What should agencies do about social media?
Many agencies are experimenting with social media: at Napier we’re very active using a range of online tools to improve our communication and that of our clients. I’ve recently received a copy of an extremely interesting dissertation about the use of social media by PR agencies written by Sophie Plastow that is based upon new rese4arch. I’d thoroughly recommend that anyone working in or managing an agency reads it: if you want a copy you can request one from Sophie.
Elektroniktidningen goes green with new cleantech website
Clean/green technology is one of the hottest industries at present, giving publishers a great opportunity to launch new titles. Last year we saw Weka launch Energie & Technik as a sister title to Markt & Technik, and to start the year we have a new publication from Elektroniktidningen. ctsweden.se is a web-based publication that claims to be the first independent, technology focused news site about cleantech in Sweden. With the same website infrastructure, editorial team and advertising salespeople, the site should be an extremely cost-effective extension to Elektroniktidningen’s portfolio. It’s great to be able to write about new launches at the start of 2010, and I look forward to other publishers announcing new launches in the near future.
The Next Silicon Valley
Once you have launched EE Times Europe? Richard Wallace has decided that the right thing to do is to look for the Next Silicon Valley, and has launched a website of that name. As some of the larger publishers struggle with the transition from paper to digital, I’m convinced that there will be opportunities for small independent publishers to carve out niches for themselves. Richard clearly has the talent to do this, and personally I’m delighted that he is addressing the electronics industry around the globe, including Europe.
ESC UK/EW Live encourages vendor seminars
I’m told that the joint venture electronics show organised by Reed and EE Times Group (formerly TechInsights) will soon have a new name (I’m betting it will include “ESC” and “Live”). The two companies have already been working on the show, which thankfully will move from Farnborough to Earls Court, and I was particularly interested in the plans to encourage exhibitors to take seminar rooms to run presentations, tutorials and labs. ESC has always has a good conference, and if vendors can run their own tutorials, hopefully this will not only encourage higher attendance, but also mean that more visitors spend time on the show floor.
Embedded Systems Design Europe goes digital
After the decision by EE Times Group (formerly TechInsights) to hold on to ESD Europe, rather than include it in the recent sale of EE Times Europe and Microwave Engineering Europe, I was disappointed to see the recent decision to move to all-digital distribution and cut frequency. Initially a 10-issue 2010 editorial calendar was produced, then an announcement was posted on Embedded.com/Europe and a new media pack issued telling of the change of strategy.
The European website www.embedded-europe.com has been closed, with all content integrated into www.embedded.com. Although I can see the logic of this move it’s disappointing that European visitors to the site will have to search for local content rather than the site using geo-targeting to highlight European stories along with the global content, nor is the site offering a URL with a European-orientated feed of news. I’m told we can expect this to be added in the future.
The magazine has also switched from 10 issues to 5 issues in 2010, with entirely digital circulation, although I’m told that the editorial content will be specific to the European edition with minimal re-use of material from the US ESD. The layout will be changed completely, moving to a screen-optimised format on the Nxtbook platform similar to recent EE Times special editions. The layout is nice – similar to ED Europe in some ways, but offering full page adverts as well as leaderboard and MPU fractional ads. It’s great to see a publisher recognise the need to optimise the layout for the readers, whilst allowing advertisers to use familiar formats with high visual impact. We’re also promised special editions, which will be driven by sponsors.
The digital magazine circulation is a little confusing. The new media pack promises:
The digital issue goes to over 100,000 subscribers and will be seen by over 50,000 European web users.
25,000 ESD global digital subscribers via email link.
30,000 ESD Europe subscribers via email link.
50,000 EETimes and TechOnline European subscribers via email link.
50,000 unique European visitors to Embedded.com every month.
So in addition to the European subscribers, anyone currently receiving the digital version of the US title who is based outside of Europe and the US will get ESD Europe – i.e. they’ll get both the US and European digital issues. The EE Times and TechOnline European database will also be used to deliver unrequested copies, and there will be links to the digital title on Embedded.com.
So what circulation should we assume for the title? To me the circulation we can be sure is really valuable are just the 30K requested European subscribers. Although there may be other high-quality recipients, at this stage they’ve not requested the title and it remains to be seen whether the move to a large headline circulation is clever move, or whether it will just dilute the quality of the existing ESD Europe database.
ESD Europe has also quietly slipped in a rate increase (full page rates were $2100 last year, and are now $3000: an increase of about 40%). The extra circulation might go some way to justifying this increase, and there are no surcharges for flash or video adverts, but most advertisers I know value digital magazine less highly than print.
The European Embedded email newsletters will increase in frequency, appearing twice a week, which will hopefully increase loyalty to the brand, as well as ensuring the database is well maintained.
It will be interesting to see the success of the new publication. In merging ESDE and ESE, It’s not clear to me why there is value in circulating a European title outside of Europe, but if the format is as good as the EE Times specials, and with Colin Holland remaining in the role of Editor in Chief, I believe that the quality of the editorial and the easy-to-read layout will ensure good readership. From the advertising viewpoint, TechInsights acquired a significant number of UK-orientated advertisers who presumably will be unenthusiastic about the broader reach of the title, and may choose other UK, whilst global advertisers might question why they need to advertise in both the US and European brands to reach people outside of these two geographies. As a believer in the eventual move of most magazines in our industry from print to digital, however, I’m hopeful that ESD Europe will be a successful title.
Can electronics be funny?
We’ve recently completed a great project with ACAL: we co-sponsored a project at the University of Chichester where students were asked to produce viral videos about ACAL. Could these creative students make electronics funny? You can find out on the ACALTech YouTube channel – look out for these videos that were all part of the project:
- The Dating Game
- The Evolution of Electronic Design
- Not Just Any Component
- The Personal Touch
- The Machines are Talking!
- The Switch Specialist
- Those Electronics Are A Nightmare
Let me know what you think of these videos: are they funny? Will they go viral? Can electronics ever make you laugh? I strongly believe that electronics is fun (I used to be a design engineer), and that video will be an increasingly important marketing medium in our industry. If you have an idea for a video project – whether it’s a funny viral, an in-depth technical presentation or a video case study – why not contact Napier to find out how we can help?
ART running IPC instructor-level training at NEW South Africa
It’s great to see our friends at Advanced Rework Technology (ART) will be running IPC training at National Electronics Week SA 2010.
Industry Forecast Seminar 2010
Future Horizons will hold their 2010 Industry Forecast Seminar on Tuesday 26th Jan, 2010 at the Hilton London Olympia Hotel, London, England. Amongst the questions they promise to answer are:
- What will the shape of the recovery be … V, W, U, Nike or crash?
- What is the real status of investment, capacity versus demand?
- Will past growth history repeat itself in 2010-2011?
- Will ASPs ever recover or continue to fall?
- What will happen to demand when the stimulus funding stops?
- Will demand hold or will it slip back into decline?
- Will Fab-lite prove the answer or an alchemist’s illusion?
Will linking remain free?
There is an interesting battle in the UK where the NLA, which is a company that has been set up to monetise copyright licensing for newspapers, is trying to charge a licence to companies that link to newspaper websites. Recently they appear to have lost confidence, saying invoices for licences will not be issued until the case is heard at the copyright tribunal.
Links are taken for granted on the web, and many people are confused as to why publications would not want linking, as this drives traffic and increases advertising revenue. The Times Online even has the following in it’s terms and conditions:
Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the Services, including ... unauthorised framing of or linking to the Website is prohibited.
I’m not sure what would be authorised use, so I won’t link to the Times! The situation has even resulted in the launch of the right2link campaign.
I do have sympathy with the newspapers and other print publications – the world isn’t being kind to them. The idea that a site can include an obtuse clause in their Ts & Cs saying linking isn’t allowed and then sue people who link is, in my view, ridiculous. Unrestricted linking is an inherent part of the way the internet works. There is a chance, however, that the newspapers might take a different approach, preventing aggregators crawling their site with the robots.txt file, which has already happened to one aggregator, NewsNow.
Hopefully the situation will be resolved, links will be OK and all will be right with the internet. But what if links were deemed to be copyright in the UK, and you needed to get permission to create a link? Perhaps then Google would decide to stop linking to any UK site whilst the situation was sorted out. Although this move would be an effective way of getting the problem resolved quickly, I can’t imagine many UK publishers, particularly in electronics, would be happy to see their traffic from Google and the revenue associated with it disappear overnight!
Call for papers – NEW
The organisers of National Electronics Week have issued a call for papers. Taking the “keep it simple” approach, all you need to do is email your ideas for paper to the organisers.
Magazine publishers look towards a digital world
A couple of recent announcements demonstrate that large publishers – particularly in the US – are working to create better digital magazines. Hearst has teamed up with Skiff to create a “magazine e-reader”, whilst several publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc.have joined forces to define a “storefront" – i.e. a consistent portal for accessing digital magazines.
The fact that publishers are putting resources into ensuring the technology for reading electronic magazines develops rapidly is great news. I’m also much less worried about the impending battle between publishers and digital media companies such as Apple and Amazon, provided that there is a way to distribute controlled circulation titles. In fact digital distribution may not only provide the valuable information about who has read a magazine, but would also allow other readers to get copies even if they fall outside the terms of control (assuming that publishers do continue to manage their terms of control!). Advertisers and publishers can then argue about whether the additional readers justify a higher rate, although hopefully everyone understands that controlled circulation is worth A LOT more than uncontrolled circulation.
One thing, however, does worry me. Although it’s not surprising the main focus of activity is in the USA, I really don’t want publishers using delivery platforms, whether “storefronts” or e-readers to compete. I’d like the publications with the best content to win, rather than those from the publishing houses with the financial resources to invest in delivery technology. This has to be a particular concern in Europe, as many publishers – particularly in the electronics media – are relatively small companies. Having said this, I can’t see that any publisher is going to win by fragmenting the delivery systems: there is no way anyone would accept having to own multiple e-readers to allow them to read titles from different publishers that have chosen different hardware platforms. As long as the publishers strive to create the best content and make it available on all platforms, the hardware manufacturers work on producing the best e-readers, and the readers are allowed an unrestricted choice of publication and platform, then we could see a dramatic recovery in the financial fortunes of magazine publishers.
Napier aiming to set land speed record
Napier is aiming to break the 1000mph barrier and set a new land speed record. OK, we’re not actually going to do any of the record breaking, but our name will be on the tail fin of the BLOODHOUND SSC as it challenges for a World Land Speed Record of 1,000mph.
Richard Noble and the Bloodhound team are offering anyone the chance to have their name on the tail fin, for a bargain £10.00 donation. Visit the Bloodhound SSC website to find out more.
Italian events for 2010
Fiera Milano Editore organise some great seminars in Italy. Here is a list of the events they have planned for 2010:
• MC4 - Motion Control for – 12th March 2010, Palazzo dei Congressi - Bologna
• VfM - Vision for Manufacturing – 16th June 2010, Hotel Parma e Congressi - Parma
• Control & Communication – second half of September 2010, Milan
• IA - Industrial Automation Forum – October 2010, location TBD
• Focus Embedded – November 2010, location TBD
Embedded Masterclass bans PowerPoint
The organisers of the UK Embedded Masterclass have announced that the 2010 event will be held on 6th and 11th May in Cambridge and Reading. Workshops at the event will range from an introduction to using Embedded Linux in embedded systems to developing high performance embedded systems using symmetrical multi-processing (SMP). Presentations will include an exploration of the latest in debugging technologies and the development of mission critical systems.
This year presenters will be banned from using PowerPoint. I'll be fascinated to see how this works: without doubt good presenters perform better using a white board and flip chart, and hopefully the less confident presenters will put in the practice to ensure that they don't need the support of a deck of slides. It would be great if the organisers and presenters got together for dry-runs of the presentations to enable everyone to hone their presentation to be as good as possible. Whatever happens, I'm sure delegates we be delighted that they aren't condemned to sit through presenters simply reading bullet points from their presentation.
FTC regulations explained
Most readers of Napier News will have heard of the recent FTC guidelines concerning disclosure of paid-for product promotions online.
Call for papers – BATTERIES 2010
The organisers of BATTERIES 2010, which will take place from September 29th to October 1st in CANNES-Mandelieu, French Riviera, have issued a call for papers. They’re asking all potential speakers to send a short abstract (100 to 300 words) as a PDF to c.pillot@avicenne.com & visinoni.monica@wanadoo.fr. The deadline for submissions is 30 January 2010.
Publishers write their own adverts
The people behind Bedrock must have heard publishers complaining that they could write better adverts, and have given them the choice. Although initially targeted at major brands, this service that allows advertisers to bid on advertising phrases from publishers is something that I’m sure would be attractive to the electronics media. It might only be a matter of time before publishers and editors stop worrying about SEO and start wondering how many advertising phrases they can include on a page!
Publishers – be afraid, very afraid
I’ve written in the past about the fact that our industry charges much higher CPMs than you’d see elsewhere. I feel comfortable that this is justified by high-quality editorial written by experts that attracts a very specific niche audience. Despite this, the publications that do invest in great editors aren’t making a fortune. In fact we risk losing a lot of great content from our industry because the current business models can’t support all the great editors that work in electronics.
Current CPMs vary considerably. Let’s say that they run from €20 to €100. At this level advertisers can struggle to justify the investment, whilst publishers can only just pay the bills. Things are just about in balance, with publishers only able to cut prices if there is a huge increase in page views.
Then Opencores.org send me their media pack. OK, I completely accept that the Open Cores website has a very specific audience. Visitors to the site include include a higher proportion of students than magazine sites as well as engineers who are attractive to a relatively small group of advertisers (including the notoriously stingy EDA sector). But the rates for the site are crazy! Prices drop to €0.46 per thousand (you have to buy a sponsorship for a month, and the CPM is calculated based on the average impressions per month). About one hundredth of the rates you might get from a typical magazine site!
In reality I don’t expect Open Cores to change the pricing of “mainstream” sites. But if other user-generated content sites enter the market with very low rates, then publishers are going to find their CPMs under extreme pressure.
The 1000th post – European electronics media wishlist
Unbelievably this is the 1000th post I’ve made to Napier News. As it will soon be Christmas (my children are already bursting with excitement, even though there are nearly three weeks to go) I thought it might make sense to write out my European electronics media wish list to Santa.
Dear Santa
I’ve been very good boy this year and have worked very hard. Please could I have some presents this Christmas?
Firstly I’d like engineers to keep their knowledge up to date. When I finished my degree I knew very little and had to read lots of magazines to learn how to be a good engineer. I needed to read, as I simply couldn’t ask the right questions, so why do engineers now think that they can learn all they know by typing a few words into Google?
Please can you tell publishers to continue investing in editorial content. I know that editors cost money, but surely cutting editorial quality is going to eventually mean that no one wants to read the magazine? Surely great editorial will help get more readers, online traffic and advertising revenue?
I don’t understand why websites in the electronics industry are so slow to adopt new media. It seems that whilst publishers are happy to make a couple of quick edits to press release texts to create an online story, they won’t put any video on the website unless its recorded and produced by a team of professional producers. What about recording interviews using Skype? Some of the editors record interviews, so why don’t they just post the audio on the website. Please can you tell them that new media doesn’t need to be difficult!
Whilst I’m talking about online, why can’t publishers create more analysis that would really add value to engineers? Jeff Jarvis has been talking about topic pages for a long time, and this idea would be perfect for the electronics industry. Yet the topic pages that have been generated seem to be written and then forgotten.
Finally please can you help publishers and editors to make better use of social media? I know a lot of engineers don’t use social media, but do we really have to believe that the pinnacle of social media in our industry was EE Times revealing Dr. Nicely’s discovery of the famous Pentium FDIV bug to the world after a forum post.
Thank you Santa. I promise I’ll leave a carrot out for Rudolph.
Love from
Mike
p,s. If you have time, please could I also have an end to the recession, world peace, new killer applications and a chance to drive the Bloodhound SSC.
Elektor and Circuit Cellar join forces
Elektor and Circuit Cellar have announced a “strategic partnership”, which, in plain language is an acquisition of Circuit Cellar by the publisher of Elektor. This is a great move by Elektor making it the primary “hobbyist” publisher on both sides of the Atlantic.
Although the editorial in both publications is apparently targeted towards hobbyists, it’s very clear that a large proportion of the readership of the titles is professional engineers who love the tips, tricks and circuit ideas. Elektor is now twice as big as it was in 2006, with impressive annual sales of €10 million, a result of strong organic growth as well as this acquision.
Huson Media opens German office
Huson International Media, who impressively claim to be “the World’s largest independent representative of technology medea” has opened an office in Munich, Germany. The company already has offices in the UK as well as on the East and West Coast of the USA.
The new German office will be headed by industry heavyweight Christian Hoelscher, who previously was CMP-WEKA Director of International Sales,
SPS/IPC/Drives hits new visitor record
Don’t they know there is a worldwide recession? The organisers of SPS/IPC/Drives have announced that this year the event attracted 48,595 visitors. This represents a 1% increase on the previous year, and the largest visitor numbers on record for the show.
It is hugely impressive that SPS/IPC/Drives was able to deliver record visitor numbers in the current climate. It follows on from some disappointing attendance at shows such as ESC UK and productronica, and I’m delighted that SPS managed to buck the trend. Hopefully this is not only a result of a great show, but also a sign of the electronics industry beginning to show tangible signs of recovery.
Europe hates cookies
This is an important alert from Osborne Clark solicitors about restrictive new European rules governing the use of cookies on websites. They warn:
“European regulators have never quite got their heads around why cookies are so fundamental to the efficient functioning of the Internet. And, as if further demonstration of their lack of understanding were required, they have tinkered with cookie regulation once again - this time with potentially disastrous results for e-commerce in the EU.”
For more information, check out the cookie monster alert on their website.
Editor interview – Paul Whytock, Electronic Design Europe
ED Europe is a purely digital publication. So does this mean print is dead?
Absolutely not. In my opinion print publications will never be redundant. We humans read for many reasons such as pleasure, education, information-gathering and business requirements and for many people there is considerable enjoyment in reading a well-written, well-designed magazine or newspaper that is traditionally printed. There is also for some a desire to own well-produced books that perhaps form part of a personal collection.
I see no future print scenario that will emulate Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. ....now there’s a book worth owning.
From a B2B information perspective I think traditional print and electronic media can co-exist. The only proviso I would mention is that free circulation B2B print publications face sharply escalating costs on paper, printing and postage and therefore it is financially logical that B2B media companies will increasingly use electronic media to reach existing and new audiences
What are the benefits your readers see from a magazine that is delivered digitally?
Convenient delivery to their computer desktop, easy storage for reference purposes, easy to print if required. Individual pages or the whole thing can be emailed to colleagues, customers, etc.
ED Europe is delivered only as a PDF, whereas most other titles have some online system with animated pages and an option to download a PDF. Why haven’t you offered an online reader?
Unlike many PDF-delivered publications that are really print publications that have been adapted for, or in some cases just shoved onto, computer screens, ED Europe was specifically designed for PDF delivery. This provides numerous advantages for recipients. It opens in a landscape format that fits computer screens. Readers do not have to zoom in to read it or scroll around the page trying to find the story they want. Reader navigation throughout the publication is quick and easy and because of some very smart compression techniques we can produce a 26-page edition with lots of colour graphics that goes out typically as a 3meg file.
Let’s not forget here that ED Europe was created back in 2005 so it’s not unreasonable to call it a pioneering success in digital B2B media terms. It has during that time won three major awards in the USA.
On the subject of Flash-related animations in digital publications Penton Media is fully aware of these and plans to make full use of them.
Can you explain the difference between writing for a print publication and writing for a purely digital title?
In the case of ED Europe, there really is no difference. Because of the way it is designed we can run short news stories, full-length technical features and opinion columns in exactly the same way as a traditional print publication.
Now ask me that question relative to writing directly online and that’s a very different journalistic proposition. Penton Media editors now write directly to websites and the way headlines and other related information is written has to be within certain parameters that suit web journalism.
So we now see a complete Penton Media portfolio where editors write for traditional print, digital and online media
ED Europe launched an HTML email newsletter. Why didn’t you simply create a shorter PDF magazine to cover the news? What are the advantages of the HTML delivery?
Three reasons for that. ED Europe’s NewsLine newsletters provide readers with a fast, convenient, easily absorbed information service. For Penton Media it has created an additional revenue source while also doing the valuable job of driving traffic to our websites.
You have been one of the pioneers of online video in the European electronics industry. Do you see video continuing to grow as a medium in our industry?
Penton Media are committed to online video in a big way and yes I do see the use of video as a B2B communication tool expanding. Penton Media has an Engineering TV department that works in conjunction with publications and editors to produce very high quality professional standard coverage. For me and many of my editorial, colleagues at Penton one of the major video innovations has been the way in which we report on exhibitions. To be able to shoot a three-minute interview with somebody that has been deeply involved in the development of new products and technology and have them explain it directly to our design engineering audiences has to be one of the most immediate and informative ways of communicating complex information.
In addition to our editorially created video coverage Penton Media is now looking at hosting vendor videos on our websites. Conceptually, these are videos produced by companies that want to promote their products and as such can considered as being a modern high-tech form of advertising. Penton Media will be hosting these videos for a fee and the number of weeks/months the video will appear for will depend on the level of fee paid.
What is the one thing you'd like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
Generally speaking the successful PR executives and PR agencies do a pretty good job of presenting and distributing information to the media.
But while we are on the subject of PR agencies I will just release one particular bee-from-my-bonnet. PR agencies in a bid to do the best for their clients will often promote the use of editorial columns to publicise the client. And why not? Its a powerful form of promotion that contains that all important credibility ingredient called editorial integrity; although sometimes I wonder, and call me a tad cynical here if you wish, if the real attraction is more to do with the fact that editorial coverage is free.
Without going into a full scale, force 10 rant here let me put the point simply. There are agencies with foresight that appreciate magazines do need advertising income if they are to stay in business. Sadly, there are others that will soak up all the editorial support they can without thinking that in the long-term publications are a business and understandably need to turn a profit or otherwise face closure; a situation that benefits no publicity agencies.
If an industry feels there is a value to having B2B media circulating in its sector then it needs to consider supporting that media with advertising.
And let’s get one thing straight; I am certainly not talking here about a pay-to-play editorial approach. Clearly, that would ultimately denigrate the content of any journal and would not serve the interests of either readers or advertisers. What I am saying is that all industry clients and their agencies should recognise that in the long-term maintaining independent, well written and well produced business media is in everyone’s interests.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you're not writing about electronics?
Wining and dining with family and friends, travelling in Spain, playing classical Spanish guitar (badly)
What's your favourite gadget?
A corkscrew
IET Awards
Thanks to everyone at the IET for such a great evening at their annual awards last night. With around 500 people at the event and over 300 attendees, it’s clear that the IET continues to go from strength to strength.
Our client, Jennic was a finalist – yet more recognition for this great company, who has also been named as one of the top 30 Cleantech companies this year, and it was also nice to see Dr. Martin Sweeting from the University of Surrey – my old university – receive the Faraday medal.