Penton Invades a New Publishing Market

LAST WEEK PRESIDENT

The electronic magazine launched in December, and its second issue has just appeared in the e-mail inboxes of some 30,000 engineers in the defense industry.

Published by Penton's Electronics OEM Group in Paramus, "Military Electronics" offers its readers news on research and development, contracts and new products for the defense market. The contents are intended to appeal to a broad audience of technologists, says Thomas Morgan, publisher for the Electronics OEM Group.

"Each of our publications serves design engineers who identify themselves as working in military-, defense- and government-related industries," he says.

Print magazines from the group are "Electronic Design," "Microwave & RF," and "EE Product News." They have a combined circulation of 300,000.

The Electronics OEM Group is owned by Penton Media, a business-to-business media company based in Cleveland. Morgan says his group is the first within the organization to produce e-zines for a broad market.

There are more on the way. EEPN2, an online supplement to "EE Product News," launched in January.

Also,"we will launch "Electronic Design Europe" in digital format this month and one or two more online magazines this year," says Morgan.

The Group's technical director, Jack Browne, does all the writing for "Penton's Military Electronics." Taking advantage of the magazine's digital format, each issue includes links to additional defense news items, white papers written by industry experts to educate readers on a particular topic, and vendors' Websites.

The publication is distributed via e-mail to a controlled-circulation base of some 30,000. These readers, selected based on their jobs, receive the e-zine for free and guarantee advertisers a carefully targeted audience. Other interested readers can download copies, which are produced in the popular PDF format, for free at www.milelec.com.

Going digital-only with this new magazine is an attempt to increase the number of readers Penton can reach while keeping tight control of costs, says Morgan. "Digital technology allows us to do it in a much more quick and less-costly fashion," he says.

The company hopes the cost structure will appeal to advertisers as well. "We can develop products more quickly and offer vendors the opportunity to participate for less than what they pay for print advertising," Morgan says.

Advertisers are paying for links to Web-based ads rather than on-page display ads. A box that holds up to four separate links and runs up to 11 times would cost $1,600. By comparison, the domestic ad rates for monthly print magazine "Microwaves & RF" range from $1,535 for 1/6 page of black-and-white ad space with a contract for 60 issues, to $15,735 for two pages of black-and-white ads appearing once.

Penton Media has been looking for ways to slash spending. It restructured in early 2005, shutting down one of the New Jersey division's publications, "Wireless Systems Design." For the third quarter ended Sept. 30,2005, Penton Media reported net income of $259,000 on revenue of $51 million. That compares with a net loss of $44.4 million on revenue of $44.7 million for the prior-year period. The company attributed this year-to-year difference to a $39.7 million "goodwill impairment charge" due primarily to "lower than expected future cash flows in two of our reporting units in our technology segment and by lower than expected cash flows in our International segment."

Penton's Electronics OEM Group was created in the 1980s when the Ohio parent bought two periodicals, "Electronic Design" and now-defunct "Electronics," from Hayden Publishing in Hasbrouck Heights. Morgan's group from the former Hayden relocated to Paramus in 2003.

"Wars tend to drive technology development," Morgan says, and Penton figures the ongoing military campaigns that drive the need to resupply the armed forces will increase engineers' desire to keep up with new developments.

Other trade publications serving the engineering side of the defense industry include "The Military Engineer," a bimonthly print magazine with a circulation of 22,000 published by the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) in Alexandria, Va. SAME is a nonprofit trade organization for engineering education.

Even with established publications already catering to this market, Morgan believes "Penton's Military Electronics" is armed and ready to fight for readers. "These digital products allow for a lot more opportunity for achieving very specific and targeted marketing objectives," says Morgan. "The defense market is huge."