Choosing the right field in which to publish.

Today many business newsletter publishers complain, "Our renewals remain pretty strong, but we just aren't getting new subs." One factor in this has to be the acquisitions and consolidations that have been rife in many industries. In many fields where there were once 10 or more major players today there may only be four. What can you do when there are just fewer widget manufacturers out there to market to?

"Get there first with the most men" (as N.B. Forrest CSA said). Being the first or one of the first in an emerging field is theoretically an excellent newsletter publishing strategy, but this of course is sometimes more difficult than it looks.

Over the years I've seen publishers rush into fields like solar energy and super conductors only to find they were there ahead of the market. Larry Alexander of Alexander Communications Group once suggested that one good place to find new subject ideas might be to look back at the ideas you had a few years back; their time might have come.

"Look for competition"

"Look for competition" is a newsletter publishing bromide. As the late Al Goodloe liked to say, "I assume that I'm not smart enough to think of anything that has never occurred to anyone else, so if I can't find any potential competitors, it may be a sign that the market isn't out there."

Recently some publishers have felt that entering a new field through acquisition was a more attractive strategy than launching from scratch. This also is not a foolproof method. Joel Whitaker, who has made any number of acquisitions, cautions, "Beware of the potential seller who explains that 'we just haven't had the time or money to market this newsletter very much.' What he may mean is 'We've marketed it as much as we could, we just haven't found many people who will buy it.'"

But even publishing to well-established fields can be difficult as well. UCG publishes Car Dealer Insider and Funeral Service Insider, both successful, mature titles. One can safely assume dealers will always sell cars and people will continue to well, you know ... but people are now buying cars on eBay and chains are gobbling up independent funeral homes in smaller towns across the country.

Narrow the focus

Sometimes a tighter, narrower focus can be effective. Hospital Administration Report spins off Hospital Computerization Report or Hospital Benefits Analysis. (The reverse, going from a narrow focus to a broader one, seldom works.)

When the field is expanding or at least holding steady, conferences and special reports and other ancillaries can be an important asset to maintaining profitability but probably won't prop up a newsletter in a steadily consolidating market.

Nothing is certain to be "forever." Plus, in established fields, there tends to be strong competition from trade associations, magazines, and controlled circulation tabloids.

Switch to ad-supported trade mags

Over the past several years I've also heard publishers talking about moving into the ad-supported trade magazine business. That can be a profitable operation but, as the newsletter association has reiterated for years, it is a very different business from newsletter publishing.

Or, as decorated newsletter-industry veteran Frank Joseph put it, when discussing the failure of his venture to publish a controlled circulation newspaper in the Washington, D.C. area, "If you are going to publish an ad-supported publication, you probably ought to know something about the ad business."

Is this the truth?

Historically newsletters were often thought of as being somewhat ephemeral--niche publications that emerged to provide hard-to-get intelligence about newer or specialized areas. Perhaps, like one of Christie Brinkley's marriages, they have an almost predictable shelf-life, destined to be replaced by more traditional media.

Here's an example. In the early '80s I told Tom Phillips that I didn't see much opportunity in the staid telephone industry already served by a couple of established newsletters, three trade magazines, and several associations.

He went forward anyway, and, in the exploding marketplace of the newly competitive phone industry, by 1988 he was publishing 11 titles. By 1993, that figure had doubled. But times change. In 2000 the division was sold, and Access Intelligence now publishes only seven telecommunications titles and only two or three appear to be direct descendants of the original Phillips newsletters.