I'm starting to wonder about how long EBNonline.com is going to last. Brian Fuller was named editor in chief in February and left in April. I met the new guy at Design West and before I could remember to look for his card to put him in the contact list, I heard today that they've hired someone from CNET to take over. On top of that, they've cut back their flow of paid blogger content by half, meaning a cut in freelance expenses. I talked to a couple of them today and they are already looking for other publications to supplement the loss in revenue.
In the meantime comes word that the former EiC Bolaji Ojo is launching a new publication, Electronic Purchasing Strategies, and is actively looking for sponsors for a launch in the fall. He's joined by another EBN refugee, Barb Jorgenson.
There was time that I thought the new focus on EDN and EBN spelled trouble for the EE Times brand, but it looks like the latter is much stronger.
Don't get me wrong. The UBM sites produce good content ... right now. But you need people who know what good content is to produce it. I don't know, maybe that's the plan: force the content creators to go to the advertisers and then make them pay to put it on your titles. But what's to stop the advertisers from starting their own titles. Why should they pay?
We've been following a string of thought regarding the changes at UBM properties. I've personally avoided making any judgement on the philosophical approach the company has taken. It is what it is.
However, the recent round of layoffs really cut into the bone of their content development. Calling Nic Mokhoff, Barbara Jorgenson and Bolaji Ojo redundant... even when you have all stars like Alex Wolfe, Patrick Mannion and Brian Fuller still on the team... is mindboggling to me.
UBM has had a habit of cutting back far too much and then having to rehire too fast. (I remember when Dave Burskey was hired to replace Ron Wilson, after a gap of several months to cover semiconductors, and then laid Burskey off before a year was out) This time I think they may have gone too far and the opportunities for great journalists to work independently in corporations is going to thin the available talent very fast.
Recently Intel launched a site called the Intel Free Press. this is one of those efforts that is being called "branded but independent" journalism. Yes, Intel is footing the bill, but they are leaving the editorial team alone in content development. they don't have to worry about advertisers or revenue or even readership. They can concentrate on just making good content for the Intel ecosystem. What does Intel need with UBM publications and events now?
At Design West, the strain on UBM editors was palpable, and those former editors were exhulting in the freedom they had in the corporate walls. That tells me UBM may have gone too far again. Several years ago, I sat with Brian Fuller on a boat in San Diego and talked about his frustration with UBM's continual dismantling of staff. A few months later he left the company and told me it was an issue of ethics.He just couldn't continue keep letting people go. After several years of checking the world out, he was lured back into UBM. Now he's in charge of a publication that has little resources. He looks tired. I'm wondering how long he's going to last this time. At least now he won't be laying people off at EBN. He's all there is of staff. The rest are freelancers. We're going to see another significant personnel shift at UBM, but it won't be layoffs. There are jobs out there for good journalists who are willing to think a little differently.
Don't get me wrong. The UBM sites produce good content ... right now. But you need people who know what good content is to produce it. I don't know, maybe that's the plan: force the content creators to go to the advertisers and then make them pay to put it on your titles. But what's to stop the advertisers from starting their own titles. Why should they pay?
Going to be an interesting year, for sure. More to come.
When you hear of journalistic treasures like Nic Mokhoff, Barbara Jorgenson and Bolaji Ojo going out the door at a media house, you tend to think the worse for the company. I know I did after hearing about the "spring cleaning" at UBM. Closer inspection, however, shows the reasoning behind the move.
UBM Electronics seems to be in a constant state of change over the past decade because the media world has been evolving rapidly over that time. The latest obvious change is the elimination of the print version of EE Times, in favor of an all online presence. The problem is that there have been, essentially two staffs for the online and print operations. When the latter was shut down, that left a lot of redundancy and unnecessary cost (from an accounting perspective).
EE Times and EBN have built a significant infrastructure out of contractors, including Brian Bailey, Max Maxfield and Douglas Alexander, to provide content. They are prolific and, well, inexpensive.
Brian Fuller is, arguably, the guy with the greatest wealth of experience and ability on the paid staff, having served as reporter, editor, publisher, EiC, bureau chief as well as a varied career outside of the organization. He's got a strong understanding of how new media works and a rare understanding of what it takes to work with publications from the outside. He can be plugged into almost any position and make it work.
Rick Merritt, who has been operating without portfolio but will be taking over Brian's position as SV Bureau Chief, can cover just about any kind of technology in the valley, will fit into that position like a hand in a glove. The rest of the positons at UBM Electronics are in solid hands. That leaves a surplus of talent; people who are great journalists who can observe and write on technology subjects on a deep level. And in this economy, surpluses are luxuries.
Anne Francoise Pele will be taking over the Automotive Design Line from Brian and Brian will still handle the Drive for Automation, but EE Life is yet to be decided. I'm wondering if it will exist in 6 months at all, considering it was created when UBM brought Brian back from the dark side and teamed him with Sylvie Barak (one of the casualties) and Karen Field, who now sits atop the group as the director of content.
Things are looking better in our economy, but tough decisions still have to be made.
In a continuation of my effort to catch up, EBN EiC Bolaji Ojo tipped me over the edge again bolstering my position, tangentially, my last post.
Ojo, and his partner in crime at EBN, Barbara Jorgensen addressed the product of not doing social media right: Site Fatigue.
"Each week," he wrote, "I receive a deluge of requests to Like companies on Facebook, follow tweets on Twitter, or be LinkedIn with others. Don't ask me to follow your tweets if they aren't worth following. Don't ask me to tag or recommend you if I can't justify the investment of my time."
Which has been my point for many years. Social media is not about mass marketing communication. It's about building relationships and trust. If you are posting links to poorly written and repetitive press releases and marcom material (that's pretty much everyone) then you are not using social media properly or even efficiently. You're just pissing people off. And in the case of Bolaji and Barbara, those aren't people you want to annoy.
The problem is most marketers and engineers don't really know how to do anything else. They are ensconced in their technology, absolutely sure that what they are doing and saying is completely unique and superior than it is to everyone else. Most in-house communicators and the publicists they hire have no idea what is actually unique to their product. It takes someone with objectivity and a broader world view to figure that out. Someone, like, a journalist.
The problem is that journalists are so bombarded with extraneous, unusable content that they lack the time and resources to filter it out. As Barbara commented, "Barbara chimed in with a comment to Bolaji's piece. "I think there is opportunity here for anyone who is willing to be a filter. Not just a random filter: an educated, balanced filter."
As I've pointed out in my series on earned media, some companies are hiring laid off journalists to manage their in-house publication efforts, which is a great first step. But that effort doesn't really reach outside of the corporate wall and is, therefore, suspect to potential customers.
We seem to have reached a significant pain point in media. My company, Footwasher Media, saw it coming many years ago. Welcome, pilgrims. Time to give us a call.