... and then there were none. EE Times stops covering news in print

Brian Fuller let the cat out of the bag today about EE Times abandoning the print news weekly format for the thought-piece magazine format. It could be that there will still be weekly publications for a while, but Fuller expects it to drop to a monthly, and much smaller.  That will reduce print costs dramatically and make the book more profitable and with a great editorial staff.


But that means marketing people in electronics and design have no other choice but to compete on the web for news coverage... and from different sources than they are used to working with.  This is actually good news for those who are ready to think strategically in communications, which ain't many companies. So it's bad news for everyone who still thinks they can market like it's 1999.

Companies that will succeed in press relations will be able to place their product and technology in the context of the larger world.  Companies working to make small changes to highly specialized arenas will not get to see many members of the press

Marketing budgets that focus on news releases for market presence can no longer blame the media of the market doesn't understand their message, or see a differentiation.  It's all on the companies now to do that.  So here's a hint, avoid the following words like a passion.

synergy
defacto standard
tightly integrated
enhanced
fastest
smallest

... and the all time favorite, industry leader (of which there are 6300 today according to Google)

Use any of those words in describing your company, technology or product and you are just like everyone else.  You might want to look into hiring some real writers, rather than engineers to write the releases.

Comments

  1. Peter van der SluijsJune 8, 2008 at 6:44 PM

    Guess you could say that industry leader is the de facto standard cliche in press releases? It often appears tightly integrated with the word synergy and associated with claims of enhanced performance such as fastest and smallest.

    Now I must get on with some work...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paul MillerJune 9, 2008 at 1:50 AM

    We need to be careful as there is some nuance to the EETimes move. Clearly, breaking news is the province of the web and professionals are not going to wait for a week to find out what is going on.

    However, the proliferation of news sources makes the weekly very important for putting it all in perspective - think The Economist (which still calls itself a "newsweekly").

    EETimes is not abandoning anything but it is refining the weekly print vehicle to make sure that we're adding value to the reader across the board.

    And, yes, greater industry support would be appreciated

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lou CoveyJune 11, 2008 at 4:08 AM

    Point well taken, Paul. We may be assuming too much from the decision. I need my weekly EE Times fix as much as I need my weekly Economist fix, so I would prefer that stay the same.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who is listening to you? You might be surprised

Image
That takes some effort to listen and be aware of what the opportunities actually are but if you ignore them you do so at at your own peril. Throughout my career as a professional communicator I come across clients who are absolutely sure they know who their audience is. Invariably they are wrong.Let me give you an example. Many years ago I counseled a semiconductor company that had a great business selling components to Apple for the iPod. They sold almost 30 percent of all their product to Apple. They knew that Apple was never going away. In our research into the effectiveness of their content we found what seemed to be a discrepancy. We knew that there were multiple product groups that the client’s technology would fit, but they were focused only on the iPod team. We told them they needed to start a focus on development teams. They responded, “We know who to talk to, you just concentrate on putting out press releases.” Six months later, at a trade show, two Apple team managers came ...
Read more

Why you don't (or do) like social media, Part Three

Image
When you boil down attitudes toward and execution of social media practices, it's all about leadership.  Real leadership, not the popular definition that rises from the horrific misinterpretation  of Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm .  Let me explain that reference a bit more in depth first. Moore stated fairly simply that for a technology company to be successful, it must attain the perception of leadership in a market niche.  The misinterpretation of that concept is what screws up the marketing for so many companies.  Moore's statement was an indicator of success and a strategy, not a tactic.  If you are the perceived market niche leader, Moore explains, THEN you know you successfully crossed the chasm.  Therefore your marketing strategy must revolve around developing the perception of leadership.  However, most companies believe that saying you are a leader in your marketing documents, even when you are clearl...
Read more

Sharing is a thing, but it isn’t the only thing.

Image
I received a few emails from a content services vendor this week (Here’s a suggestion…did you get my email… have you read my email…) and after getting over the initial annoyance of a rookie PR gaffe I decided to look into the suggestion while I made coffee. My response is this blog post. The vendor was Venngage which has a nifty online tool for creating infographics for distribution on digital media, and competes with dozens of similar online tools. The offer was a very long white paper on engagement that, to their credit, had no blatant push to buy their service, but it wasn’t completely subtle. The premise of the white paper is “content that people share is a good thing.” In fact, if anyone from Venngage sends you the link to the paper, I just saved you a who lot of time because you don’t have to read it now. That is all it says, but with lots of statistics before they get to the point. It’s true that a metric of content engagement is, in fact, how many people in your audience share...
Read more