I’ve had a number of interesting discussions over the last few months about the relative value of online vs. print editorial coverage in the electronics industry. The conclusion, you may not be surprised to hear, is that nobody really knows. Certainly, online seems to be heavily favoured over print in the US. The emerging economies in Asia also seem to place a lot of store in the medium, and Hearst’s recent purchase of 21IC.com (claimed to be China’s most important web site for electronics engineers) suggests that US publishers believe it’s the way to go in that region, or at least in China. In Europe, the picture is more mixed. As always, the UK seems to be mid-Atlantic with the only electronics newspaper, Electronics Weekly, seemingly firmly committed to developing their on-line and e-marketing business, and boosting circulation of the electronic version of the paper. In Germany, France and Italy, where there are emerging online businesses in electronics publishing, I still find few, if any, clients concerned about getting online coverage for their stories - they want to see the stuff in print.
I really don’t know how those in the Nordic and Benelux regions feel about the issue, yet. The proponents of online point out that coverage remains for a much longer period of time and any evaluation must take account of people finding the stories through web searches over a period of years. Maybe, but an old news story is of little interest to anyone and in this industry products go past their “sell by” date faster than in any other. The challenge for advertisers is to get some kind of measure of value. When everything was in print you could research your target market, establish how many of them look at a publication, and how often, and get some idea of how well a publication would deliver your message. Online is more confusing. The publishers claim hundreds of thousands of visitors each month, yet in all of the US and European research we’ve carried out, we find the claimed usage of the web by electronics to be very far below the readership of print publications. What’s more, banner click-through rates seem to be pitifully low, certainly under 0.5%, even on the largest and most sophisticated web sites. In short, there seems to be negligible hard evidence that online advertising has much value, yet almost every major electronics business is now throwing money at it. I don’t know how we can accurately gauge the value of online advertising vs. print, and I’ve yet to meet a marketer that does. If think you do, please let me know.
Onto the news...
The electronics division of Reed Business Information lost two of its most experienced senior managers in March. Stephen Moylan, who was promoted to president of the company’s Boston Division in January 2005, having previously worked as EDN’s vice president and publishing director, left early in March. We are told that his departure was related to the merger of Reed’s New York and Boston divisions. Group publisher of EDN, John Schirmer, then departed to join Yahoo. Reed were quick to plug this gap with the announcement that Alan Robinson, most recently national sales manager for EDN Worldwide, Electronic News and Electronic Business, has been promoted to fill the post.
CONTACTS
Editorial: Maury Wright, editor in chief, EDN, mgwright@edn.com
Advertising: Alan Robinson, group publisher, aarobinson@reedbusiness.com
Rumour has it that Richard Ball, the online editor for Electronics Weekly, is to leave the publication within a few weeks to pursue career ambitions outside of the electronics industry. Richard has been with the newspaper for several years and is one of their most respected technical journalists. No announcement has yet been made on his replacement.
CONTACTS
Editorial: Richard Wilson, editor, richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk
Advertising: Dean Slade, dean.slade@rbi.co.uk
Hearst Electronics Group has appointed Bryan DeLuca as managing editor of Electronic Products Magazine. Bryan has 12 years of B2B publishing experience and served as editorial director at Keller International Publishing LLC for eight years, where he oversaw up to 15 titles.
CONTACTS
Editorial: Murray Slovick, editorial director, mslovick@hearst.com
Advertising: Lisa DeVine, group marketing manager, ldevine@hearst.com
In June EPN will publish the first edition of its Power SupplyDirectory. It will allow companies located within the power arena to give a claimed readership of 65,000 electronics engineer detailed information about their history, which markets they serve, what products they produce, and where potential customers can go to buy them.
To ensure coverage, contact the managing editor for an entry form. Basic entries are free of charge.
CONTACTS
Editorial: Mike Green, managing editor, mike.green@rbi.co.uk
Advertising: Nick Walker, sales director, nwalker@reedbusiness.fr
Power Systems Design Europe (PSDE) will introduce a new editorial section to discuss issues on environmental and energy issues. The section will be called the Green Page and will appear first in the April issue. At the PCIM show in Nuremberg (May 22-24), PSDE will hold a forum hosted by editor, Cliff Keys and with representation from industry leaders entitled ‘Lighting leads the way’. The forum takes place on the first day of the show, Tuesday, in the exhibit hall, and starts at 3:00pm.
CONTACTS
Editorial: Cliff Keys Cliff.Keys@powersystemsdesign.com Advertising: Julia Stocks Julia@powersystemsdesign.com
The Embedded Linux Conference 2007 is to be held in Pforzheim, Germany from 26th to 28th June. Around 30 exhibitors are expected at this specialist event, which will also include a conference programme. Table-top exhibition stands are available and there are also some sponsorship opportunities remaining.
CONTACTS
Organsiser: Manfred Blumoser, mb@iccmedia.com
Electronics Weekly’s Elektra awards for the electronics industry will be held in the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London on December 12, 2007.
We understand that a few sponsorship opportunities remain. Entry nominations can be completed online.
CONTACTS
Organiser: Vicky Weyman, vicky.weyman@rbi.co.uk
Web: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/elektra
Hearst Electronics Group and Silicon Expert has announced an upgrade of its www.icmaster.com web site. The site, which allows users to search for electronic component datasheets, will now automatically also display inventory availability from the distributor channels. It also provides an online request-for-quote form and ‘Buy Now’ option. Distributors Avnet, Arrow, Digi-Key and Mouser are amongst those whose products are featured. William Barron, VP publishing director at Hearst, said that advertisers can now “super vertically match their ads against specific content pertaining to the parts they are selling.” (We hope to provide an English translation of this statement in the next issue! Ed.)
CONTACT
Web: http://www.icmaster.com
China’s inaugural Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) award ceremony, hosted by EE Times China was this year held in conjunction with the 12th Annual International IC-China Conference and Exhibition. The event, held at the Marco Polo Hotel in Shenzhen, produced over a dozen winners (too many to mention here but think of a major semis company and they were probably on the list) and was sponsored by Atmel, Micrel, Microchip and (rather strangely?) by the Marco Polo Hotel itself.
CONTACTS
Editorial: Yorbe Zhang, editor in chief, EE Times China, yzhang@globalsources.com
Advertising: Bennie Hui, eMedia associate publisher, bennie@globalsources.com
Web: http://www.eetchina.com/ace
Upcoming IET events in the UK include a MEMS Technology Seminar (April 25, London), Smart Antennas and Cooperative Communications Seminar (October 22, London - call for papers has been issued), IET and FSA International Semiconductor Forum (May 14-15, Paris), Microwave Measurements Training Course (14-18 May, London) and The Entrepreneurial Engineer lecture (June 5, Cambridge, UK).
CONTACTS
Web: http://www.theiet.org
The UK’s Association of Franchised Distributors of Electronic Components (AFDEC) has announced the death on March 18 of Roy Atterbury, one of the Association’s founders. Roy died at The Greenwich & Bexley Cottage Hospice from complications related to leukemia.
Roy spent his early career working for The Times Literary Supplement before moving to the Institute of Physics. Later, he edited the trade magazine Electronic Components (now Components in Electronics). Roy’s funeral will be held on Monday, April 2nd.
Artimi is a fabless semiconductor company providing semiconductors, software and reference designs for consumer electronics devices. The company is based in Cambridge UK and has a vacancy for a marketing communications manager.
CONTACTS
Applications: Richard Dellabarca, chief financial officer, richard.dellabarca@artimi.com
Web: http://www.artimi.com
Quantum Research is a very fast growing semiconductor and IP business with a portfolio of capacitive touch sensor products. Quantum sells its products throughout the world into high volume consumer electronics applications and has a blue-chip customer base. The company is looking for a marketing communications manager to manage everything from their web site to global public relations activity.
CONTACTS
Applications: (by email in the first instance) Hal Philipp, CEO, h.phil@qprox.com
Web: http://www.qprox.com
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