B2B publishers start to catch on
I've done what I could here to try and convince B2B journalists and publishers to pay attention to the citizen journalism movement. I've shared my opinion that bloggers are not the enemy; they are our audience....and they want to talk. I've also shared my prediction that the ease of Internet publishing does pose a competitive threat by enabling almost anyone to enter this industry -- and that the threat is most likely to come from existing staff and sources.
I've often been discouraged. Most of the folks I've talked to in the B2B press in recent months have seemed reflexively angry about, or shockingly unaware of, the changes in our industry.
But today comes two pieces of news that I find encouraging.
First, American Business Media, the trade association for B2B publishers, is launching an RSS feed. Second, ABM has formed a committee on blogging, and put Rex of Rexblog in charge.
I'm just thrilled.
If ABM has recognized that change is here, and decided to embrace the new media and share what it learns, then I expect that heads across the B2B world will soon be pulled from the sand.