Communites: the future of trade press?

Roy Gleenslade reports on Sylvia Auton, chief executive of IPC Media, and where she sees the company going:

But, in recognition of the move towards a screen-based world, she says much of her energy is devoted to trying to apply magazine brands to new media.

Antony Mayfield made the same observation about United Business Media‘s plans yesterday, and went on to predict a tough time ahead for trade titles:

They are vulnerable for many reasons – they often serve sectors and audience niches that may be better able to serve themselves via online communities. Some depend on classified job ads for a great deal of their revenue (a business which is easily distintermediated by the web) and their legacy infrastructure, their commitments to print based business models can make it hard for them to move quickly enough to take advantage of the fast-evolving online media world.

He is, of course, quite right. These are going to be testing times for trade media, but very exciting ones, too. (Of course, I’m a bit of a change junkie. Other people’s views may differ…)