publishers elsewhere in the world.

I was relieved to see that I am not alone in this view when I read the comments of India Today CEO Ashish Bagga over on contentsutra.com. I encourage you to read the whole thing but the jist of his point is:

“though print is growing, if you look at the advertising projections for the next 10 years, sure, it’s going to grow, but its it going to grow the way it grew? There are other media forms, including mobile, and telco’s are looking to address the advertising potential. Advertising revenues for print are increasing, but it’s increasing at a decreasing rate. The moment you reailze that gross margins are 25 percent, 23 percent, 20 percent - what’s the trend? If we don’t sow the seeds of investment for the next generation, we have a problem on our hands.”

Fairfax cuts the cord with Factiva

While poking around on the Australian Financial Review site for the last story, we came across this interesting announcement from Fairfax about their plans to cut syndication with Factiva and AAP and launch their own channels:

Fairfax Business Media ends Factiva and AAP News Centre contract

Fairfax Business Media has announced that effective 31 March 2007, its content will no longer be accessible via Factiva and AAP News Centre.

The decision to discontinue syndications follows our decision to develop our own channel and content management systems. As we have indicated with the launch of afraccess.com Fairfax Business Media aims to build a fully digital approach to its growing market opportunities.

Fairfax Business Media is developing a new service with search and monitoring of news across Fairfax content including deep archives.

Based on a usage model the service will incorporate content from all of the Fairfax Business Media titles including The Australian Financial Review, AFR Magazine, BOSS Magazine, BRW, AFR Smart Investor, Asset, CFO, and MIS as well as other major Fairfax mastheads.Fairfax Business Media are planning to have a BETA version of the new service by 31 March 2007, and those interested in receiving further information on the service can register their details here.

Chinese internet has already overtaken print and radio

It may be on a PR website, but Dominic Powers of Doubleclick provides some interesting insights in his review of the Chinese internet on the UpstreamAsia Newsletter June, 2005:

What particularly caught my eye was this quotation from some recent research

"According to the 2005 IMI Consumer Behavior & Lifestyle Book, the Internet is now occupying almost 22% of total consumer media consumption time (up from 15% in 2004), with the average Chinese online user spending some 13 hours per week over 4.1 days online. This usage trend has already overtaken both radio and print, but in a nation that has the highest volume of television sales anywhere in the world, it still ranks behind TV which enjoys a share of around 55%. "

He also notes that "e-commerce sales in China in 2004 (defined as a transaction where payment actually took place online) totaled some RMB4.2billion, or US$500million".

Business Magazines Losing Readers in India

The National Readership Survey in India is always controversial. The publication of the 2004 edition was delayed for several months by law suits. This year's NRS shows the three major general business magazines losing readers as Hugo Martin picks up on his blog today.

This is an interesting time for India's publishers as the door to foreign, non-news publishers is now wide open as we reported here on June 2nd. The market has never been particularly strong. BSG estimated last year that the total b2b magazine market was generating revenues of only around $20 - 25 million.

The classified free sheet in Asia

A report in London's Guardian Unlimited on the New York Times plans for a free weekly for commuters set us thinking about this phenomenen in Asia, the impact of the Internet on it and the potential impact for B2B.

Metro has already established itself in Hong Kong and Seoul. It claims to be the third most read newspaper in Hong Kong.

Generally, most B2B weeklies in Asia have never succeeded in pulling in much classified advertisng. The big city newspapers such as Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and Singapore's Straits Times have for many years appeared more attractive to most corporate advertisers seeking staff than small circulation B2B magazines.

The Internet doesn't seem to have changed that too much with most major newspapers offering on-line add-ons to their existing classified packages.

The free sheets are now mopping up most of what low-end classified ad business there was for the B2B publishers. Haymarket's Media is a notable exception and we shall be interested to see if others have any success in emulating what it does.

100% ownership for non-news titles in India

Exchange4media reports that the Indian government has lifted the 74% cap on foreign investment in non-news print media opening the door for wholly foreign-owned publishing in most magazine and journal sectors. Investors will still need clearance from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting as well as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the Reserve Bank of India.

The definition of "non-news" is open to some debate as McGraw Hill and Cybermedia have found in their efforts to launch an Indian edition of Business Week.

At the same time, the Indian industry is debating government plans to set up a Media Regulatory Authority. One well-known TV journalist is reported as saying ""Maddening competition in the media, especially TV, which was rendering it incapable of self-regulation".

Electronic revenues in Asia

Multiple articles today on Outsell's research suggesting that "signficant ad revenues" were migrating from magazines and newspapers to Yahoo, Google and the like. We wonder how this will develop in Asia where, outside Japan, critical mass has never been reached in b2b print advertising even in the big markets like China and particularly in India.

Meanwhile, Plastics News China eWeekly e-newsletter and web site debuted yesterday with solid support from advertisers.

Last hurrah for print?

Paul Conley, in his excellent blog of the same name talks about the 'death of print' following the news that Thomas Register will no longer print its famous directory.

Thomas Register drops print: "

You can argue all day about whether or not print is dead. Lots of folks like to do that.
But at Thomas Register, the argument is over.
Thomas says the 2006 edition of the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers will be last print version of the industrial directory.

"

I was having a related conversation yesterday with the CEO of one of Asia's leading B2B companies. This may be the time at which we see all the most interesting developments taking place in the electronic arena and a quick demise of B2B print, particularly in English. Geographical, historical and economic reasons mean that English-language print media has been, to put it mildly, troubled in Asia for many years.

Experiments like those recently announced by Crain with Plastics News China and Ad Age's China newsletter suggest that publishers are finally beginning to look really seriously at electronic alternatives in this part of the world.