IT Magazines - marketers it's use them or lose them !

On 13th November I received an innocuous looking email from one of my good friends at IDG announcing the closure of a couple of magazines in Finland including the IT magazine Itviikko. The email went on to explain that the market now supported only one remaining print magazine targeting IT pro's.

On the face of it this news is somewhat mundane..or is it.

Earlier in the year I was also told about some important changes in France. Groupe Tests, the leading IT publisher in the market was also consolidating it's business. Several magazine closures would be taking place. The result- only one major magazine now servicing IT pro's in France (IDG does have a small CIO title.

Now putting into context that France is the 7th biggest economy in the world then it starts to sink in just how significant the shift away from print advertising is impacting the choices available to marketers and agencies.

Should anyone care ?

Well at Just Media we have categorically proved to numerous clients the value of print as part of the marketing mix. Our research on campaign performance (which we label under the term ROMO or return on marketing objective) shows that print is significantly more effective at shifting awareness and brand attributes than any online campaign including rich media and video. Sadly we seem to be amongst the few pushing these facts into the market.

One thing is clear though...publishers are in the business of making money and if marketers fail to use print magazines then the option will simply not exists in the future.

Here in the US 2007 has seen some major closures including Info World, Intelligent Enterprise, Optimize and Network Computing. Most other magazines have adjusted circulations, reduced size or trimmed page counts. The changes are numerous and obvious...options are being compromised.

The worry is that no one will realize what they have lost until it's too late.

Use them or lose them folks !!!