Sense of urgency at ABM meeting

B-to-b media executives at annual gathering challenged to ramp up their online offerings

For b-to-b media executives who attended American Business Media's Spring Meeting in Naples, Fla., last month, the message was clear: Lose the old playbook and develop new marketing opportunities, particularly online, if they are to thrive in a media universe undergoing immense change.

Aaron Kahlow, a digital media consultant and managing partner of BusinessOnLine, chided some b-to-b media executives for trying to build their electronic publishing strategies around the desires of their advertisers rather than the needs of their audiences. "You've got to think about the user first or you will fail," he said. "There's no magic formula for what to do to succeed on the Web."

Kahlow challenged business publishers to re-evaluate their online marketing efforts. "They have been thinking about it and trying to find the fast-track way to the answers, but they haven't been holistically focused on creating a long-term business model," he said. "It's just now, when the balance has truly started shifting and revenue is definitely falling that [publishers are] forced to try to figure it out."

Read the full story here (Link will open in a new window.)
Story posted: June 4, 2007 - 6:01 am EDT