BtoB Media Business - June 2007 - (Page 14)

FEATURE 5 1) Video every piece of programming has to have every element, but it has to have one of those elements,” he said. Nelson said publishers that aren’t using video and using it well risk being left behind. “Advertisers are forming opinions about who’s innovative on the Web—and distinctly about things like video—right now,” he said. “If you miss the boat now, it could be pretty dangerous in the long term.” 2) Social networking Social networking online isn’t new— marketers have talked about online communities since the advent of the Web—but the growing popularity of blogs and social networks such as Facebook, Gaia, LinkedIn, MySpace and Second Life should make publishers think about how they can make works? Yes, Ennen said, though it shouldn’t be the ultimate goal. “Sometimes it’s a matter of driving traffic, sometimes it’s a matter of re-establishing your brand in the digital space when you’re competing against an upstart that can generate 700,000 unique visitors a month and you’ve got a 60,000-circulation publication,” he said. “Sometimes it’s very, very important just to be there. That is one thing that’s really tough for traditional mediafolk to understand. It ain’t always about the money.” 3) Vertical search Search engines such as Google and Yahoo certainly have broad appeal to both visitors and advertisers, but they may be too powerful for their own good. “In the general world of the Internet, Technologies I to watch mplementing technology for technology’s sake is never a good idea. But technology that serves readers, advertisers and the bottom line is always worth considering. Here are five trends that media companies should have on their radar. One—or all—might be an important part of your business model at some point in the not-too-distant future. Video has become a key offering for many information providers, and that’s not surprising. The Web allows for a more accessible and inexpensive way to create and distribute video when compared with broadcast TV, said Fritz Nelson, executive producer at CMP TV. At the same time, with the increasing popularity of sites such as YouTube, Web users now expect to view video when they browse online, he said. Plus video can provide a richer, more efficient learning experience—a benefit that’s particularly helpful when communicating business information. Nelson said publishers must aim to accomplish three key goals with video: It must be entertaining, it must be informative and it has to teach viewers something that helps them do their job better. “Not the phenomenon work for them. The reason, said Steve Ennen, VP-digital business strategies at American Business Media, is that these networks contribute to the “digital din”—the noise from other providers that might end up serving your users’ needs. “Social communities provide a place for people who are engaged and impassioned about particular topics to come in and exchange dialogue—in white papers, blogs, sharing life experiences, these types of things—and that ends up bubbling into a conversation about best practices and solutions and emerging technologies that had once been the sole domain of the business information brands,” he said. Ennen said media companies should leverage the expertise of their editors and the strength of their brands to take advantage of existing networks and also explore how to create their own. “Content still reigns, and expertise is still highly valued,” he said. Can publishers monetize social net- By Mary E. Morrison people are just overloaded, and what we’re hearing is that it’s becoming more and more difficult to get access to good information through the general search engines,” said Jeffrey Tucker, VP at the media and entertainment practice oft Booz Allen Hamilton. “Therefore, the brand value of b-to-b titles becomes even greater in terms of filtering the authoritative and highly useful from the off-point and not that relevant.” A businessperson doing research on Google could get millions of hits in response to their query, Tucker said. But a vertical trade publication with a targeted search engine can give users access to content that has been vetted and approved by editorial experts. “They have filtered things to be much more relevant, so you’re not seeing as much clutter and they can give you greater drill-down capability,” he said. Providing access to such information reasserts the trade publisher as an authority, 14 | Media Business | June 2007 | mediabusinessonline.com http://mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - June 2007

Cover
Contents
ABM meeting reflects sense of urgency
Publishers consolidate Web site management
Five key technologies to watch
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Online
Events
Circulation
Production
People
Benchmarks
‘Wall Street Journal’ fosters younger audience

BtoB Media Business - June 2007