For the third year in a row, FOLIO asked Rex for his magazine and media predictions for the coming year. Here’s his list he shared with FOLIO:
- I think magazine advertising outside the auto and finance categories will pick up sooner than most people expect. It won’t be dramatic and it may be down year-over-year, but I think it will begin to tick upward from around April through the end of the year.
- I predict that when it comes to business-to-business media, there will be steady, if not dramatic continued growth in online revenues. On the consumer side, there will be growth, but nothing stellar. B2B media and marketers are finally discovering some online strategies that solve specific business challenges and produce measurable results—lead generation, for example.
- B2B media Web sites will integrate lots of “social networking” features, although not many of them will work as the magic of online community is not in the setting up, but in the hosting and nurturing. I must admit, however, that the folks here at FOLIOmag.com have convinced me that some of these sites will work. I think B2B companies with events that have lots of interaction among attendees—like the FOLIO: Show—will do better with such networking sites than will those whose events are pure trade shows. Like FOLIO:, I expect most of these sites will be on the Ning platform.
- This is a self-serving prediction as I run a company that does both custom publishing and online social media marketing for clients, but here it is anyway: Bigger media companies will be looking to companies like Hammock Inc. and other custom publishers to outsource and partner with on print and online projects. The reason? The economic meltdown of the past few months has caused media companies to cut back to their core competence. When the economy turns up, there will be little desire to add to the overhead. Also, the whole “social media” competence is missing from most media companies. (I’ll skip the part about providing my phone number.)
- Online, media companies are going to do less experimentation around the edges—and focus rather on what they know works. Therefore, I expect we’ll continue to see media companies launch blogs and video properties focused on the natural niches of their markets. They won’t, however, be diving seriously into strategies that involve platforms like Twitter except as a means to support other activities.
Click here for the full list of 117 media and magazine predictions from others in the industry.