The B2B publishing and information industry, like the greater media ecosystem as we know it, is in the midst of an inexorable, irreversible, and unrelenting period of change.
That was about the only thing universally agreed upon over three days of refreshingly honest exchanges among several of business media’s most high-profile executives and strategists.
Debra Walton, Global Managing Director of Thomson Reuters’ 4,000-employee-strong financial and risk division, outlined a handful of major trends her company anticipates will most impact the business information industry going forward.
Among them: companies must be prepared to handle ever larger amounts of data (by some estimates as much as 20-times more by 2020); greater regulatory oversight of the way companies collect data, particularly from individuals (the upcoming implementation of GDPR, despite applying only to residents of the European Union, loomed like a shadow over many of the conference’s discussions); disruptive tech, like cloud computing and artificial intelligence; and “millennial ways of thinking,” such as the fact that young people hate paying for information they can access for free elsewhere.
Asked how the panelists were adapting, Scott Mozarsky, Legal Division President, Bloomberg BNA, said salespeople need to take on a more consultative role and be well-versed enough in data to sell products like visualization or segmentation tools. “Every aspect of the organization needs to change,” added Ethan Eisner, VP, ReedTech. “We’re now entering categories that didn’t even exist before. It’s a whole new way of selling.”
Hanley Wood, CEO, Peter Goldstone said he views his company’s database as its most valuable asset, but noted that a similar disconnect seems to exist between marketers’ perceptions of print and the ways in which people actually consume content.
Greg Dool. (2017, Nov. 16). Where is B2B Media Going? It’s Anyone’s Guess. Folio:.