Thanks to the online revolution, printed media has gone through a transformation. This has particularly affected trade magazines, with nearly all of them producing digital versions, and some of them ditching the printed format to go totally digital. Some more recent magazines, including PRmoment, have only ever been available online.

The future of trade magazines is of importance to the PR industry, as so many PR campaigns target them. To find out the prospects of this sector, digital agency WPR conducted research with editors to find out how they are coping with the online world, and how they expect readership figures to change.

Discussing the focus of the research, Tom Leatherbarrow, head of B2B at WPR, says: “While a national is bought on a news stand or accessed online (with or without a pay wall) trade magazines are subscribed to, picked up in a builder’s merchant, for example, or passed around a depot from one colleague to another. In the online age, the future of trade magazines can be distilled down to one central question: Will a jobbing plumber, pub landlord, car mechanic or engineer go home, switch on their PC and read a publication online; buy a trade magazine app; or hand over their credit card details to go behind a pay wall? We decided to find out by asking those on the front line of this battle for readers, namely the editors themselves.”

Will your magazine go totally online within the next five years?

Source: WPR

According to the research, trade magazines are embracing the online world, with nearly 70 per cent of responders saying that their website included an online version of the magazine. Looking ahead, over one third believe that their magazine will not go totally online, but just over half (53 per cent) believe that it will take longer than five years before their magazine is only available online.

How often do you update your site or blog?

Source: WPR

In terms of content of the magazines, over half (57 per cent) use the printed magazine content online updated with additional online content. And 16 per cent of respondents will place stories on the web in advance of the print magazine version. Although concerns about cannibalisation of content mean that 13 per cent of trade editors delay release of material on the web until after it has appeared in print. One important point for PROs to note is that two thirds (66 per cent) of magazines update their content daily, which means it is easy to quickly get messages from brands to their audiences via trade titles.

Where do the editors get their news stories from?

Source: WPR

More good news for the PR industry is that such a high percentage of stories in trade magazines comes from PR agencies, 89 per cent of sourced information for both on and offline comes from PR agencies with in-house marketing departments remaining a strong source (50 per cent). A growing number of editors are also using social media such as Twitter to source news stories, with 34 per cent using Google alerts and 32 per cent using online news sites such as BBC Online.

Summarising the findings of the research, Leatherbarrow says: “When we commissioned this research, we expected to find that trade editors, while putting on a brave face, would ultimately concede that the days of traditional print trade magazines are coming to an end. We were wrong. It is clear that trade magazines know their niche and their readerships and continue to plough them. Far from turning their backs on technology, trade editors are embracing Twitter to track down stories. Publishers are not running scared from the digital revolution, but rather using it as an opportunity to target more readers. In many respects trade magazines are adapting to the new technological age with far greater ease than their national newspaper counterparts.”

Methodology

A combination of online and qualitative research was undertaken by WPR. A total of 20 questions were asked of trade editors with more than 50 responses received over a two-week period. To view the report click here.