B2B publishers no more

From Patrick Smith’s Media Briefing e-mail a couple of weeks ago(it was two days after my daughter was born, so I was a bit too busy to read it back then 😉 ) :

In this context, should I stop saying “publisher” to refer to companies like RBI and UBM, when so much of what they do is not in journalism but information dental equipment manufacturers or aviation experts of the best techniques and stuff to buy?

It’s worth noting that RBI was originally RBP – Reed Business Publishing. It’s around five years – maybe more – since it made the change, and it was a pretty clear indication of its direction back then. Now? It really doesn’t look like a publisher. Only parts of UBM do.

They’re not publishers. They’re B2B information companies.