Writen by Lance Winslow
As many people know Industry Trade Journals in America have gone through a tough time in recent years due to slowing of advertising dollars. In many industries this is the case. Many of us use to get free Industry Trade Journals, yet many have now gone out of business and others are being a little more particular than normal. Some send you questionnaires every three months to make sure you are interested and reading their material. Most companies DO NOT advertise in such trade journals. A few do, mostly for brand name recognition, although in my opinion it is a lot of money considering the much lower costs of Ezines and Internet Advertising. Some believe paper trade journals or Industry Rags as they are often called are waste of advertising money, even worse than attending some under attended trade shows.
As advertising dollars continue to dry up and even with all the media consolidation, there seems to be a very aggressive approach to sales tactics of these salesmen/women and a touch of unnerving arrogance among the editors, publishers and self-important writers. I guess that arrogance goes with the job, however I think it is time for all Industry Journals and media for that matter to come back to Earth, realize their relative value in our society. Everything has an intrinsic value and an actual value and we need Industry Journals to find equilibrium. Why would any company in any industry waste money on such advertising when they are not getting relevant clients from those ads, yet continue to throw good money after bad? Perhaps they themselves want to see their pictures in the ads, perhaps if they advertise they can get the editors to go ahead and do a story on the company? Maybe we have just too big egos in business? What say you? Would you want to buy from a company that blows money on such advertising; money that could be better spent helping the customer succeed with their product? What does this say to the customer about the price they are paying for those goods are services?
It seems many companies are so busy doing things the old way that they rarely update their websites, never advertise in Ezines or bother to survey their customers as to how they discovered them in the first place. There is a time and place for Industry paper journals, yet so many companies use those advertising dollars incorrectly rather than diversifying those funds to get the most bang for their bucks. I pity such companies and am glad to say we are not one of them? Are you?
Lance Winslow
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