The ‘10 Deadly Sins’ of B-to-B Publishing

Hanley Wood CEO warns publishers where they’ve gone wrong.

By Jason Fell
02/21/2008

MIAMI—Even in the face of a down real estate market, b-to-b residential housing and commercial construction publishing giant Hanley Wood is maintaining an aggressive business strategy. During today’s luncheon keynote at the FOLIO: Publishing Summit, CEO Frank Anton unveiled what he calls the “10 deadly sins” that have b-to-b companies in a “spiral of purgatory” in a down economy.

Anton outlined the sins—underperformance, cowardice, technophobia, inferiority, complacency, coziness, stinginess, cluelessness, disorganization and dullness—with examples from Anton's own experience in leading Hanley Wood.

“Fear of failure for many outweighs the satisfaction of success,” Anton said of the "cowardice" sin. “Try things. Take chances. To grow a company you need to take risks. Sometimes you’ll fail but try. Learn.”

Trade publishers that have underinvested in electronic media are now playing catch-up—and are paying the price, Anton said in reference to his ‘technophobia’ sin. Hanley Wood’s online advertising has seen growth over the last couple of years, and Anton expects that revenue to grow 40 percent this year, he said.

In regards to complacency, Anton urged even successful publishers to continue to strive to be better. “Too many companies are making money and don’t care if their publication is the number one, number two or number three book in their segment. I don’t get that,” he said. “Being competitive and winning is fun. Be restless. Work hard to be the best.”

RELATED LINKS

FOLIO: Publishing Summit 2008

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10 deadly sins..

Submitted by Paul Rowney on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 09:29.

Mr. Anton could have added to his list: Mediocre, advertiser led editorial, lazy unprofessional ad sales executives who fear using the phone and now think you can sell ads by email, poor circulation information, editors for whom the invention of "cut and paste" means that few actually write anything, but merely regurgitate someone's else's copy. B to B is in decline because the whole quality of the product is going down hill.

Paul Rowney

Submitted by Ed Nair on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 09:22.

Paul.... you couldn't have said better. I find your list more relevant than Frank's.

10 deadly sins...

Submitted by Tim Fixmer on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 14:36.

Frank's insightful comments are inspirational and motivational for those of us who have spent our careers building B2B media properties and companies. While I believe that Paul's criticisms of our industry are in general accurate, I disagree that "B2B is in decline". B2B print publishing ad lineage may be in decline, but B2B media is strong and will be for the remainder of our life times. The businessperson's need for crucial timely information has never been stronger. And while the variety of media types from which businesspeople derive their information has grown exponentially, their informational needs remain there to be filled by B2B media companies. Our busniesses have become more complex as we scramble to develop media products to deliver quality content to hungry readers, but there is no excuse for our businesses to be in decline.