Comments on: TechInsights’ latest reorganization

By: hdduncan (Helen Duncan)

hdduncan (Helen Duncan) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:31:10 +0000

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Looking at: "TechInsights’ latest reorganization" ([link to post])

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By: Mike Santarini

Mike Santarini — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:22:04 +0000

Sorry folks, it’s actually techbites.com, not techbytes.com…it’s formed by a lot of ex-EET Designliners…

By: Mike Santarini

Mike Santarini — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:28:49 +0000

I don’t know if they’ve commented as such but from a distance it looks like the parent co has now turned these properties into bite size chunks. Past experience tells me that when co’s do this it is most usually a prelude to a sell off, which could be a good thing. Maybe the Leeds will buy it back?

BTW, You folks checked out Techbytes.com yet?

By: Gary Smith

Gary Smith — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:00:30 +0000

I think EE Times will come back because the EDA Industry is heading into the realm of Low Touch marketing. But for that you need rock star editors so they better start hiring back some top talent.

I’ll have a Industry Note on High Touch Vs. Low Touch up on my site soon.

By: Loring Wirbel

Loring Wirbel — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:07:48 +0000

I was going to come down solidly on the side of Sean’s comments, under the belief that the audience has already left the building. But I might allow for a couple caveats. Lou’s comments on teaching models are important ones, that may provide a path to the future. Ultimately, Brian, the printed pubs still showing signs of life are scholarly journals, and it may be that the surviving model may look something like Harvard Business Review, and something like an IEEE tech pub. But it won’t look like EE Times, EDN, or Design News. When Jackie reposted your original post, I just responded with a yawn. Sorry.

By: Lou Covey

Lou Covey — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:48:21 +0000

We’re still at a point that the engineering community still believes that communication skills are a biological trait and anyone can do it. But that assurance is getting shaky as Brian indicates. Multiple companies have either built or are in the process of building a social media infrastructure… because their competitors are … and they don’t want to be left behind. At the same time, as the look at what they have built, they are at a complete loss regarding what to do with it. I run into multiple engineering managers who say “I have a blog/twitter account/facebook page but what is it for?” I’m actually creating a business teaching them how to use it. Somewhere in the middle–between teaching engineers how to write and reinvigorating traditional media — we will find the answer.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:16:59 +0000

Sean, I’m not quite sure myself. And I write that after reading your comment (thank you, btw) and just after opening my latest bill from the San Francisco Chronicle, which I support as a charitable contribution. The new annual subscription fee is more than $400, well north of what I pay for the Wall Street Journal. The quality of the Chronicle’s reportage has plummeted this decade. 400 bucks for lousy coverage is not a bargain.
In the B:B space, however, I still hold out hope that some model will emerge for an independent publication or publications. As you noted, the audience has not left the building, but it very soon will.
To me, a world in which the conversation is dominated by companies (with the resources to drive new media programs) is not beneficial even to the companies.
The rest of the conversation will be highly intelligent and opinionated and dominated by engineers who (A) are consultants selling their services or (B) fulltime engineers with companies and therefore constrained by what they can write to one degree or another.
The trade press has always served (ideally) as a b.s. filter run by people whose job (ideally) is to report events in an objective way to keep putting food on the table. Yes, this is idealized, but even companies loved it because they got validation for their marketing efforts.
Today the corporate refrain is “I know my audience. I know where there are, and I can reach them directly and cost-effectively.”
The point of the post is they may know where they are (for now), but they may not be reach them cost-effectively, especially since spam is a four-letter word.
In the end, I’m just not convinced that either marketing departments or the vast majority of a given B:B audience is interested in chasing after the endless possibilities the Web provides. You and I and others may enjoy a streaming world of constant information during the day, book-ended by think-tank podcasts on my hour-long commute (well, me anyway), but most people want to know what they need to know when they need to know it so they can do their job.
That tension is what I think may stem the deterioration of the trade press.
Or not.

By: Sean Murphy

Sean Murphy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:29:52 +0000

I am confused, this latest re-org looks like a complete undo of the last few years’ changes, only they are not re-hiring any of the journalists or editors they let go.

You say:

“Some time after New Year’s Day, this industry needs to pop a Bromo or two and get back to the business of sensible marketing–an integrated approach in which companies build smart, sensible channels to customers and prospects both directly and indirectly.”

I don’t understand what’s going to change in 2010 that is going to reverse EET’s fortunes, especially when magazines like BusinessWeek and newspapers like the New York Times are experiencing the same loss in advertising even though circulation has held reasonably steady.

The problem has not been that the established print media players lost readers–although they have–it’s that they have lost advertisers.

I don’t understand what’s going to bring them back to spend money on print advertising in 2010, or after 2010.

By: plindemann (Paul Lindemann)

plindemann (Paul Lindemann) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:14:39 +0000

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Implications of TechIsights’ (EETimes) reorg & evolution of the electronics trade press by @bfuller9: [link to post]

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By: S_Tomasello (Stephen Tomasello)

S_Tomasello (Stephen Tomasello) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:13:38 +0000

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RT @plindemann: Implications of TechIsights’ (EETimes) reorg & evolution of the electronics trade press by @bfuller9: [link to post]

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