PC Magazine stops print version
Despite the recent launch of Power Systems Design North America, the print industry is continuing to delcline in the USA. I was sad to see PC Magazine stop its print edition, although it is great to see that ZD will continue to publish a digital magazine as well as offering the website. I'm convinced this is the way forward for many magazines, and personally I expect to see at least one European electronics title move to publishing only in digital format during the current economic downturn.
A picture takes as much bandwidth as 1000 words?
I was interested to see a couple of editors (Chris Edwards and Graham Pitcher) discussing the problems of receiving image attachments with press releases. Of course most office connections have great bandwidth, but when editors are travelling and desperately trying to post a story over a 3G connection then receiving 100 JPEGs might not be helpful. At Napier we've always tried to send releases in the format that editors prefer with our own in-house database software, and when we checked fortunately we found that we don't send either images with their releases! For more information about how we manage our PR distribution (and to tell me if you are getting releases in the wrong format) send me an email.
TechInsights merges ESE and ESDE
TechInsights has surprised no one by announcing that they will merge Embedded System Engineering and Embedded Systems Design Europe to create Embedded Systems Europe, a title with a circulation of over 20,000. Interestingly they have also decided to extend the Embedded.com brand by launching Embedded-Europe.com. I do sometimes wonder how much sense it makes to segregate the engineering community on geography as vertical segmentation seems to make much more sense, but as TechInsights also offers such a comprehensive range of vertical DesignLines, I guess I can't complain! The website will also help drive a weekly email newsletter with 18,000 circulation.
The website and the magazine will have a close tie with ESC UK, the Embedded Systems Show, which has recently switched venue to Farnborough.
Phil Ling will edit Embedded Systems Europe, with Colin Holland appointed as Editor-in-Chief across all the European Embedded titles, which makes this an incredibly strong and well-respected team.
Cassidy Publications to launch online titles
It's great to see new publications launch in our industry, and to see three new titles announced from a new publishing company is fabulous. Cassidy Publications has announced the following online titles:
I hope that this new venture is successful. Cassidy Publications has identified gaps that are not filled by existing publications, rather than trying to simply chase the biggest advertising budgets. It's interesting to see that by focusing on the reader, Cassidy Publications has actually created publications that will also have strong appeal to many suppliers (who will presumably become advertisers!), and hopefully this will ensure the success of all of these new online titles.
Is charging for images a good source of income for websites?
I was impressed with the redesign of electronicstalk.com when I wrote about it in October, but I've been disappointed with their approach to posting images. Electronicstalk are asking for £120.00 to publish each image to accompany releases. Although releases with images are more likely to be included in the featured articles box on the home page, it's difficult to see the value in paying for the image. With the current layout the images are unlikely to drive a significant increase in traffic, and if a potential customer arrives at the page, they are probably interesting in the product features and there is no need to catch the eye of the reader. I can understand online publishers looking for new revenue streams, but without any guarantee of better promotion of the story, this doesn't seem to be an approach that will see widespread adoption.
E&E discovers the fascination of electronics
According to Plato, "Necessity is the mother of invention," and this probably applies to E&E, who are relaunching the magazine after disappointing results in the AgLa readership study. Although Publish Industry tell me that they were planning a relaunch before the results were known, it is clear that a new approach is needed in the overcrowded German electronics magazine market.
The biggest change is the plan to change the editorial style to focus on the fascinating aspects of electronics - through both pictures and words. articles will look at technologies, products and people within the industry, and I guess the approach could be summarised as trying to make a coffee-table electronics magazine. The magazine will also reduce frequency to 8x year, but there will be a short PDF magazine (E&E Week) distributed by email 48 times a year, covering news and products. of course the website will continue in a similar format to today, as will the annual Kompendium.
The print publication will also be published as a "flip book" four times a year, with the back focusing on green electronics.
Unfortunately Publish Industry has also announced that Sabine Grothe (editor) and Javor Dimitrov (advertising manager) will leave the publication, although a replacement for Javor, Saskia Albert, has already been appointed.
So is this an inspired move, or panic? If E&E can pull it off, then I think it will be inspired. In a way the new approach is not unlike that of the IET's Engineering and Technology, a publication that many of my engineering friends read avidly. The weekly PDF magazine is a fabulous idea, and will also ensure that advertisers feel that their products get covered (which clearly won't happen as frequently in the new print format). But this is a huge challenge, and one that will be made even more difficult by changes in the advertising and editorial team. Producing 48 PDF mini-mags as well as a new format that if anything will place more pressure on the editors will definitely present a real challenge. Convincing advertisers of the completely new advertising ideas such as the spotlight photo sequence will surely require many sales conversations. Personally I hope E&E pulls it off - the electronics magazine market lacks innovation with most websites looking very similar and only a couple of magazine formats dominating the print offering. If this new approach is successful, we will have more engineers reading more magazines, which should will mean the design community becoming more knowledgeable and therefore able to design better products. Let's hope this optimistic vision can become reality!
Congratulations to Vicor – Elektra Award winners again!
Many congratulations to Vicor, a great client that has won an Elektra Award for the second year running. Vicor was named the winner of the Power Systems Product of the Year at the ceremony in Munich. Electronics Weekly has video clips of the winners - including Andy Gales of Vicor - collecting their awards.
"The Nearly Men" sells out
Congratulations to Mike Green, who tells me that his first book, The Nearly Men, has sold out the first print run.
Happy birthday c't!
Congratulations to Heise on the 25th brithday of c't. Although not strictly an electronics title, this IT magazine exerts incredible influence on the technical community in Germany, and drives PR agencies mad with an unbelievably large editorial roster. Many happy returns c't!
Results for SAME 2008
The organisers of SAME 2008 have announced that the event had 42 exhibitors and 800 participants. The numbers are a little down on last year (47 exhibitors and over 900 visitors), but have held up pretty well considering the econmic situation.
The show continues to focus on the local area, with 75% of participants from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, and only 11% from outside France. Almost a quarter of the exhibitors, however, were from outside France, so clearly the region continues to offer exciting opportunities for all companies.
Mike Green publishes new book
The book is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Blackwell, and WH Smiths. We've also ordered a copy and will give it to a reader of Napier news. Just email me to enter the draw, and I'll randomly pick a winner during electronica.
Call for papers - SCOPES 2009
The organisers of SCOPES 2009, the 12th International Workshop on Software and Compilers for Embedded Systems have issued a call for papers. The event will be held on April 23-24, 2009 in Acropolis, Nice, France (co-located with DATE). The full paper must be submitted by 21st November.
Electronicstalk redesigns
Electronicstalk has redesigned the website, and now sports a much cleaner look and funkier color scheme. Although the site is promoting features such as color pictures to accompany articles and releases; animated slideshows; and video content, it's also very interesting that the site is now promoting case studies, company news and technical articles. Electronicstalk was a victim of a major change in Google's pagerank algorithms which penalized "duplicate content". It's good to see Dave Wilson trying to enhance the editorial content to both boost the google traffic and add value to users of the site.
New publisher at Findlay
Ed Tranter has been appointed group publisher of Findlay's design group of titles, which includes New Electronics, Eureka and European Automotive Design. Ed has an inpressive track record, having been publisher of Marketing Week and most recently he was Group Publisher for Informa Telecoms and Media, working with important comms titles such as Mobile Communications International.
Napier News moves to WordPress
An agency that is advising clients on the latest online marketing techniques and tools probably shouldn't be running a Blogger-hosted blog! Although Blogger was great for simplicity and speed - and in practice most of you read our monthly email rather than visiting the blog - I've finally found moved Napier News to a different platform.
I managed to find a surprisingly short amount of time in between the many cool projects I'm working on for our clients to install Wordpress, and in the future I hope to use Napier News as a demonstration of some of the neat things you can do with a blog. Currently I've set up a very simple blog template, similar to our Blogger template, but hope to try different layouts, widgets and features in the future. Keep checking Napier News to see whether I can squeeze out time to do it!
UK show switches venue
I was pleased to see the announcement of TechInsight's commitment to ESS, which will now be known as ESC UK, the Embedded Systems Show. I was a little surprised, however, when I received an email on 27th October switching the venue. Only 11 days after announcing that the show would return to the NEC in Birmingham, UK, the organisers change their minds and now the show will be held on 7th - 8th October 2009 at the Farnborough International Show Centre!
The move to Farnborough is interesting. Although the NEC hasn't proved to be an ideal home for the event, Farnborough - whilst geographically closer to the majority of the UK's design engineers - will be a new venue to most of the attendees. Hopefully the location, will help draw in more attendees, whilst also offering a very cost-effective space for exhibitors.
Who'd be an editor?
I had to smile when I read the EE Times Europe email newsletter today. The top story told us "Outlook: Don't panic, it's not 2001" but the next story down asked us "Chip equipment: 2001 all over again?". Who'd be an editor?
National Electronics Week to return in 2009
The organisers of National Electronics Week have annouced that the show will return on 16th- 18th June 2009, promising that "it’s going to be bigger and better than ever". The first National Electronics Week event was, in the words of the organisers, "a qualified success", with the focus on quality of visitors rather highlighting the quantity. My personal opinion, however, is that the show ended up being focussed on manufacturing - hardly different from Nepcon. If the show is to become an unqualified success, the organisers must persuade many more component suppliers to exhibit, which will lead to far more engineers and purchasers attending.
Future Horizons' Industry Forecast Seminar
Future Horizons will be holding their next Industry Forecast Briefing Seminar on 27th January 2009 at the Kensington Close Hotel, London. Let's hope that the economy will have settled down by then, and we won't be facing entirely gloomy predictions!
Call for submissions: EDAA PhD Forum 2009
Now is the time to promote any sponsored EDA research! The organisers of the PhD forum that is part of the DATE Conference and hosted by the European Design Automation Association (EDAA) have issued a call for papers. Contact Peter Marwedel to submit the abstract before 1st December 2008.
Power Systems Design launches in North America
Power Systems Design will be launching into North American at APEC in February 2009, giving the publishers, AGS Media Group, the power electronics media franchise with broadest geographical reach. The title will have a 32,000 circulation, and will be edited by Cliff Keys (who will also continue to edit PSDE).
The launch coincides with changes at competitive title Power Electronics Technology as David Morrison steps down as editor in chief (he has been replaced by Sam Davis).
This is a pretty gutsy move: obviously the recession and the problems within the US-based media have passed AGS Media Group by! I'd like to think it will also turn out to be inspired: if you can make a business work in a down market, then it should boom when the market turns. Some clients do like the convenience of global titles, and from a competitive point of view it may turn out to be just the right time. Most of all, I'm pleased to see publishers investing in new publications reaching more engineers: this has to be welcomed by anyone who wants to get their message out to the electronics industry.
LEM wins 2008 International Web Award
Congratulations to LEM: their website has won the “Manufacturing Industry Standard of Excellence” category in the 2008 International Web Awards. The awards are run by the Web Marketing Association, with websites judged by a panel of independent Internet experts in such areas as design, interactivity, technology, content, innovation, copywriting, and ease of use.
What's New in Industry moves online
It was sad to see that Septebmer was the last printed issue of What's New in Industry. With the retirement of the editor David Keighley and departure of the sales manager Simon Bonell the magazine has decided to move to publising only online at www.wnii.co.uk, with Carolyn Ellison, the online editor, supplying content.
Chris Shaw appointed deputy editor of New Electronics
Chris Shaw has joined New Electronics as deputy editor. Chris is well known from his time at MMG Publishing, where he was editor of Electronics Sourcing and Electronics Assembly.
Tim Fryer takes on Managing Editor role
Congralutations to Tim Fryer, who has taken on the role of managing editor for both EPD and Electronics Manufacture and Test. Tim has edited EM&T for many years and brings enormous experience with him. IML is currently looking for a Technical Editor to support Tim on EPD.