At ABM Executive Forum: Pressure is on business publishers to develop new data products
October 24, 2012, 12:16 pm EDT
By Matthew Schwartz
Chicago—Creating data services and business intelligence programs will require b2b media companies to make some wrenching changes in their operations, said Abs Kotulski, VP-strategy and development, commodities and commercial markets at McGraw-Hill Cos., in a presentation Tuesday at the American Business Media Executive Forum here.
“If you're a traditional media business and moving into data information, I think it's much more challenging; and many of you are probably in that situation,” he said.
He added: “In that case, you're looking at building entirely new teams, with very different skill sets. It's a move from editorial to much more [of] a product approach, where you have people who have more of a software background and a need to innovate.”
Kotulski participated in a panel discussion titled, “Are Data and Business Intelligence Worth More Than Advertising?” He stressed that business publishers need to use their data products as a springboard for additional services.
It's not just providing the data; it's being able to either build a work-flow tool on top of the information or developing analytics to provide new insight, he said. “Is it a nice-to-have piece of information or is it a must-have? That's a critical question you have to ask yourself,” he said.
Another speaker, Tim Baskerville, a business information consultant and board member at HG Data Co., said that in creating data products b2b publishers have to consider scale.
“Margins, once you got the operation up and running and stable, can be highly attractive,” he said.