MMG to launch new website
MMG Publishing, are to launch a new website - ElectronicsBOM.com (NB site isn't yet up and running). The site will be targeted at purchasers, rather than engineers, making it an ideal partner for their current magazines, Electronics Sourcing and Electronics Sourcing Europe.
The business model for the site is simple: they aim to make this a useful resource for purchasers by posting a large number of news stories (releases), with more than 2500 stories on the site from launch, and 10 or more new stories a day. As other sites focus on designers, rather than engineers, MMG reasons that they can make the best site for purchasing professionals in our industry. Companies pay one flat annual fee (we understand this will be £495 per annum) to be sent a lead whenever someone clicks on one of their stories.
Will this work? I personally think the low-cost leads model will represent a great investment for many companies in our industry, particularly distributors and commodity product suppliers. I'm also really pleased that MMG have made my recent prediction of more lead-driven services come true. The real question is whether the site will attract sufficient users to generate an acceptable number of leads. Will users get frustrated when they get contacted if they access information on the site? If the site was aimed at engineers, I'd be sceptical, but as MMG has a clear focus on purchase professionals, who ultimately need to talk to sales people to do their jobs, I'm optimistic about electronicsBOM.com's chances of success.
Twittering Napier News
I've started to use my Twitter feed (Mike_Maynard) for updates about Napier News. Let me know you find this useful, as I'm going to run it as a 2-month experiment before deciding whether to continue.
The Findlay buyout
Generally speaking I like to avoid any legal or financial issues on Napier News, but I feel I must make an exception regarding the acquisition of Findlay Publications (FPL) by management buy-out vehicle Findlay Media. Although I try to make sure all the stories are written from my own (somewhat biased) viewpoint, in this case I'm not in a position to make any insightful comments so I'm just going to include the text that Findlay Media executive director Ed Tranter sent me. The text does include a pitch for New Electronics, and although I don't want to give one magazine preferential treatment over another, but in these exceptional circumstance I thought it better to leave Ed's words unchanged.
Onwards and upwards
There has been much speculation and some degree of mischief-making surrounding New Electronics and the story behind Findlay Publications (FPL) fate. So, to put the record straight, this is what happened just two days before Christmas.
Like many companies, FPL operated a final salary pension scheme. But the recent decline in global stock markets and growing pension fund servicing costs, saw the pension fund develop a rapidly deepening, multi-million pound ‘black hole’ deficit.
Despite the company’s strong trading performance, its bank was not prepared to lend money simply to support the troubled final salary scheme and as a result, the bank withdrew its overdraft facility with no warning.
Instead of the relaxing Christmas break they were planning, four members of FPL’s senior management team spent the holiday putting together a bid for a substantial part of FPL’s assets. That bid was successful and a new company – Findlay Media – emerged as the new owners of New Electronics.
Findlay Media executive director Ed Tranter said: “Despite a turbulent Christmas period, we entered 2009 in a better position than many. Findlay Media has no bank debts, no financial salary scheme burden, available investment funds and exciting plans for product development across the group, not just in the electronics sector.”
The re-launch of www.newelectronics.co.uk is just the start of the product development roll out. Not only has there been a change of design, the site is now updated throughout the day providing its readers with more news and technology features than before. The site has also been enhanced with the a number of new sections and innovations, including interviews, NETV (video channel), white papers, new product announcements, opinion polls, blogs and the ability for the readers to comment on all stories. New Electronics has also launched an Embedded channel, providing focused coverage of this important industry sector. Further vertical channels are in development and will be launched in the next few months.
Importantly, New Electronics has the same editorial team, the same high editorial and circulation standards and the same fortnightly publishing schedule.
In a recent New Electronics’ reader survey, 61% of readers have made purchasing decisions based on what they have seen in the magazine, 23% of New Electronics readers have a budget of more than £500,000 and 72% of the New Electronics audience reads every issue. With of delivery mechanisms ranging from print advertising and website presence to direct mail and focused marketing campaigns – New Electronics remains one of the essential routes to market for companies looking to reach electronics design engineers. Whatever else you may have heard, those are the facts.
Electropages supplies news to iPhone users
Kudos to Electropages, who have just released an iPhone application to supply electronics industry news from their website. Although I'd agree that even a nine-year-old could write an iPhone application, I'm impressed that Electropages was smart enough to grab the app title "Electronics News" before anyone else - a name that will certainly ensure the popularity of their application!
PIC32 wins award for Microchip
Congratulations to Microchip, who last night was named as the winner in the Microcontroller category of EDN's 19th Annual Innovation Awards for their PIC32 family. I first worked with the MIPS architecture just over 15 years ago, and to see the products that can be created with combination of this core coupled with Microchip's on-chip peripherals, development tools and support makes me realise the astounding rate of change and continuous improvement in our industry.
Israeli military show
Hi-Tech is organising a Military technologies conference on the 24th May 2009 to be held at the Events Centre at Kiryat Airport. This conference is part of a comprehensive programme of events organised by Hi Tech, including electronic supply and manufacturing; embedded systems; chip design; R&D: and wireless technologies.
Call for papers - Wireless Congress 2009
The organisers of the 6th Wireless Congress 2009: Systems & Applications (Elektronik magazine, the organisers of the electronica show and ZVEI) have issued a call for papers. The event will be held on October 21-22, 2009 in Munich, and will also include a table-top exhibition. Proposals can cover a wide range of topics from ZigBee and Bluetooth to WiMAX and WLANs. The deadline for submissions is 11th May 2009.
Embedded World readership study
The organisers of Embedded World have released the results of their annual readership study. With the close ties the show has with Weka, it's probably not surprising that the top three titles are M&T, Elektronik and D&E. Equally unsurprising, Elektronik Praxis follows Weka's "big three". But then the results get interesting. The fifth most-read title - according to this survey - is Elektor, and E&E is the third-highest ranking non-Weka title.
What does this all mean? Of course all the recent readership surveys have their limitations, and I could point to a number of different issues with the Embedded World methodology (for example there are several reasons why sample isn't likely to be representative of the German electronics industry as a whole).But it does still offer us some useful insights: perhaps we weren't going mad when we put Elektor on some clients' schedules, and naturally E&E are going to be pleased with such a good result so soon after their relaunch. There is one thing for sure - it guarantees that the German publishing landscape will remain interesting throughout 2009.
Welcome to Alexander – another Napier baby
Everyone at Napier turned into complete softies yesterday when Alexis, who recently provided maternity cover for the irrepressible Emma, brought Alexander into work. Alexander is Alexis' second child, with a wonderful calm temperament - not a single cry or whinge, even when I was holding him!
Does location matter?
As someone who is lucky enough to live and work by the sea and next to the wonderful South Downs, which are soon to be designated a national park, I definitely believe location is important. When it comes to business, however, I believe that communications technology makes the location of your office pretty irrelevant. Yet we've just opened an office in London. So how do I explain the need for a London office? Um... can I get back to you on that one?
Napier are stars!
Many thanks to Constant Contact, who named Napier as an email marketing "All Star" in their 2008 awards. It's always nice to be recognised!
Call for papers - ESC UK
TechInsights has issued a call for papers for the Embedded Systems Conference UK, which will be held on 6th to 8th October 6 2009 at FIVE International Show Centre, Farnborough, UK. The organisers plan 40+ classes; in 60 minute, 2-hour or half-day (3-hour) sessions. With a new venue this year, it will be interesting to see if TechInsights can entice UK engineers to overcome their natural agoraphobia, leave the office and visit ESC. Historically the conference is the best part of this combined conference and show, so I'd recommend submitting an abstract, which is due in by 10th April 2009.
CeBIT claims success
The organisers of CeBIT have claimed that the show delivered a "positive message" to the industry, despite a 20% drop in visitors. With a claim of an increased number of trade visitors, CeBIT is effectively saying that the students, hangers-on and freebie hunters who bolstered the numbers in previous years were not worth attracting. Although the numbers are down, I'm sure most exhibitors at CeBIT would welcome a more focused show that attracts quality attendees, and let's be honest, 400 000 visitors is a big number, even when spread across the Hannover Messe. A postive message? Well 20% down is hard to justify as positive, but maybe this recession will help the event deliver long-term benefits in terms of visitor quality to the more than 4000 exhibitors.
Analyse me, analyse my blog
Just a little bit of fun thanks to Business Week, which pointed me to Typealyzer, a site that claims to be able to tell you "what personality is behind that blog". Apparently Mick Elliott is a Duty Fulfiller (responsible and hardworking type), Richard Wilson is a Visionary (charming and trend savvy type), and David Manners is an Executive (direct and assertive type). Judging by these assessments, it's a fairly accurate tool. I was also pleased to see that it thought I was an organizing and efficient type!
Embedded World reports good numbers
The organisers of Embedded World have reported a 5% increase in exhibitors to 704 and only a small fall in visitor numbers over last year. 15,850 visitors attended the show this year, down on 2008, but ahead of 2007. Given the current economic situation, this has to be seen as a real achievement.
Sadly it was the first time for more than 12 years that I've had to miss Embedded World. If you missed the event this year, don't worry, you can get a flavour of the event in the clip below.
Editor interview - Michael Brunn
The relaunch of E&E is a huge change of direction for the magazine. Why did publish industry believe this was needed?
Media use has changed dramatically the last view years. Workaday life is dominated by time pressure and new digital media formats compete with print. As a consequence, publishing houses are forced to reconsider their magazine concepts and to redefine their positioning. With the concept of a print-magazine that provides fascination as well as even high utility in combination with our new digital newsletter E&E WEEK containing all the product news and current market-information, publish-industry is well prepared for this change.
What has been the response to the new magazine and to E&Eweek from readers?
This is very encouraging and overwhelming: We just got positive and constructive feedback so far. Apparently with the new concept we did get exactly the point and reach our core target group. People mainly mentioned the fresh layout, independent editorial content and the interplay between print and the E&Eweek.
E&Eweek has only attracted a couple of advertisers so far. What do you think has prevented others from trying the new format?
After seven issues of E&Eweek I am absolutely convinced, that the positive feedback of our readers will lead to success in advertising. Especially in Germany it is very difficult to convince people of something new – and it is even harder in times of an economical downturn.
One criticism of E&Eweek is that although it looks great, there are no active hyperlinks in the PDF. Why is this?
We do have active links placed in the event overview, in advertisements and some referring to editorial content of the E&E print magazine.
Is there anything you plan to change about E&Eweek or E&E Faszination Elektronik, or anything you wish was done differently?
The huge positive feedback from electronic developers confirms that the new direction is the right way for E&E. We still have a lot of new ideas we will introduce within the next months. The same applies to the E&Eweek.
Doesn’t the new format E&E Faszination Elektronik demand more work by editors than “conventional” electronics magazines? How can you sustain this commitment?
If you want to achieve high quality it usually means a lot of work. This is also true for the E&E. But in this case it means also a lot of fun and the chance to create something new. It is a great challenge, but in a positive sense of meaning. I’m sure we will - in cooperation with our readers, our clients, our freelance authors and the whole E&E-team - create a really good magazine that is worth the effort.
What is the one thing you'd like to change about the way companies do PR in the electronics industry?
The companies are our partners – we need them to be successful. But with the different approach of the new E&E we need a new kind of cooperation which has to be much more bilateral than it has been before. The dialogue between the publisher, the client and the agency is essential for us and our new concept.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time, when you're not writing about electronics?
I have a wife and two cats – they all keep me busy most of the time. And I am a musician for more than 20 years. I spent a lot of time in my little studio – which of course contains a lot of electronic stuff.
What's your favourite gadget?
I bought a Netbook in January and I am so happy with it – it does a good job for business and private purposes.
Technik Report relaunches
The austrian title, Technik Report, is relaunching, promising improved content with a clear focus on manufacturing and automation and enhanced editorial that is all packaged in a "clean, fresh layout".
Top UK Magazines on Twitter
Thanks to Richard Wilson for this list of the top UK magazines on Twitter. Followers are still way below subscribers, but growing continuously and I'll be interested to see at what level the number of followers begins to level out. In the meantime, make sure you follow Richard (Twitter name EWcom) to make sure he gets a good ranking on the league table when Media UK realise he has a twitter account.
John Schirmer joins SupplyFrame
SupplyFrame has lured John Schirmer away from Yahoo! to take a new role as VP of Worldwide Sales for SupplyFrame. Whilst the cynics might point to the current troubles at Yahoo!, I'm not so negative (for once!). To attract a director of sales away from Yahoo! must mean he saw something he really liked at SupplyFrame. Additionally the B2B sector tends to lag B2C when it comes to online innovation, so I'm looking forward to lots of new online initiatives within SupplyFrame and ultimately throughout our industry.
Napier's industry newsfeed
I've been running an internal newsfeed for a long time, highlighting industry news; coverage of our clients and their compeitors; and a mix of interesting online articles about marketing. If anyone is interested, they are welcome to point their RSS reader at my Google Reader feed:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/15181653306294676639
IAB behavioral advertising guidelines
The BBC reports that the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has introduced a set of guidelines for behavioral advertising. Behavioral advertising covers a wide spectrum of marketing activities, with these guidelines clearly aimed at the "track everything you do online until we know your life better than you do" techniques like the controversial Phorm service so loved by my own ISP, BT. Today online advertising in the electronics industry is dominated by the pay-per-impression model that is simple but reletively untargeted. I'm sure that in years to come behavioral targeting will allow me to buy ads that only reach engineers who have read stories about specific techologies or products (tracked over several sites), so these guidelins will prove important as the foundations for what I'd call true behavioural advertising are laid in the electronics industry.
Napier research in the press
Thanks to elektronik + embedded systems who published an article about Napier's recent distribution survey in the distribution feature in their first issue of this year. Our research was picked up by experienced freelance journalist Theo Van Gelder, who wrote a great article on the subject. Although I write a fair number of articles that get published with client bylines, it is always nice to get a credit in print!
Call for papers - SPS/IPC/Drives
The organisers of SPS/IPC/Drives have issued a call for papers, and are particularly keen to see profitability, flexibility, dependability and competitiveness of automation technology covered as they consider them to be the key topics for users of automation. The deadline for submissions is 4th May 2009, and you need to submit using the online form.
Electronicstalk to add new features
as one of the first online-only publications, I'm always interested in what Electronicstalk does to develop the site. Although the site remains important, I've been pretty critical of some decisions - particularly charges for inclusion of images with stories.
The site promises that for companies that advertise or take the leads service, the ability to request a sales call, send an email, download a technical specification, brochure or any other relevant literature, as well as being able to click through directly to the company website will be added to their pages on Electronicstalk. I'm really not sure that this is a good idea: surely a company's own website should be the destination for most of this material? If customers were genuinely interested, wouldn't they be keen to go to the company's website, rather than access a subset of material on Electronicstalk?
Don't get me wrong - I still think Electronicstalk does a good job. In fact I'd predict that other websites will begin to offer leads packages in 2009 - it's a good source of revenue, and the leads can be extremely valuable. But I worry that Electronicstalk is struggling to find ways to grow its revenue. It's nice to report that the new innovations are free to all customers, but I wonder how much value they really will have. I'm sure that this year will be interesting as we watch models for increasing online revenue being tried out by different publishers and try to work out which ones give customers the most value.
New blog from South Africa
In the past I've questioned why blogs appear to have had so little influence on the electronics media to date. Perhaps this is going to change in 2009 - this month I've already highlighted that Electronics Weekly has relaunched their startup blog, and launched a new open source blog. Now EE Publishers in South Africa have launched "The best from EE Publishers..." blog. Several of the posts link to audio content, making it a true multi-media platform. The broad portfolio of magazines (EngineerIT, Energize, Vector and PositionIT) mean that the blog is pretty broad-based, but perhaps we are seeing signs of blogs taking off in our industry.