Is online the future for B2B publishing?
Jinfo Blog

4th March 2010

By Penny Crossland

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With the decline in the advertising market, the B2B print sector has been going through rough times lately. Late last year, Haymarket announced the closure of Media Week’s print edition (http://digbig.com/5bbeeh) and last month, Terrapinn’s Total Telecom magazine ceased its print publication entirely( http://digbig.com/5bbeeg ), opting to hang on to its online edition (which has been behind a paywall for some time). Now Reed Elsevier’s RBI division reported a drop in its 2009 operating profits of 35 per cent. Commenting on the results, CEO Erik Engstrom said that the print markets were “structurally challenged and had to reinvent themselves“. (http://digbig.com/5bbeee) However, it would seem that while the B2B print sector is suffering, online formats are driving businesses along, with online STM titles faring particularly well. Informa too, owners of Datamonitor and publishers of Lloyd’s List has had a rough ride. Tim BuckleyOwen reported late last year that the company had considered acquiring Springer Science & Business Media (see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27317). It decided not to in the end, which was probably a wise decision: this week we learnt that Informa’s revenues and profits for the year ended December 2009 fell by 4 percent (to £1.2 billion) and 11 per cent (to £146 billion) respectively. (http://digbig.com/5bbeea) However, online content is thriving. According to the press release, 72 per cent of the company’s publishing revenues now come from digital formats. Interestingly, Informa’s increasing emphasis on online is being driven by customer demand, with clients asking for online output across all the company’s publications. Unsurprisingly, Datamonitor now derives 84 percent of its revenues from digital formats. E-books are also increasing in importance –Informa now publishes all its new titles as E-books, as well as in print form. How long before we say print, RIP?

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