In the March 9, 2009 edition of BtoB Magazine, Sean Callahan’s article “What Does the Future Hold For Print?” explores the decrease in the number of B2B publications.  According to MediaFinder, 257 publications folded in the two year period from 2007 to 2008.  January and February of 2009 saw 20 business publications close.  This trend should have B2B marketers asking tough questions about the place for trade publication  advertising in their long-term marketing plans.

In part, this downturn in B2B print publications can be attributed to the rise of B2B online advertising.  The attraction of  trade journals has always been the ability to target specific industry verticals and reach decision-makers.  With online tactics like search engine marketing and contextual advertising (to name a few), B2B marketers have been able to deliver their marketing messages to a targeted group of people who are actively searching for information.  They can often do this online for a fraction of the cost of advertising in a selection of trade publications, with substantially more measurement metrics to track advertising performance.  Trade journals no longer hold a monopoly on reaching industry segments.

Even popular print publications like PC Magazine, which led all trade publications in advertising revenue in 2008, have abandoned their print editions to focus on online properties.

So are trade journals dead?  No.  There will continue to be an appropriate place for trade journal advertising in the marketing mix.  These ads will still serve to generate awareness, strengthen brands and target decision makers.  What will need to change is the size of the marketing budget devoted to trade journals.

Something else to watch is the price of ad space in print publications.  With fewer publications in any given vertical, the remaining publications may feel that they have a larger share of the audience, and therefore will charge more.  B2B marketers would be wise to watch for these types of increases and review them on a case-by-case basis.

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