B2B media brands have two challenges in the age of new media:

• - Changing audience behavior: Information consumption habits have changed; consumers can easily create and distribute their own content; and communication channels and networks need less mediation to create value.
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• - A new crop of competitors: The new competitors were previously called advertisers, manufacturers, vendors and business partners. They have more options than ever to directly reach their target audience without the aid of a publishing partner.

Both of these shifts have a considerable effect on revenue streams and the perception of value for B2B media products. Today, I want to take a closer look at the latter – exploring how the same opportunities that the web has offered media entities can be a double-edged sword, as advertisers begin leveraging digital tools as well.

The Problem: Cutting Out the Middleman

Consider the following example; first, let's start with the way things worked before the Internet:

A magazine brand that serves the poultry industry has, for decades, built up its subscription base and authority as the place to go for news and information.

Manufacturers and service providers advertised in the magazine to reach this niche audience.

This is how things have changed with the web and new media:

Advertisers still do just that, but they also partner with the media brand to sponsor webcasts, training events, lead-generation programs and the like. 

Increasingly, those manufacturers are cutting out the middleman - reaching out to their intended audience directly, without the help of media brands. They are building their own email marketing lists, creating their own webcasts, writing their own white papers and articles, creating their own blogs and focusing on their own events where they can more clearly deliver on their goals and own the relationship with the industry.

This does not undercut the value of an unbiased third-party entity, but it does diminish its role.

How Media Companies Can Counter This Trend

To counter this trend, media brands must be savvy about creating unique value on both sides of the equation – for their audience and the evolving needs of business partners. Here are some ways to do just that:

Understand motivation, not products

Image by bthomso

Understand the goals of advertisers and business partners, not just the products they are selling. Likewise, media brands have to consider the value they can offer beyond just an ad in print or online. 

The media brand’s relationship with its audience and the authority it has developed is the real value being leveraged here. This needs to manifest itself in a variety of product offerings, which could inherently change how a media brand defines itself for the future.

You are seeing brands create job boards and partnering with training services to not just inform their industry, but to help develop people’s careers and deliver a service that provides direct value. MediaBistro is one example of a brand that offers job listings and a wide range of training courses.

Offer solutions, not ad space 

Image by Steve Rhodes

If all you are selling is access to a demographic, then you are not selling unique value. Google alone changed this, but Google is just one slice of the pie, as advertisers create their own marketing lists and tools, leveraging new media to establish relationships with their industry similar to those created by media entities.

Media brands need to offer something that cannot easily be replicated. It is not enough to offer a tiny sponsorship such as a small online ad – they need to create integrated packages that create relationships not easily replicated by their competitors, aggregators or search engines.

Purchasing magazine, for example, is delivering such value by creating their own social network called Purchasing Biz Connect, which came about through a partnership with Digi-Key. (Note: Purchasing is owned by the company I work for, Reed Business Information.)

Develop unique relationships

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The network is not owned – it can only be served. How a media brand serves its audience and partners with them is how it will differentiate itself from competitors.

This is why industry events still carry so much power – it is incredibly difficult to replicate the network built a successful event, the ways that it becomes embedded into the yearly cycles of an industry, and the power that it creates and enables across a given market.

Likewise, online products must be of a similar quality, and more than anything, they can't be merely interesting – they must become essential to the target audience.

Print is not the center, it is an extension

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Media brands need to stop thinking of print as the center of their offering. While it is still a very valuable distribution channel, print serves a smaller and smaller segment of the audience. Even as this segment shrinks, however, print's usefulness in marketing and brand recognition will continue to be incredibly powerful.

Consider the book industry: Authors gain credibility via books, but they grow revenue streams through other products and services. Trade magazines need to develop a similar model in order to grow revenue and influence.

Prove value

Image by Jason Schlachet

When working with advertisers and business partners, you will need to show in detail how you are delivering on the goals you are setting with these partners. The metrics model is changing, as the conversation shifts from page views to new customers in the sales funnel. If you find that advertisers and business partners aren't swayed by promises of ad click-throughs, then you need to reframe the ROI of your efforts to align to their deeper goals.

Dan Blank is the Director of Content Strategy & Development at Reed Business Information. He blogs at DanBlank.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @DanBlank.