One last note about the changes at UBM... there will be more.
I mentioned in the last post that the recent layoffs were due to redundancy more than finances, but one thing I left out was whether there was redundancy in the publications.
The question in my head was, “Is EE Times going to go away?”
Here's my reasoning. EDN and EE Times were major competitors for years, now they are in the same family and covering much the same thing. In fact, some of it seems to be covered in Design News. EE Times was kept alive when EBN was shuttered and took over much of what EBN covered. Now EBN is back. The in depth coverage that EE Times was known for has been put into EE Times Confidential. So with the reasoning that the layoffs were to eliminate redundancy, wouldn't it make sense to fold the remaining staff into EDN and EBN and just shutter EE Times online?
I put the question point blank to UBM CEO Paul Miller.
“I actually see this differently. EE Times is the community gathering place and we will move it increasingly towards a full on community model – it generates millions of monthly page views and thousands of registrations and it is the key brand in the industry. EDN is the place to go for engineers who need help doing their job – they want it from peers. EDN and EETimes are very complimentary.”
It makes sense from that perspective, however...
I’ve seen healthy rivalry in the past two years building between the various staffs of EDN, EBN, EE Times and even Design News for content. I also remember what management said several years ago when I asked if EBN was going away. They said, “No, of course not,” and then 6 months later it was gone. They weren’t lying to me then and I don’t think they are now. That is just how fast realities shift in the media world. Everything is under constant evaluation and no one should get comfortable.
The dust hasn’t quite settled at UBM Electronics. Fuller needs to beef up his own staff et EBN and I’m sure there will be some changes in the masthead at EE Times as well (have they ever updated that thing in a timely manner?). So pay attention. The times, they are a’ changin’....