Ode to the Trade & Weekly Editor/Publisher

Reba McEntire and Kenny Chesney recorded “I Was Country, When Country Wasn’t Cool,” a song that celebrated the authentic Country music before Country/Pop swept the nation at the turn of the century. The song paid homage to those who wrote, sang and recorded category music for decades, before crossover artists propelled the genre much more broadly. So too with the trade publication or the weekly newspaper. Let’s look at the analogy. Before social media, the only way to communicate with a niche audience was through the weekly and trade publication.

Hence, titles like Furniture Today brought your client message to the home furnishings industry. National Jeweler got your company noticed in that industry, and the Jewish Press would get you great exposure in places like Brooklyn and Queens. These publications, despite the advent of social media, still represent a critical vehicle for support of our client messages and they deserve not only our respect –but support!

The editors and publishers who toil to tell industry stories do so in the shadows of the top-tier media, and today, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and others. But their role is critical. Not only are they reliably out every week –or many now each day with electronic editions or one sort or another—but the insight they provide is critical to the industry and to us. They are typically advocates for the industry, not shills, but rather respected journalists who understand our clients better than most in the mainstream media because they cover the industry in-depth, every day.

We should pay these editors and publishers the respect they so deserve by offering them our stories first, speaking with them regularly, and advocating with our client to support them with subscriptions and advertising. While we don’t sell advertising, there is absolutely nothing wrong –in fact it is highly appropriate—that we remind our clients how important these publications are and why they are deserving of their financial support.