Newsroom: e-Newsletter

Fall 2006 – News from CHEN PR

• Sam Whitmore analyzes the diverging strategies business publications now employ to attract readers
• Three Questions: Marketing guru David Taber shares his insights on viral marketing

Business Publications Diverge
By Sam Whitmore, Editor, Sam Whitmore's Media Survey

A clear distinction is emerging in American business magazines. On one side we find BusinessWeek and Condé Nast Portfolio, both of which are banking on investigative reporting to attract readers and bring in the bucks. On the other are Forbes and Fortune, jockeying for exclusive access and insights from the rock stars of business.

Unprecedented opportunity awaits those seeking coverage in these magazines, because their positioning relative to one another is clearer than ever. For Fortune and Forbes, access and true confessions grease the chute. With BusinessWeek and Condé Nast Portfolio — if you dare and your conscience permits — drop a dime on someone else and they'll make it up to you.

Of the four titles recently analyzed by Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, BusinessWeek is under the most pressure. It laid off staffers in September. This summer it lost IBM's advertising dollars. And being publicly held doesn't help. But its investigative stance is shrewd, considering an ever-growing blogosphere hungry for controversy. A good investigative piece will drive dozens of bloggers to drive thousands of visitors to BusinessWeek's web site (who might decide to become paid BW subscribers).

With Portfolio, Condé Nast hopes to drive an editorial wedge between Forbes and BusinessWeek, plying the needs of the would-be rich on one hand while delivering New Yorker-ish deep dives on the other. There's big money these days in serving the rich, too; Folio reports that rich folk read more magazines than ever.

Forbes Magazine, meanwhile, has changed the least from what it has ever been. The mag remains about wealth: how to get it and how to manage it. Online, Forbes has innovated substantially, especially in video and in in-depth tech coverage. But in print it's still about the billionaires (now and future) and about the contrary take that can annoy us as long as it flies off the newsstand.

Forbes' rival Fortune, meanwhile, also knows it must find new ways to serve the rich and powerful; we got a kick out of the cheeky July 11 cover story on tearing up the Jack Welch playbook, noting that Welch and his wife happen to write the back page column for BusinessWeek.

This divergence in character was never clearer than September 2006, when Fortune profiled Google with the cover headline "Chaos by Design," while BusinessWeek published an "investigation" of click fraud. Fortune interviewed six Google executives, published 13 photos and helped readers understand what working at Google was really like. For journalists, managerial insight is what access buys you. And readers appreciate it when you can make them smarter and more effective.

Click fraud was never addressed.

Meanwhile, a team of BusinessWeek sleuths revealed how "domain parkers" and "paid-to-read" sites threaten the integrity of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising – and in turn, the viability of Google, Yahoo and China's Baidu.com, all of which were singled out in the article.

As blogs, podcasts and social networks continue to challenge all established media, few have more to lose than the business titles. Watch and learn.

Three Questions
With David Taber, CEO of Taber Consulting and SalesLogistix

1. What's your take on the recent Web 2.0 conference?
This year's Web 2.0 conference brought back memories. But beyond the hype, important stuff is happening in two areas. First is technology: new levels of ease-of-use and interactivity are not only possible, they're expected. Look at the browser-based applications from Google and Yahoo: web sites have to be that good now. Second is the Web 2.0 business model. Vendors are using mash-ups and advertising to monetize eyeballs early, so a big audience turns into a big valuation in a big hurry. YouTube's creating $1.65B of market value in 18 months? Party like it's 1999.

2. Have you found viral marketing campaigns to be effective?
Viral marketing is so effective because it's not the vendor doing the marketing — so it's more credible and it's inexpensive. But the vendor has to design the virus and propagation carefully, and give something away that's really fun or useful or cool. "Viral" is actually the wrong metaphor: it's more like the positive feedback from a nuclear chain reaction. It's a game of large numbers: the audience size needs to grow way into the six figures. So you'd better have a very scalable, economical and friendly viral offering. Viral marketing works best with consumer audiences, where interactivity, timeliness and with-it-ness are highly valued.

3. Could you share some tips on viral marketing?
The first step is to understand the target audience so well that you can design your community before it even exists. Don't have a large audience? Go back and re-think your target. Figure out something fun that fits your audience, and understand their social networks. Create a model that helps you optimize how the viral offering will spread. Once your offering (whether it's a video, or a service, or a bit of software) is out there, find natural partners and blogs to help you spread the word. Viral stuff is almost all word of mouth, so re-read The Anatomy of Buzz, All Marketers are Liars, and The Tipping Point.

Coverage Highlights

Boston Business Journal - SiGe Raises $19.5M in Capital
Boston Globe - Wireless Product Maker SiGe Raises $19.5 Million
Sun Developer Case Study - Java ME and NetBeans Make Sprint's Developers Productive Swiftly
Network World - Users Want Systems for Managing VoIP Quality
VOIP Magazine - Measuring Success: Metrics for Enterprise VoIP SLAs
CRN - Six Things You Need to Know about VoIP
Network Computing - Sneak Preview: Viola Networks' NetAlly 5.0.19A VoIP's New Ally
SearchOpenSource.com - With Microsoft-Novell Partnership, IP Takes Center Stage
Red Herring - Palamida Lands $8M in Funding
eWEEK - Palamida CEO Talks Open-Source Opportunities (Q&A)
Government Computer News - Justice's Next Level of Protection: IT Security Program Focuses on Database Vulnerabilities
InformationWeek - Our Data Isn't Secure, So What Are We Going To Do About It?
Network World - Hot Seat: Securing the Database
CIO - Video Bellyaches
Network World - Face-off: Application Acceleration Does/ Does Not Belong in the Network Infrastructure
InfoWorld - Blue Coat SG800 WAN Accelerator Boosts SSL Traffic
Network World - Building Switches that Spot Intrusions
Mass High Tech - Security or Shutdown? Pick the Right Level of Security to Protect Your Network
Dark Reading - 10 Security Vendors You've Never Heard Of
Boston Globe - Tech Sector Spurs State's Economic Recovery; Mass. Software, Hardware Firms Growing, Hiring
Boston Business Journal - Council Names Phase Forward Exec Mass. CEO of The Year
Mass High Tech - MassTLC Names 2006 Award Winners
Engadget - Boston-Power Promises Better, Safer Lithium-Ion Batteries
EE Times - Startup Aims To Ship Novel Notebook Batteries By June
Electronic Recruiting News - John Sumser's Recruiting News
Mass High Tech - All-Stars: How to Cultivate Your Own All-Stars
CNET News.com - Perspective: Immigration Reform and America's Innovation Lead

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