5 Factors That Make It Harder to Break Into National Business Media

Securing national business coverage has never been easy. In preparing to talk to a prospective client recently, we thought it would be helpful to explain why it's gotten tougher -- even before you get to the client.

Clients always want to know about relationships with the media but these days, even with a strong knowledge of the media and good relationships with reporters, there are other challenges to consider:

1. Shrinking news rooms. Newsrooms have seen dramatic cutbacks and buyouts. Before Feb. 2019, there were more than 1,000 newsroom job cuts in 2019. There is real concern that some newsrooms are ghost newsrooms, with not enough reporters trying to fill up the newshole, and often relying on syndicated content. So it's harder to find reporters these days.
2. Increased demands on reporters. Concurrent with job cutbacks, the demands on reporters to produce and generate views has increased tremendously. Reporters typically have to file more stories, across different formats (you can read a news story on a radio station's website or watch a video on a print newspaper's website) all while posting content across social media to drive traffic back to the news organizations' website. That means reporters have to think harder about whether they'll even take an interview because of everything else they have to do as part of their jobs.
3. Some print outlets have reduced their publication schedule or size of their print editions. Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Inc., Entrepreneur and other prestige publications have reduced the number of issues they publish annually. Fortune used to 25 issues per year; in 2009, Fortune decreased the number of issues to 18. In 2019, it currently publishes 14 issues a year. Forbes published 22 issues in 2010 and current publishes 14 per year. Entrepreneur published 12 issues per year in 2016 but cut back to 10 in 2017 (sorry Feb. & Aug.). Meanwhile, some outlets have reduced their page size so there's less space per issue for news. (A client recently asked about taking out an ad in the Boston Globe business section and we had to tell them that there's rarely any advertising in that section.) Fewer issues and smaller space means it's harder to get ink. There is, of course, still opportunities for online coverage but we still have to deal with fewer reporters with more demands they have to handle.
4. Reporters are harder to contact. We've already established that reporters are busier than ever, But they're also harder to reach than ever. There are more freelancers who regularly contribute to a specific news outlet without being an actual employee. That means you can't reach them by phone through the publication's main number. There might not only be no number to use to call those reporters, but increasingly some of the newer digital news sites themselves don't list their phone numbers -- other than for advertising. We used to be able to follow up by phone and by smiling and dialing but that's less possible these days. For a recent client project that targeted advertising/marketing reporters, we found that fewer than half our list included phone numbers; of the ones who had phone numbers listed, 90 percent were the organization's main number, and the dial-by-name directory did not include the name of the reporter (even if they were staff reporters). By the way, of the 10 percent who did have a phone number we could reach, their voicemails were full and did not take new messages. (This is without pointing out that reporters -- across the political spectrum -- are as distracted as the rest of us by the Washington, DC news.)
5. Tech reporters at national business media are more interested in Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (aka FAANG of the Big Five), Microsoft and Twitter but not as interested in B2B technology. The products they seem most interested are smartphones, virtual assistants (i.e., Alexa); the issues that interest them are privacy, security, crypto and blockchain but not the underlying business tech that supports those products or issues. We know that cloud computing is hot but that doesn't mean reporters at national business publications -- the Journal, Times, Wired, Bloomberg, etc. -- are able to cover a company doing well in cloud computing. The fact is that those reporters are more interested in business issues than in tech issues, and at the same time, it's hard to sell B2B tech via articles in those publications. (Partly that's because it can be much more complicated for businesses to adopt new technology, as Walt Mossberg, the legendary Wall St. Journal tech columnist, told me more than once.)

We know this list is something most clients won't like reading -- we didn't like it ourselves but we try to give clients realistic assessments -- so we  will tackle some ways to get into the national business media in a follow-up article.

In the meantime, let us what you think of these factors.

The Difference Between Inc. Magazine & Entrepreneur, Part II

Her's the second part of my post about the differences between Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur. (You can find the first part here.)

Both magazines cover franchised businesses, but Entrepreneur provides much more focus to franchisers and franchisees. Another essential difference is that Entrepreneur portrays entrepreneurs, which it refers to as "treps, in heroic terms. By way of example, Entrepreneur describes itself as "read by the names you know and the ones you will." Inc. also covers entrepreneurs but -- perhaps because of its main competitor -- Inc. refers to business leaders.

One key difference is the definition of small businesses. Recently Inc. listed the "2013 Hire Power Honorees," its ranking of the small- and mid-size businesses that have hired the most employees over the past year.  What's notable is that 14 companies had revenue that exceeds $500 million, of which four companies had revenues above $1 billion. Meanwhile, many of the Top 100 Job Creators that Inc. ranked, currently employ thousands of employees each. One -- Universal Services of America -- employs more than 35,000 people, having added 14,240 over the past year!

In terms of revenue and employees, I'd think those numbers place most of the companies into the large-size company bucket.

Each month, Entrepreneur includes a lot of columns that answer questions -- useful topics about ethics, technology, cash flow, etc.

Inc. also features question-and-answer columns, including "Street Smarts," a column by serial entrepreneur Norm Brodsky (a column I always read, not just because we share a first name), but it also includes columns from executives who are running their own businesses like Jason  Fried, co-founder of 37signals. Inc.'s new redesign got rid of its "Hands On" section but replaced it with a new section called "Innovate" that offers ideas, breakthroughs and disruption to inspire its readers. (The main difference between the old "Hands On" section and the new "Innovate" section is that the new section goes lighter with case studies, making it easier to scan for new ideas.)

Both Inc. and Entrepreneur publish special issues.  Entrepreneur focuses on leadership in March, 100 brilliant companies in June, young millionaires in Sept. and trends in December. Meanwhile Inc. publishes "How I Got Started" in Feb., "How I Did It" in June, the Inc. 500 in Sept. and the State of Small Business in Dec./Jan.

Inc considers its Inc. 500 and the Inc. 5000 (both published each Sept.) to be "the definitive ranking of America's fastest growing companies," and it is Inc.'s crown jewel, especially since the magazine includes profiles throughout the year of different companies that made it in that year's rankings.

In our post about the difference between Forbes and Fortune, I noted that Forbes is more interested in investment opportunities and Fortune is more interested in management. There's not a clear distinction between Inc. and Entrepreneur because they both cover technology, franchising and management, etc. Some articles in Entrepreneur -- like "Ask the Esquire Guy" -- are purposely edgy while Inc. is more meat-and-potatoes earnest.

Ultimately, the difference between the two publications is that Entrepreneur is more focused on "business owners" of smaller companies while Inc. is focused on "business leaders" -- which is to say: people who may not own the company, even as they "tend to blur distinctions between work and personal life, especially between themselves and their businesses."

Let me know if I missed something about the difference between Inc. and Entrepreneur.

The Difference Between Inc. Magazine & Entrepreneur

Among traditional media like newspapers and magazines, there is a tendency to focus on large businesses, which represents a challenge for small businesses and the agencies that work with them. Making it more challenging is the demise of Fortune Small Business (RIP 2009) and Businessweek SmallBiz (RIP 2008)

The good news is that there are a lot of media focused on small businesses.

Most cities of a certain size have a weekly paper devoted primarily to small businesses. And in terms of national publications, while there are others, the two main magazines are Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur.

There are a lot of similarities between Inc. and Entrepreneur but I thought it might be useful to take a quick look at where they are different -- just as I did with a prior blog post, "The difference between Forbes & Fortune."

Interestingly, both updated the designs of their publications recently. Those makeovers also affected the sort of articles they publish. It's also interesting to note that the changes for both were not always dramatic and that key features continued even after the makeover. It's also interesting that though they cover the same sort of businesses, including franchises, the two publications cover things differently.

As background, here's a description (from Cision) of Entrerepenur: "Established in 1977 and published for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs worldwide to start and grow successful companies. Written for busy entrepreneurs who want practical, not theoretical, information."

Here's a description of Inc.: Established in 1979, Inc. positions itself as "the magazine for growing companies, delivering real solutions for today’s innovative business builders. With information and advice covering virtually every business and management task, including marketing, sales, finding capital and managing people, Inc. helps business owners and CEOs start, run and grow their businesses."

Inc. is published 10 times a year (with double issues for July/Aug. and Dec./Jan.) while Entrepreneur is published 12 times a year.

So both publications have been competing against each other for four decades. Inc. used to be based in Boston but moved to NYC a few years ago while Entrepreneur is based in California. I'm not sure their locations make a difference in terms of the type of businesses they cover.

So that's a basic overview of the two leading small business national magazines. I'll post the follow-up, with more insight, later this week. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes -- Or, less poetically, some serious changes to Fortune Magazine

Ok, perhaps Shakespeare is not relevant, as in the quote from Sonnet 29, but there's still something rotten in the state of the publishing world.

Fortune Magazine will cut its publishing frequency from 25 issues -- basically every two weeks -- to 18 issues, which means some months Fortune will publish only once a month.

Although it recently remodeled the look and feel of the prestigious business magazine, Fortune is expected to remodel the magazine again, this time focusing on longer articles on fewer topics. If Forbes is about investing, and BusinessWeek about news, Fortune will continue its emphasis on managing (which had gotten less emphasis over the past decade) by adding new columns "to help business professionals do their jobs more effectively. It will have a cleaner, less cluttered look and an upgraded Web site," according to the Wall St. Journal.

In other words, the new Fortune will be more like Entrepreneur or Inc. or even its kid sister publication, Fortune Small Business (FSB) -- all good magazines, but all really focused on service journalism. That's not exactly what Fortune, which has columns on investing and executive lifestyles, was known for.

What's interesting, I think, is that service journalism -- basically articles offering advice and how-to's -- has become more important because the media world is evolving so rapidly that few people truly have a secure grasp of things. I think that's why how-to articles in the blogosphere are often so much more widely read than analysis articles (such as this one). People are looking for advice to help them make sense and respond to the changes.

Well, it looks like Fortune is giving people what they want.

Oh, and unfortunately, there will be layoffs, too.

Here are some of the proposed changes, according to the Journal:

• The magazine itself will become more of a lush-looking premium product. Fortune plans to increase the minimum number of editorial pages in each issue.
• They will stop (or reduce the number) of "CEO-as-god magazine covers that have been a staple of the magazine, whether with Jack Welch or Warren Buffett." Replacing the "CEO-as-god" stories will be more conceptual stories, such as one about the White House's relationship with Google.
• The emphasis on large companies will continue, including on its website. Fortune.com will be "recast to focus on key companies. Executives point to Fortune.com's blog about Apple Inc. and said there are more high-profile companies that will be treated similarly."
• I would expect certain special issues to continue, including the Fortune 500 issue, among others. In fact, we can expect more online-only content about the Fortune 500, "which the magazine hopes to turn into more of a brand that lives online all year."
• Fortune is beefing up service journalism (as noted above), "adding features about career advice and business how-tos. One might feature a person who gives hundreds of public speeches a year, and her advice on how to give more effective presentations. Another column might explain how to manage your online profile. Reflecting the growing influence of the federal government in corporate affairs, Fortune is adding a one-page column called 'Washington Watch.'"

But is it enough for Fortune to succeed? I don't think so. I think Fortune looses some prestige by dropping its publishing frequency, and perhaps some of its relevance. I also think they're making at least one mistake: "Executives decided it was more important for Fortune to be more visible on the Web, where the magazine may add staffers."

Yet the web-based version of Fortune is free -- the magazine generates no subscription revenue there, just some ad buys. But online advertising buys typically generate less money than print ads.

Meanwhile, on the personnel front, there are going to be layoffs, probably in the next week or so. It also means that whatever stories reporters were working on may be shelved. It means turmoil for the editorial staff and those of us pitching them.

How Business Magazines Are Responding to the Continued Ad Slump

We've seen a big change at BusinessWeek, now owned by Bloomberg. Big changes at Fortune. I guess we're waiting for the shoe to drop for Forbes.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting points from the Journal article, "Fortune Magazine Cuts Back Number of Issues; Changes Are Said to Foreshadow Further Restructuring at Time Inc. Publications as Ad Slump Drags On"

• "Industry executives believe news, business and general-interest magazines—unlike fashion and entertainment titles—are unlikely to rebound fully even after the economy is on a firmer footing." Which is to say, despite a recent Journal article that the business spending slump looks like it's ending, we're still not out of the woods yet.
  
• "They see a permanent change in how readers interact with news titles in the Internet age." Again, the advice component is something that news outlets and news websites are not offering.
• Business magazines have been hit hard during the ad slump: "The number of advertising pages in Fortune dropped 35% from a year ago, on par with the declines at BusinessWeek, Forbes and Newsweek." In contrast, "Ad pages for entertainment and celebrity magazines declined 15% this year from 2008, and fell 18% for fitness and men's lifestyle magazines such as GQ, according to Mediaweek," a far shallower dropoff.

Inc's Blog of the Month for October -- Worth checking out

Inc. Magazine's "Blog of the Month" for October points to Seth Godin, writing about change. blogs about learning how to embrace change:

"The best way to get smarter, to embrace and to cause change and to triumph in times of market turmoil is to adopt the scientific method. Ask yourself, 'What do I believe that's wrong? How can I change the way I do things? What works? What doesn't?'…Restlessness and the scientific method…create a culture of testing and inquiry that can't help but push you forward."

Godin's blog with well worth reading. Check it out.

More Validation About the Importance of Client Communications

I've written about The Importance of Client Communication, and continue to see examples of how good reporting helps business relationships, and have experienced where bad reporting has hurt it (particularly from a vendor to a company for which I serve as a director).

I also believe that clients will pay more for better reporting. The current issue of Inc. magazine makes that point in an article, "How Would You Make Over the U.S. Postal Service?"

Here's what Sean Harper, Co-founder, TSS-Radio, had to say:

"When it comes to shipping small packages, the USPS is cheaper than its competitors and offers comparable and sometimes even faster delivery times. However, since it doesn't offer reliable tracking, we pay a premium to ship most of our packages with UPS. If the USPS tracked packages as well as UPS, it could capture a lot of business."

Reliable tracking is another way to say reporting. The USPS does offer tracking that you can pay for, but I believe it's not available for every type of shipping.

Value Charts, Pricing & Cash Flow: Three Aspects to Focus on in the New Normal

To succeed in the "new normal," i.e. that period after the economic recovery, businesses are going to have to make new assumptions and take new approaches to their businesses. Media properties, for example, can't expect that a recovery will lift them back to the good ol' days of 2006-2007.

That's certainly true when it comes to the strategies and tactics companies should deploy as part of their PR initiatives.

While I generally address the media and PR, in this post I thought I'd quickly address three critical success factors for companies that want to survive in the new normal.

First ideas came from Norm Brodsky's excellent book, The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up. Brodsky is a serial entrepreneur -- actually a concurrent entrepreneur, running several businesses at the same time -- and a columnist for Inc. Magazine. According to Brodsky:

• Protect your capital. Spend it only on things you're certain will generate positive cash flow in the short term.
• Maintain the highest monthly gross-profit margin you are capable of achieving. Do no go after low-margin sales. It's too much work and costs too much money to chase low-margin customers.
• Spend time developing relationships with your highest-margin customers. Let low-margin customers come to you, and negotiate the price up.
• Balance the need to make the sale with an understanding of the risks and costs involved.

I subsequently found a blog posting from LeveragePoint, a Cambridge consultancy that helps its clients evolve their marketing strategies, about Value Charts.

We've met with LeveragePoint, and are impressed with their intelligence and insight. Its blog on Value Chart brings an interesting perspective on developing "value models that clearly show how much economic value your customers get" from using your offerings. The article, "Using Value Charts to Plot Pricing Strategy," looks at four key scenarios:

• Premium Strategy: in which the customer is "willing to pay more because they perceive higher economic use value." This can help you achieve Brodsky's goal of selling at the highest margins you can achieve.
  
• Penetration or Discount Strategy: in which the company decides to aggressively grab market share with a low price.
• Neutral Strategy: In which the company selected a price equal to its competitor with the goal "to be the preferred vendor because of better differentiation."
• Low Cost Leader: "essentially a more extreme form of Penetration Pricing... Obviously this strategy can only be sustained with a significant cost advantage."

For more insight on this topics, check out Brodsky's book and LeveragePoint's blog.

Photo Shoots & Reality: What does it take to capture business executives?

Behind-the-scenes look at a photo shoot for Inc. Mag. shows how much is staged to "capture" reality. Look, it can't be easy. Most executives sit at a desk, typing on their computer or talking on the phone -- hardly an image that will help illustrate a story, especially a profile of an executive. In fact, most of what executives' days would be rather boring from a photo perspective.

What's interesting is the process by which photo editors have to stagecraft reality -- I won't say manipulate, but, um, enhance reality -- to make it suitable to accompany an article.

In this case, showing Markus Frind and his girlfriend playing a board game in bed -- which apparently they do -- while she hits him with a pillow, spreading feathers all over the place. Apparently, that's not something they do -- hold pillow fights -- esp. because Frind is allergic to feathers. All in all, probably harmless stagecraft (feather allergies notwithstanding), but worth appreciating/understanding. We have a client about to engage a professional photographer to take photos of top executives, and it's probably worth keeping in mind to have some light-hearted photos, not just "business executive at work" photos.