BtoB - January 16, 2012 - (Page 12)

BUSINESS MEDIA Send people items and business media updates to scallahan@crain.com Making the most of mobile With digital readership on the rise, media company offerings increase BY SEAN CALLAHAN T HE STATISTICS ARE gathering like a storm. In December, eMarketer released a study indicating that mobile has surpassed print readership. Mobile usage increased 30% in 2011, to 65 minutes per day, compared with just 44 minutes for magazine and newspaper reading, which were down a combined 12%. Individual magazine titles have found that mobile consumption of their content on smartphones and tablets is beginning to boom. For example, the Economist Group said digital-only subscriptions for The Economist on tablets, e-readers and the Web eclipsed 100,000 as of the end of October. That figure was more than double the number of digital-only subscriptions a year earlier. The Economist also reported more than 3 million downloads of its app to tablets and smartphones. Summit Media Group discovered in a survey of subscribers to its Packaging World that 46% of them own a tablet and 78% planned to own one by May. Of those who currently own tablets, 74% said they read work-related digital magazines on the devices. With this statistical cloud on the horizon, media companies are preparing for the mobile storm in a variety of ways—even if advertising from b-to-b marketers on the devices so far has only been a drizzle. “The real challenge as an industry—and we’re seeing it and I’m sure others are seeing it—is we really are in the infancy in how marketers think about using tablet advertising,” said Paul Rossi, managing director of the Economist Group. “I think it’s fair to say that the readers have migrated faster to tablets than the advertisers.” More statistics support that assessment. According to eMarketer, print accounts for just 6.8% of the time U.S. adults spend with media, but it garners 24.7% of media advertising dollars. Mobile accounts for 10.1% of time spent, but just 0.9% of ad spending. AD DOLLARS WILL SHIFT Many companies are betting that ad dollars will soon follow this shift in usage to mobile. Crisp Media is one such enterprise. Late last year, Crisp acquired Smart Device Media, a mobile ad network for premium brands. Jason Young, who was CEO of Smart Device Media, leads the combined company. Young compared the rise of the mobile Web to that of the desktop Web. “It’s very similar, except that [mobile is] happening in a much more compressed time frame,” he said. “There’s a sharp acceleration.” Crisp Media expects to get its fair share of the $4 billion that Forrester Research estimates will be spent on mobile advertising in 2013. It’s no accident the primary vertical ad network that Crisp acquired from Smart Device Media is focused on technology. Most observers expect that tech marketers will adopt the mobile Web before most other industries. For example, b-to-b tech media company Ziff Davis Enterprise is moving all its print magazines to digital and mobile. As of this month, ZDE’s Baseline, CIO Insight and eWeek will appear only in digital/mobile formats. Channel Insider, an online sibling brand, is also making the transition. ZDE has already begun to introduce digital editions, websites and native apps specifically geared for a number of smartphones—such as the Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Phone 7—as well as the iPad, Rim Playbook and Android tablets. “For publishers, certainly Ziff Davis Enterprise is a leader with their seven apps for each of their four brands,” said Chuck Richard, VP-lead analyst at Outsell Inc. The embrace of mobile isn’t limited to the tech sector. The Economist is moving aggressively to make its content readable on any tablet or smartphone. Rossi envisions the tablet as transformative not only for magazine reading but for magazine advertising. “What magazines have always struggled with is accountability and ROI,” he said. “With the tablet you could end up with this perfect world where you can think of branding and you can think of ROI and data in the immersive environment of the magazine. I think the tablet is lean-back reading 2.0, but I sort of half hope that the tablet will be print brand advertising 2.0.” Trade publishers are also moving ahead with mobile initiatives. Summit Media Group has incorporated “responsive design” into its websites, meaning the sites automatically adapt for optimum readability on almost any smartphone or tablet, said David Newcorn, VP-digital and custom media. Summit has developed two apps specifically for the tablet for Packaging World and Automation World. For the same price, marketers’ ads run in both the print and digital versions of the magazines. Packaging World also sells an exclusive sponsorship opportunity for its digital edition, which offers a marketer a “corner cut violator,” an acknowledgement on the front cover of the print version of an advertiser’s sponsorship of the free digital edition. Markem-Imaje, a packaging equipment supplier, is the current sponsor. Cygnus Business Media is another traditional b-to-b publisher experimenting with tablets. For example, it is creating custom digital magazines formatted for the iPad for marketers such as Case IH. “We’ve had a fair amount of success on the tablet side of it,” said Paul Caplan, senior VPdigital revenue at Cygnus. medianotes Ziff Davis acquires Toolbox.com Technology media company Ziff Davis has acquired Toolbox.com, a networking site for IT professionals. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Toolbox.com will operate as a unit of Ziff Davis B2B Focus, formed when Ziff Davis acquired Focus Research, a market research firm specializing in brand strategy, newproduct development and advertising research. According to Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah, Toolbox—which has 2.3 million registered members who can blog as well as ask and answer IT questions—will improve Ziff Davis B2B Focus’ offerings to IT marketers. B-to-b media sectors show gains in Q3 The digital, print and trade show sectors of b-to-b media all posted revenue gains in the third quarter of 2011 compared with the yearearlier period, according to Business Information Network data released by American Business Media. Digital increased 22%, to $1.6 billion. Print increased 4.6%, to $5.7 billion, and trade shows increased 1.1%, to $7.7 billion. Advantage buys Vicon Publishing Advantage Business Media, which publishes R&D Magazine, has acquired Vicon Publishing. Financial terms of the deal, which will expand Advantage’s presence in laboratory and forensic sciences, were not disclosed. Advantage Business Media said Vicon will be renamed Vicon Business Media. Among the titles published by Vicon are ALN Magazine, ALN World, Controlled Environments Magazine and Forensic Magazine. The company also produces the TurnKey Conference, which serves the laboratory animal facility sector. ABM’s Pettit believes worst is over for b-to-b BY SEAN CALLAHAN Business Media as presidentCEO in 2010. As the economy recovers, ABM has seen a rise in its membership, improved financial performance from its core media members and the implementation of a plan to work with other media and Clark Pettit marketing associations to produce joint events. Pettit recently President-CEO, discussed the many reasons American Business Media he’s optimistic about this year. BtoB: ABM’s recent Business Information Network figures B-to-b in particular has turned a showed revenue gains online, in print corner. Over the last couple of years, and for events for b-to-b media com- businesses have diversified and are panies. Has the b-to-b media sector getting a lot better at the execution of some of the new capabilities, esrecovered? Clark Pettit: It feels like the pecially in digital, lead generation worst is behind us in several senses. and audience database. I think, fiNo. 1, the overall economy is begin- nally, most of the companies have C LARK PETTIT joined American ning to recover or at least stabilize, and we’re looking for moderate growth, barring any major shock— even accounting for Europe as long as it isn’t a drastic negative impact. QA & been through the worst of the restructuring. They’re beginning to be able to invest for the future. BtoB: How well is ABM’s strategic plan of working with other associations progressing? Pettit: We’ve got the strategic alliance agreement in place with SISO (Society of Independent Show Organizers) and have already had several planning sessions on joint events. We will have one of some degree in 2012. We’re still outlining exactly how that will work, but we’re definitely going to proceed with some joint cooperation around events. Same with the Custom Content Council: We have a strategic alliance in place, and we’re in the earlier stages of conversation about how we can cooperate. I think there’s a lot of synergy there, probably again involving cooperation in event programming. BtoB: The b-to-b media sector has seen value destruction initiated by online businesses, particularly from search advertising. Do you see another round of value destruction coming from social and mobile media, or do you think your members are well-positioned to battle these new threats? Pettit: In the last two years we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the ability of b-to-b companies to adopt new ways of reaching their audience and add value to that. Our businesses are becoming marketing intelligence businesses with a deep understanding of their vertical audience and how to interact with and reach that audience. I don’t see social media, for example, as a threat. I see it as an opportunity. It’s one more capability that can be added on. Thomson Reuters halts health unit sale Thomson Reuters has suspended its efforts to sell its healthcare business. The company originally announced its intention to divest the business in June. In a press release, Thomson Reuters said, “Global economic conditions have become more challenging and the company believes they are not conducive to concluding a transaction that reflects the fair value of the healthcare business at this time.” The company said the healthcare business continues to post increasing revenue. 12 | BtoB | January 16, 2012 | btobonline.com  http://www.Toolbox.com http://www.Toolbox.com http://www.Toolbox.com http://www.btobonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB - January 16, 2012

BtoB - January 16, 2012
B-to-b learns from b-to-c e-commerce experience
Large share of marketers boosting spending, especially online
Mobile apps, social integration, content are key trends
ANA ramps up I CANN domain name protest
B-to-b marketers still in Super Bowl lineup
'BtoB' to host Digital Edge Live conference
Social media matures with added players, new metrics
Quick Hits
Reader Comments/Polls
Opinion
Positive outlook for online ad spending
Advertising
Media companies flock to mobile Web
Business Media
Email remains a strong marketing tool
Direct & Database
Tools & Metrics

BtoB - January 16, 2012

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