The deadly sins of publishing

‘Underperformance, cowardice, technophobia, inferiority, complacency, coziness, stinginess, cluelessness, disorganization and dullness’ are the 10 deadly sins of publishing listed by Frank Anton, boss of US trade publisher Hanley Wood in Folio.

Reader Paul Rowney responds with his list: ‘Mediocre, advertiser led editorial, lazy unprofessional ad sales executives who fear using the phone and now think you can sell ads by email, poor circulation information, editors for whom the invention of “cut and paste” means that few actually write anything, but merely regurgitate someone’s else’s copy. B to B is in decline because the whole quality of the product is going down hill.’

As UK trade publishing goes through its biggest changes in a decade - Emap’s dismemberment and Reed selling off its trade titles -  what would be on your list?

Reed to sell business titles

Reed Elsevier - once the owner of IPC magazine with titles such as Woman’s Own and Loaded and the publisher of Winnie the Pooh - is to hone its strategy even more to concentrate on online media, says the FT.

It aims to reduce its exposure to print and advertising based products by selling Reed Business Information, whose magazines include New Scientist, Variety and Farmers Weekly. The business division depends on advertising for the majority of its revenues and online sales are only 30 per cent of revenues. In turn, it is spending £2 billion on ChoicePoint, a data provider.

In an analysis piece, the FT identifies several potential buyers for Reed’s New Scientist to Farmers Weekly division: Informa of the UK; Apax, the private equity group that has invested in Incisive and Emap; Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which yesterday bought Clarion Events; and private equity-backed competitors such as Nielsen and Springer. The going price is likely to be over £1 billion.

The Business of dreams

Andrew Neil’s dream of turning a newspaper into a business magazine is in ashes for a second time with the closure of The Business at the Barclay brothers’ Press Holdings. However, there’s a third chance in the offing with the launch of Spectator Business, scheduled for the spring.

Neil tried to turn Sunday Business into a magazine as The Business, a trick he had tried with the European newspaper for the Barclays in 1997.

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