CMO Magazine will be missed by marketing executives

There are very few publications for senior marketing people, either Web-based or in print. So it is sad that CXO Media announced on the CMOMagzine Web site that it will suspend publication of CMO Magazine with its January 2006 issue.

Editor in Chief Rob O'Regan has done a great job telling the stories of Chief Marketing Officers and highlighting the issues that face us. As a former CMO myself and someone with CMOs as clients, CMOs as readers of my writing, and CMOs as attendees of my seminars, I can say that CMO Magazine will be missed by many loyal readers. Hopefully the publication will live on in a Web-only form.

Coincidently, my opinion column "Turning Browsers into Buyers: How your Web content can influence the B2B buying process" was published on CMOMagazine.com in late December, 2005. In the article, I argue that chief marketing officers, particularly those in B2B markets, often fail to realize the potential of their corporate websites, which must hook buyers in from the start and hang on to them until the sale is complete.

Comments

[Michelle Manafy]

David,
I wish I could say this was a surprise, but did you know that MIT's Technology Review magazine just went from 12X per year to 6? The publisher cited a lack of advertising support, as did CMO. The fact is that "niche" publishing (I can't speak to mainstream magazines as I'm in B2B myself) are suffering two fold--subscribers don't want to pay for subscription, as they've come to view all content as free. Advertisers don't get the immediate gratification from print ads they do from Web ads (click through, feed back, track-ability and so on).

The problem with the subscriber issue and the notion that, "online, content wants to be free" has been written about extensively. The advertiser issue is one that I believe only a completely revised notion of the value proposition of print advertising can combat. Print and online advertising are not the same thing and must be sold quiet differently. The problem is that advertising reps are caught between the two worlds and haven't found a message that speaks to both effectively. And while many may think that focusing solely on Web based advertising is the answer, the problem remains that the ad rates are significantly lower than print and, as yet, they can't sustain the resources required to produce the level of content that readers expect.

It is time for a business model remix, David.
Michelle Manafy
Editor EContent Magazine (yes, print and online)

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