BtoB Media Business - December 2010 - (Page 9)

media company specializing in developing healthcare and financial content. Previously, he held sales positions at American Express Publishing, Condé Nast and Meredith Integrated Media. Although new on the scene, Orbon has a vision for custom media at SourceMedia. “We’re looking to become a strategic partner to our clients and to deliver solutions that are tactic-agnostic rather than selling tactics such as newsletters, podcasts, webinars or print publications,” he said. Broadening role At Penton Media, the custom division’s responsibilities include educating 260 media brand salespeople on custom opportunities, attending sales calls, developing proposals and executing programs. Beyond that, the department has become an incubator for new revenue-generating ideas that aren’t custom media products in a traditional sense. “We get a lot of calls from vendors who have new ideas,” said Scott Bieda, VP-Penton Custom Solutions. “We will take the time to evaluate their offerings, get pricing and get examples. If it looks like something we think we can market to our customers— who are the market leaders, publishers and salespeople on our publication franchises— we will bring it on board.” For example, Penton used a vendor to develop mobile applications that provided a platform for exhibitors to promote their offerings to attendees. “The [individual brands at Penton] theoretically could execute programs like those, but they weren’t doing it,” Bieda said. “They’re all just strapped. When we do something as a custom project, we teach people how to market and sell it, and we produce it here. It’s turnkey.” E.Republic is also breaking the tradition of reserving custom media for single-client special projects. Don Pearson, exec VP at e.Republic, oversees the company’s 8-yearold custom media division as well as the its state and local government media portfolio. In 2011, he wants to widely roll out a custom special report model based on a project produced by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Education. Until 2010, Converge was a traditional, controlled-circulation b-to-b magazine published five times per year. This year, it was rebranded as the “Center for Digital Education’s Converge Special Report,” with quarterly editions built around a technology product category and a limited number of sponsors. Each sponsor received a customwritten profile within the print report, as well as leads generated from downloads of the report, a webinar based on the content and e-mail and direct-mail campaigns. Pearson is looking for opportunities to use this model elsewhere. For example, e.Republic’s Emergency Managementbrand is growing rapidly, but he does not want to increase the print publication’s frequency. “I’m not going the traditional route from a six-time to a 12time schedule,” Pearson said. “My next expansion will be topical special reports in the Converge model. We can give some customers more exposure without having to send magazines to a circulation of 50,000. Special reports have limited, focused distribution of about 10,000 copies that we can build a good, integrated custom program around.” Like other media executives interviewed for this story, Pearson sees custom media as a linchpin in the evolution of business media companies from print publishing to a fully integrated, multiple platform model. “The marketplace demands that we blend our services and offerings of print, lead generation, research, video, social media and live events,” he said. “The central hub for this transition is the custom media division.” Custom publishers (continued on page 10) Company American Express Publishing, Custom Solutions Ascend Integrated Media BeTuitive Publishing BNP Media Campbell Ewald Custom Solutions from SmartMoney DCP D Custom Demand Creation Specialists Fusionspark Media Future Publishing GIE Media GLC Grayton Integrated Publishing Location New York Phone URL N/A Clients (212) 382-5790 www.aepcustom solutions.com Overland Park, (913) 344-1401 www.ascendintegrated Kan. media.com Chicago (312) 832-1500 www.betuitive.com Chicago (630) 699-7625 http://custom media.bnpmedia.com Warren, Mich. (586) 558-4105 www.campbellewald.com New York (917) 934-6717 http://customsolutionsaboutus.com Merchandise Mart, Ace Hardware, National Medical Association Horizon Foods, Aquent, Great American Group American Egg Board, Grant Thornton Alltel, Chevrolet, Kaiser Permanente Century21, T. Rowe Price, Charles Schwab Chevron, Comcast, American Cancer Society Thomas Group, Purina, Lennox Walnut Creek, (925) 943-1111 www.dcpubs.com Calif. Dallas (214) 939-3636 www.dcustom.com Hasbrouck (814) 833-2620 www.demandcreationsp Epicor, Sterling Commerce, Eloqua Heights, N.J. ecialists.com Clinton, Wash. (360) 221-4001 www.fusionspark.com Wyeth, Dive Rite, Toyota San Francisco (650) 745-9209 www.futureus.com Richfield, Ohio (800) 456-0707 www.gie.net Northbrook, Ill. (847) 205-3062 www.glcomm.com Grosse Pointe, (313) 881-1734 www.graytonpub.com Mich. Microsoft, AT&T, NVIDIA Bayer, BASF, Syngenta UnitedHealthcare, Independent Community Bankers of America, GM Oracle, NetApp, Sun Microsystems Source: Junta42 (www.junta42.com). Companies listed above are certified and approved content vendors. mediabusinessonline.com | December 2010 | Media Business | 9 http://www.aepcustomsolutions.com http://www.aepcustomsolutions.com http://www.ascendintegratedmedia.com http://www.ascendintegratedmedia.com http://www.betuitive.com http://custommedia.bnpmedia.com http://custommedia.bnpmedia.com http://www.campbellewald.com http://www.campbellewald.com http://www.customsolutions-aboutus.com http://www.customsolutions-aboutus.com http://www.dcpubs.com http://www.dcustom.com http://www.demandcreationspecialists.com http://www.demandcreationspecialists.com http://www.fusionspark.com http://www.futureus.com http://www.gie.net http://www.glcomm.com http://www.graytonpub.com http://www.junta42.com http://www.junta42.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - December 2010

Btob Media Business - December 2010
Contents
Changing of the Guard at Forbes Media
Is Custom Content the Future of Media?
Looking for a Vendor? Check Out Our Annual Guide
Frustrated Sales Guys Launch Media Company
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Development
Events
Production
People
Benchmarks

BtoB Media Business - December 2010