Business-to-business publishers seem to be going one of two ways when it comes to their remaining print magazines; either slashing budgets and staff to the bare bones as they scramble to develop replacement products or investing in the print title as a premium offering within their multimedia stable.
Those choosing the latter route are increasingly turning to expertise from the consumer world. Cygnus Business Media recently hired designer J.C. Suares, who has worked with titles ranging from Fast Company to Variety to ESPN. Reed Exhibition’s JCK, which unveiled a new and expanded design earlier this month, tapped art director Robert Newman, former design director of consumer titles Real Simple, Fortune and Details, to lead the makeover, which included adoption of a large format (10×12), new sections and openers and (going against the industry trend) heavier and more opaque paper stock.
The new issue (produced by custom publisher TMG, which retained much of the original JCK staff) boasts a 240-page folio and a 48 percent increase in ad pages to 120.
I spoke with Newman about what b-to-b magazines can take away from consumer titles. Newman took pains to say he doesn’t want to come across as a consumer guy who is critical of b-to-b.
“To me this is a fascinating challenge and the b-to-b sector is very exciting-people are going through a lot of re-imagining and the whole concept of melding the consumer approach with the editorial integrity of the b-to-b approach and their connection with their customers is very exciting,”
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