What B2B Marketers Can Learn From The Economist

As a former ink-stained wretch (reporter) I've followed the deaths of not only daily newspapers, but newsweeklies such as Time and Newsweek with despair. I, for one, looked forward to Newsweek giving me a once-a-week in-depth review of the stories and trends daily papers could only touch on.

Now, alas, both Newsweek and Time (struggling under a free-fall in ad revenues) have abandoned the weekly "summarize and explain" model and have redesigned themselves as a cross between The Atlantic Monthly/Harper's (long format, deep dive stories into important or offbeat topics) and The Economist, the upscale British-based pub which purports to tell you all you need to know about the entire world.

A story in this month's Atlantic does a splendid job of describing how the print version of The Economist isthriving while its competitors gasp for breath, by marketing itself as "a true global digest for an age when the amount of undigested, undigestible information online continues to metastasize." With virtually no online strategy, the story says, the Economist's circulation and ad revenues are rising while its rivals virtually implode.

How did they do this, and what on earth does this have to do with B2B marketing? This:

    People will always value well-written content that analyzes (or convincingly purports to analyze)
    complex trends, .

    Print media that readers can enjoy without a screen and power cord is not obsolete, but may even         stand out in an age of everywhere, all-the-time information overload and finally

    Strong, consistent positioning in a market niche (the niche being readers who think they're smart and     exclusive by reading The Economist) can sustain premium sales and profit margins even in a                 commoditized market. 

Before you try to out-blog, out-Tweet, out-YouTube and out mobile-market your competition, make sure you have your market position down cold, focus your messaging like a laser on your target market, and execute flawlessly on the content front. And don't be afraid to offer readers old-fashioned ink on paper to show your stuff is worth sitting down and focusing on.