UBM shows B2B how to evolve
Jinfo Blog

20th October 2010

By Penny Crossland

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The B2B print market has been in the doldrums for a while, forcing publishers to move to other media platforms to keep adrift. Earlier this year, InPublishing (http://digbig.com/5bcqkk) reported on the decline in traditional revenue streams and the need for B2B publishers to implement digitally-based revenue models in order to become less reliant on advertising. This was also picked up by Tim Buckley-Owen in August this year (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e30224), who wrote about B2B magazines becoming increasingly interactive, with publishers eyeing e-readers as a new revenue stream. One publisher in this arena is the UK’s innovative United Business Media (http://www.ubminfo.com), best known for its PR Newswire division and its tradeshows, although it also has substantial magazine and online divisions. The company decided last year to buy its way out of the recession (see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e20022 ). Since the beginning of this year alone, UBM has acquired 18 companies to complement its portfolio across all divisions. Several of these acquisitions have been directed towards the digital space, with some also centred on the growing area of business social media. The company has also been innovative with existing businesses: in March, for example it re-launched its IT trade show COMDEX as a virtual event.(http://digbig.com/5bcqkm) In April, web-based marketing business SharedVue was bought for UBM’s Everything Channel division, its “one-stop shop for accessing, enabling, managing and accelerating technology sales channels” (http://digbig.com/5bcqkn) . Then, last week it announced the purchase of OBGYN.net (http://digbig.com/5bcqkpa) a women’s health website, which provides “article-based and multimedia content generated by both contributors and users”. UBM’s Medica division is hoping this acquisition will enable it to reach a broader audience than the one addressed through traditional print media. According to the press release, the OBGYN site has a searchable archive of posts, peer-to-peer discussions and expert forums, which will be of interest to pharmaceutical and device companies, as well as to digital agencies trying to reach this customer base. The business social media theme was further enhanced last week with the acquisition of startup DeusM (http://www.deusm.com), a ‘Marketing-as-a-Service’ company. This service allows publishers to create online communities for its customers (http://digbig.com/5bcqkr) by integrating multimedia publishing platforms. As Econtent magazine points out, UBM should be seen by its B2B publishing peers as an example of how to “diversify, innovate and evolve to survive”. (http://digbig.com/5bcqks)

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