Business-to-business publishers are going one of two ways when it comes to their remaining print magazines; slashing budgets and staff to the bare bones or investing in print as a premium offering.
Those choosing the latter route are increasingly turning to expertise from the consumer world.
Reed Exhibition’s JCK, which unveiled a new design in June, 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 (10x12), new sections and openers and heavier 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.
FOLIO: spoke with Newman about what b-to-b magazines can take away from consumer titles.
1. Package The Magazine
With JCK, Newman oversaw an effort that completely remade the magazine from design to paper stock to editorial approach. “There is no denying that b-to-b magazines know their stuff,” Newman says. “But traditionally they’ve been weaker at what consumer magazines are good at, which is packaging. Before the recent economic downturn and shift away from print, a lot of b-to-b magazines didn’t have to worry about packaging. Now it’s more of a challenge and, like consumer publishers, they really have to sell the magazine.”
Lees verder op foliomag.com.
