Penton ‘Will Never Again’ Be Dependent on Print Advertising

The outlook for b-to-b advertising revenue for 2009 hasn’t been looking great. Earlier this month, American Business Media said the economic recession could force advertising revenue in the b-to-b space down 19 to 22 percent in 2009. That’s after revenues plunged 13.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008, leading to an overall slide of 7.3 percent.

So, the need for integrated packages is greater now than ever, right? A no-brainer, even.

Today, at the SISO CEO Conference in San Diego, recently-appointed Penton Media CEO Sharon Rowlands [pictured] told attendees that print advertising in trade magazines will not recover to previous levels when the economy rebounds.

“Penton will never again be overwhelmingly dependent on print advertising as it is unlikely to return to historical highs,” Rowlands said. “Advertisers have so many more choices for their marketing campaigns today—ranging from live to on-line events, a variety of electronic products, sophisticated direct marketing, etc. Offering the full array of such media will be what will distinguish the b-to-b winners from the losers in the future.”

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By Jason Fell --

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Uh, wasn't this like 5 years ago?

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 10:39.

No Shit, Sherlock. How is this even news?

Seriously?

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 10:41.

Is this really the groundbreaking insight the new CEO is providing? "We need to diversify". "Print advertising isn't coming back". Welcome to 2001 Sharon, the Interweb has missed you.

I say bravo to her

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 11:00.

...it may seem an obvious statement, but it's amazing how many publishers don't accept this basic fact yet.

Flying Cars Save Money

Submitted by Caractacus Pott on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 12:20.

Penton must have installed a GPS system in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I'm surprised she found San Diego from Kansas. What's the interweb?

Needs more hugz

Submitted by CB Freak on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 13:35.

Everyone knows the latest markkit-facing reorganizations have lots of hugs and touching. Maybe Rowlands is trying to reveal the "softer side" of Penton. Less print advertizing, more caressing. Works for erryone!

Ditto: I say bravo to her

Submitted by Janet Robbins on Wed, 04/01/2009 - 15:42.

What Rowlands says is absolutely true, and it must mean that Penton's B2B CUSTOMERS are finally moving to the idea that they need to adopt a truly integrated approach in their marketing, rather than depend primarily on print advertising. That's a good sign.

B2B advertisers not only

Submitted by Ekaterina on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 15:49.

B2B advertisers not only have more choices today, but we have more reliable choices. Before we had to buy banner ad space or put up a booth at an event and just plain hope that the audience we were paying for was being delivered. Today we can make informed media buying decisions across almost all platforms--print, digital, event, e-newsletter, database, you name it--thanks largely to the independent media auditing firms providing us with integrated data that we can trust (see Buy Safe Media if you don't know what I mean).

Dumb and Dumber

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/07/2009 - 15:21.

I thought Penton (Sharon) was making some dumb first moves as she kicked off the 'visionary' path she planned for Penton, but I thought, "Maybe Penton (Sharon) would come out with some exciting new model of doing B2B business." However, with Sharon's announcement of her completely obvious market analysis, I am beginning to think the moves Penton has made (and continues to make) are even dumber than originally thought.

CEO says trade publishers need ‘full array’ of media campaigns to survive.

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