State of the B-to-B Industry meeting recap

Content, business goals work together after all

Editors in Kansas City discuss the current state of the b-to-b publishing industry

Keith Nunes, executive editor of Sosland Publishing’s Food Business News, said at a recent meeting of the Kansas City chapter that the current state of the business-to-business publishing industry could be likened to leaving a child in
the middle of a toy store and telling them to have fun. It can be sensory overload.

With so many different types of technologies being used to deliver meaningful content, it can be sensory overload on an editor’s part to keep up with the latest technologies and determine the right method of delivery.

“There are so many buckets out there for content … ask yourself what it’s going to be next,” Nunes said.

Nunes emphasized the importance of using analytics to drive content. Nunes helped develop a concept called “Research Assistant” for FoodBusinessNews.net based on what he saw the analytics for the news site telling him. He saw readers were interested in having an easy resource to be able to search specific topics often covered on the site. Once the concept was
rolled out, Nunes was slightly disappointed in the number of viewers, but it turns out the advertisers were anything but disappointed. While there might not have been a great number of people clicking on those pages, the people who were clicking on the pages were quality consumers who the advertisers specifically were trying to target — mission accomplished from the perspective of the advertisers.

“As we use this data … we have a tremendous opportunity to drive publishing in a way that makes content king,” Nunes said.

Marnette Falley, content director for Advanstar’s veterinary group, said this a transformational time, and this generation of editors gets to figure things out for the future. She said the pace of change has been so fast that today’s editors have grown accustomed to rapid change. She also said advertisers still have tight budgets and need even more flexible solutions than in the past, so publications need to be prepared to deliver integrated packages that cross many different platforms. She warned that customers and advertisers might become possible content competitors as selling with traditional advertising is getting harder, and the best route is becoming content creation. As a result, she said she sees many opportunities for growth in custom
publishing.

Falley also emphasized how important it is to pay attention to the analytics and respond to what the numbers tell you. Additionally, she said collaboration from all sides of the publishing business is more important than ever.

“Content goals and business goals really are aligned, but we just didn’t see that in print,” Falley said.

Falley likened all of the possibilities with new technologies to standing in a hotel hallway with a hundred doors and trying to find the one door you are looking for. It’s best to jump in and discover what various technologies can do for you until you find the right technology that delivers the best results.

“You may not see the perfect solution from here, but you have to start walking or you won’t see it from here,” she said.