commbasics

It's been a while since I did a podcast ... at least on this site.  Been doing a ton of video for New Tech Press the past couple of months.  But this is one I've been waiting to get done for some time. Paul Miller at TechInsights sat down with me just before the Christmas break and talked frankly about the state of B2B media, where it's going, how it's going to affect his own company and EE Times specifically, and endorsing the use of content from sponsored-media sites like New Tech Press in its website and maybe even pages.  For those wondering when media was going to come back to the way it used to be, get ready for disappointment.   But according to Paul, the future is getting clearer and brighter. 

It's getting really busy lately.  A bunch of VCs have asked me to come in and talk with portfolio clients about social media (I'm gonna have to start charging for this stuff) and I've been approached by two other companies about comprehensive communication strategies.  I guess something is sinking in.  Not in EDA and semiconductors, but it's happening elsewhere. And that brings me back to my post last week about EE Times.   Brian Fuller took another step if describing the value of the new format and he points out that getting in the magazine is going to be more difficult ... if all you want to do is get a product announcement. I've said it before: It's no longer 1999.  Back then, everything about computers, the internet, the web, consumer electronics, etc. was bright, shiny and mysterious.  Anyone who had anything to say about every little technology could be covered in depth.  The media was vibrant enough to give that kind of coverage.  But then, only 10 perce...

I've learned a lot this past week in the people I ran across at the Design Automation conference.  I mentioned a few of those encounters earlier this week.  Things like the impending collapse of the Japanese media due to the same pressures facing media in the US and Europe.  But it wasn't the journalists that surprised me but the conference attendees, industry watchers and the investment community. John Cooley himself made the comment that EDA companies, particularly the larger companies, are no longer interested in making good technology.  "They're interested in business... in making money."  Investment banker after banker told me the same thing: the financial model is broken and there's nothing worth investing in or even buying. Yet, all the analysts said EDA is a crucial technology industry.  "They just can't seem to tell their story," one explained on condition of anonymity. And all the story tellers are go...

Just got a note from Paul Miller about the acquisition of EDA Ltd., the nascent Embedded Systems Show in the UK and the only and print components of ESE Magazine.  The news release is below.   This gives TechInsights a foothold into the embedded industry in Europe that is currently dominated by the Embedded World Conference in Nuremberg, Germany, something UBM has wanted for some time.  While the acquisition is not huge in comparison to some of UBM's other acquisitions it brings an interesting level of competition between conferences in the Old World around technology that is, arguably, dominated by Europe: namely Embedded Design. And since TechIisights sees a lot of it's future in that industry, this makes a lot of sense.  It also comes without some fairly heavy baggage, i.e the Design Automation and Test Exposition that bounces annually between France and Germany.   That conference, which has been run by EDA Ltd. has become extremely unprofitable...