Ian Reeves

B2B magazines

Magazines published to provide information pertinent to their readers’ working lives

Often paid for by subscription, usually distributed via the postal service

Sometimes distributed by ‘controlled circulation’ – sent directly to people with specific job titles who are attractive to advertisers

B2B magazines

4,560 business magazines were being published in the UK in 2012

The sector is worth £1.6billion Number of titles has been

dropping since 2008 Advertising expenditure dropped

by 51 per cent between 2007 and 2011 – from £968m to £472m

B2B sector value

Comparative ad expenditure

B2B revenue streams

B2B magazines

Top 10 B2B magazines

B2B sectors

B2B’s move to digital

Increase in number of publications going ‘digital only’ in recent years

Some success with paywalls for some magazines

Classified advertising more difficult to monetise online

Recent print closures: Design Week, New Media Age, Accountancy Age, Computer Weekly, Media Week, Lloyds List

Selected B2B publishers

Centaur Media: Marketing Week, The Lawyer

Incisive Media: Accountancy Age, Investment Week

Reed Business Information: New Scientist, Flight International, Farmer’s Weekly

United Business Media: Property Week, Building

Emap: Retail Week, Construction News, Draper’s Record

Further reading

Have trade magazines got a shelf life? http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/apr/25/trade-magazines-online-only

How the web transformed the weekly B2B magazinehttp://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/and-along-came-internet-how-web-transformed-weekly

Paywall lessons from B2B publishershttp://www.journalism.co.uk/news/-dms13-from-free-to-paid-for-paywall-lessons-from-b2b-publishers-/s2/a552142/

Sector analysis: B2B publishinghttp://www.mediaweek.co.uk/article/1152013/sector-analysis-b2b-publishing