I have long been bellyaching about the decline of the printed periodical.  Mostly I’ve been bemoaning shrinking newspapers, and especially the lack of reporters paid to cover issues in-depth.  Seems like all anyone can afford is taking whatever’s on the Internet and posting it. Trade publications are also declining and who knows how they get their content these days.

There was a time when you knew you were dealing with a quality publication when you had to woo the editor over a liquid lunch with a substantive story idea.  Time was when the advertising and the editorial people existed on different planets.  The editorial guys actually did not know if you were a regular advertiser.  Those were the days when advertising in a book did not mean you had an automatic right to an article about your new plant/widget/equipment.

But now, well, even formerly reputable pubs are having hard times, and it’s not clear how often advertorial lines are crossed and re-crossed.

David Jung comments in his BtoBlog about the problem, mentioning a post at Content Marketing Today.  Basically, the advertising/publishing trade-pub is dying a slow death while grassroots content marketing by B2B manufacturers is burgeoning.

Is this a chicken and egg question?  Are the trade-pubs declining because of the growth of online content developed by B2B marketers?  Or is it the other way around?

Back in the ‘90s, I published a magazine for a client called The Railcar Business Quarterly.  I was able to get my foot in all kinds of fascinating doors in the industry and in Washington D.C.  Based on primary research, we published original material that readers really appreciated, and by extension, they appreciated my client. I liked to think of my client as an ally to readers in an age of information.

It was a successful publication in every way.  But one of the existing trade publications in the industry began to think of us as the competition, with one editor petulantly wondering if we were trying to put them out of business.  No, we weren’t.  We were just trying to give our constituents useful, timely, interesting information.

The trouble is, it seems very few publications can afford to get that kind of in-depth, primary reporting anymore.  And I’m not sure what kind of standards B2B manufacturers have for their content on the Internet.  But the fact is this:  manufacturers are becoming the suppliers of content as well as widgets.  Is it a change for the better?  Maybe not.