Meeting Recap, Part 2: Target editorial copy by niche to avoid advertorials

Be on the look out for more veiled advertorials in 2007. Phil Musser, publisher of Transmission & Distribution World, said he has seen an increase in the amount of advertorials in his sector of the business-to-business publication industry over the past year.

Some publications are becoming more innovative in how they present advertorials, he said while speaking Jan. 17 at a Kansas City chapter meeting of the American Society of Business Publication Editors titled “Trends in B2B Publishing.” Advertisers often sponsor what a publishing company may call a guide, sourcebook or case study.

“Was that a guide or a sourcebook?” Musser said. “No, it was a different way for them to draw a veil and plop in contributed pieces that were lock, stock and barrel written biased.”

Transmission & Distribution World, based in Overland Park, Kan., and a publication of Prism Business Media, takes a different approach, Musser said.

“We try to make a distinction between a targeted focus of what you’re going after by sector or by niche vs. advertorial,” he said.

He added companies in the business-to-business publication arena can find other avenues of growth:

• Developing a partnership with an existing trade shows can provide an opportunity if a publishing company or magazine is the exclusive media partner.
• Blogs and webinars are getting closer to going online for Transmission & Distribution World. The electronic media also can make it easier for Transmission & Distribution World to expand its reach internationally since mailing costs are not involved.
• A market opportunity exists for research information in the power sector since utilities are not providing financial support to research institutions and associations like they formerly did.

“They are always calling us, asking us for (research information),” Musser said. “That is an opportunity for us.”