What sets an established trade title apart from new digital competitors? How can B2B platforms keep reinventing their business model in a fast-changing industry? In an online lecture at Oxford Brookes University, organised through the BSME Education initiative in association with Readly, Russell Parsons, Editor-in-Chief of the UK’s most prominent marketing title, Marketing Week, answered these questions and more.
Here are some of our key takeaways, summarised by Angela Locatelli, Editorial Admin Assistant, APL Media.
1. Not all editors are career journalists
You don’t need to have spent your entire career in the media industry to become an editor. “When I was younger, I always said I wanted to be a journalist — except I never really got around to doing it,” said Russell. He recalled drifting through jobs after leaving university, until he finally started a National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) course in 2005. “After about a year of doing that and getting a lot of experience, I set off on my path to become a journalist, quite late in life.”
2. Trade titles have a clear sense of purpose
Marketing Week has a defined target audience: senior marketers in large or medium organisations. “We’re very slavish in that focus, speaking to their concerns and representing their needs,” said Russell, who believes trade magazines have the ability to simultaneously be an industry’s best cheerleader and worst critic. “They’re right there, rooted within the community, but also standing apart from it,” he added. “That’s where they come into their own.”
3. The business model has changed
“Our traditional advertisers can now produce content of their own, they don’t need us in the same way to get the same attention and reach,” explained Russell. This is why partnerships are an increasingly important source of revenue. “What an advertiser is unable to do is have the authority, permission, and reason to have a conversation with the audience they covet. That’s why they still need us, and this is especially true for B2B trade titles.”
4. Finding a balance between revenue streams
Marketing Week places about one in four articles behind a paywall, leaving most of its content free to access. “We need to tread a fine line,” said Russell. “We’re not at a the stage yet where we can put everything behind a paywall and stomach the loss we’d get from traditional advertising.”
5. Looking at new brand extensions
Five years ago, Marketing Week launched a mini MBA course. One of the title’s columnists is also an experienced academic, explained Russell, and that’s what gave them the idea to take his knowledge and condense it into 12 modules — first in marketing and now in brand management. What started as a ‘what if?’, he continued, ended up providing huge revenue opportunities.
6. Looking at the future
What’s next for the title? “We want to be more things to more people, and be of more value,” said Russell. There are three areas being considered to expand Marketing Week’s subscription offer: create branded reports, a service that’s already being trialled; offer more networking opportunities to partners and clients; and become a data insight provider.
7. Older titles have an advantage
Launched in 1978, Marketing Week is a brand with authority and heritage. “There’s a lot of competition out there, and content is being provided by all sorts of means,” said Russell, “but what they aren’t able to do is carry those 43 years of authority, integrity, and trust with them, to offer a point of view as well as balanced news, insight, and perspective in a dedicated, focused way. What trade titles have is a place in their community that’s rarefied.”
8. Make authentic content
“The best way to stand out is to tell stories that are emotional and speak to their audience,” said Russell when asked about how to create content that’s original and unique in an oversaturated digital world. His advice is to spend time researching what an audience needs and what resonates with them, then create something around that. “Be creative, be funny, be imaginative, regardless of which platform or media channel you use.”
9. Editorial brands are about curation
According to Russell, one of the benchmarks setting established titles apart from self-content producers is curation. “It’s the job of an editor to decide what’s important, and the people who self-publish don’t do that,” he said. There’s a question that should sit above every decision editorial titles — and trade titles in particular — make: what can we offer an audience, that only we can do, that matters to them?
10. When it comes to podcasts, think content first
Don’t be tempted to join the podcast bandwagon without thinking it through. “People are now thinking podcast first rather than content first. What they’re delivering is ok, but it could have been delivered with an analysis or a straightforward Q&A,” Russell said. “We always have to find new ways to engage people, but make sure the content is good in the first place.”
