Business Publishers Admit Its Getting Tough

Business publishers are normally very cautious about talking themselves into a recession so it is interesting to hear the CEOs at the PPA conference acknowledging that things are getting tough. Tim Weller says we have to get our heads out of the sand -it's going to be tough he says. William Reeds Charles Reed is bleating that online recruitment is tough too, which is surprising given their strength in that sector. CMP complained that the building sector was tough and so is recruitment.



David Gilbertson says magazines aren't dead. Just resting perhaps. Magazines may not be dead, but they are not growth businesses and will not drive shareholder value growth says I.



So, in a an uncharacteristic agreement with Weller, there is still time to get the heads out of the sand - but not much. Every day of dithering means that advertisers are losing the habit of doing business with business media houses. Recruitment revenues are being stolen by the job boards and the recruitment and selection agencies.



So, a question for Charles Reed - if recuitment is falling in print, and you are struggling to make it work in online - what are you going to do?



It's too late to mind the shop and hope the customers will come back, we need a new innovative approach to business media. Without it, when Bernard Gray of TES says that the elephant in the room is the sale of RBI, we will soon be saying that the dinosaur on the plain is all the old behemoths of business media.

EMAP abandons Carter for Gilbertson

The appointment of Informa founder David Gilbertson to the role of EMAP Business CEO must have come as a bitter blow to the incumbent, Derek Carter. He must have mused that when GMG/APAX decided not to proceed with the merger of Incisive Media and EMAP, that his position was secure - at least for a while.

There activity in the headhunting world and it was an open secret that there was a process going on to appoint the CEO, but Carter must have assumed he was a certainty. Gilbertson is a a mature and experienced exec, turing Informa into one of the worlds leading business media houses. Nevertheless this is a challeng of a different kind. EMAP execs don't take kindly to outsiders and don't like being told what to do. It will be sporty.