1. How It Works

2. Background
Minett Media Limited has developed the most comprehensive database of editors of B2B journals
worldwide. In effect, Minett Media has created a B2B exchange for the world’s trade press and for
the companies who need to utilise that trade press in order to reach their markets.
Since the late 1980s over 13,000 trade publication editors, and major multinational companies,
have become regular users of the Minett Media system for the global distribution and publication of
B2B editorial articles.
Client companies submit to Minett Media articles that they wish to publish. Those articles are
uploaded into the Minett Media website. Editors are sent regular reports to advise them of the
availability of specific articles relevant to their readers. The editors can review those articles on the
website and download them for publication.(See page 3).
Using the Minett Media internet-based system allows companies to showcase their editorial articles
to, in principle, every relevant and significant trade press editor in the world. This greatly increases
the likelihood that an article (normally costing a great deal in time and money to produce) will be
published. It also allows the article to be published in many more journals than would be possible if
relying upon the traditional method of cultivating personal relationships (either directly or via a PR
firm) with those editors who the client identifies as being potentially useful to them.
Minett Media has provided their services to many significant multinational organisations including;
the British Government (Inward Investment Agency), ITT, Deutsche Bank, Volvo and Ericsson. ITT, for
example, has been a client of Minett Media for 15 years.
This impressive client loyalty can be partly explained by the following financial comparison: the
average cost per thousand readers (cpt) of advertising in the international trade press is
approximately €232 ($325), whereas the cpt of Minett Media’s service ranges between €2.9 ($4) to
€29 ($40). Exact figures based on continuous studies of individual client performance are available
on demand.
Clients pay a series of fees per article to register an article in the Minett Media system: a monthly
service fee plus various fees at different stages of an article’s publication process. The service is free
to editors, as are the articles, but copyright of the articles remains with the client company.
Minett Media has developed a sophisticated system of client reporting, including automated
emailed client reports each time an editor;
i) downloads an article for consideration
ii) decides to publish the article
iii) sends an electronic copy to Minett Media of the journal’s published version of the article
In addition, clients have constant access, either via Minett Media’s website or a link from that
website to their own company Intranet, to a full status report covering the complete portfolio of
their articles in the Minett Media system.

3. That status report provides totally comprehensive information (including full text, pictures,
entry/exit dates, publication progress and complete information on all journals involved, including
hyperlinks to their website) regarding publication progress on all the client’s editorial items.
Consequently, Minett Media’s status reports provide multinational organisations with an innovative
and highly effective tool for internally integrating the organisation’s global marketing
communications efforts. Total organisational transparency can be constantly and instantly achieved
as to what materials have been produced, distributed and published worldwide. Perhaps most
importantly, the capacity to utilise the credibility and legitimacy created by published editorial
material is effortlessly achieved throughout the global client organisation.
The Publishing Process
Many multinational companies recognise the value of having articles published in the B2B trade
press. The trade press tends to cover serious, product specific information and is read by industry
insiders who will generally have a high level of industry knowledge and purchase decision making
authority/influence.
The editors of trade journals know that they must publish independent and useful articles if they are
to retain the trust and interest of their readers. Technical standards of editorial tend, therefore, to
be much higher than in the general press. For that reason, there is great credibility attached to trade
press editorial articles and much useful marketing activity can be gained from having those articles
published.
Traditionally there has been a significant problem in having editorial articles published in
appropriate trade journals simply because of the very large number of possible publications and the
difficulty of attracting editor attention.
In each business area there may be thousands of companies, thousands of products and, across the
world, hundreds of potentially relevant trade journals. The traditional approach to achieving
publication has depended upon developing personal relationships with relevant editors. Either a
local corporate office, or a local PR agency, will have made efforts to develop personal relationships
with local editors of the trade journals that they believe may be relevant. This process is very time
consuming and expensive for the company and, from an editor’s point of view, is inherently limited
by the number of such relationships that he or she can realistically sustain. For global organisations
the key issues are:
- getting editor attention
- tracking publication progress
- maximising usage of published material within, and throughout, the organisation
According to government sponsored research Minett Media is the only organisation which is
systematically using the internet to achieve these objectives.
Minett Media has built an alternative system to the traditional approach described above
...... a system that works, in effect, as a global supermarket for B2B trade press editors.
The supermarket analogy is powerful since the system does indeed have the advantages, for editors,
that supermarkets have for shoppers, namely:

4. • a much larger range of products, i.e. articles available for publication - at any one time the
Minett Media system contains hundreds of articles covering more than 50 business areas.
• A wide selection of brands – editorial material from over 50 multinational organisations has
been carried.
• The freedom of self-selection - editors can browse the Minett Media shelves without the
pressure of being personally ‘sold to’ by in-house or agency PR people.
Once every month editors are sent, via email, a ‘shopping list’ of available articles.
In addition to alerting the editors as to what material is available, this process helps to maintain the
Minett Media database since any emails which are returned as undeliverable are followed up and
the database is updated accordingly.
The monthly list sent to editors contains very brief details of the articles available (title and abstract
etc.) in order to keep the size of the list manageable and quick and easy to read. The lists of articles
and the editors are coded by 50+ business areas to ensure that editors are shown only relevant
material.
Editors who are interested in a particular article can click on the title which will take them directly
through to the Minett Media website. There they will pass through a gateway screen, which requires
them to enter their journal title and either accept or amend the data (i.e. editor name and contact
details) that Minett Media holds on that journal – again updating the database – before being shown
the full text of the article.
This process automatically generates an email report back to the relevant client, telling them that
this particular journal is interested in that particular article or editorial item. Minett Media calls this
stage of the process creating a ‘Publication Opportunity’, which it then tracks electronically until the
journal responds that they are either going to publish the article or not. A ‘Decision to Publish’
triggers another automatic email report to the client informing them that this particular journal is
going to publish the article. Finally, the tracking continues until Minett Media receives a digital copy
of the published version – so no expensive clippings service is needed. That digital copy of the
published article is then attached to a third email report to the client.
An additional benefit of the Minett Media system is that editors who want to publish an article in a
language different to that in which it has been supplied to them (usually English), will often translate
the article free of charge, using one of their own staff of specialist technical writers.
Status Report on a Portfolio of Editorial Items
In addition to sending the above reports on the progress of individual Publication Opportunities,
Minett Media also summarises the situation in respect of all of a client’s editorial items in an online,
real-time status report. That report can be accessed (via codes) on the Minett Media website or
directly through the client’s Intranet.
The status report starts by summarising overall totals of Active Articles, Publications, Planned
Publications etc. and then displays the articles one-by-one. The articles and the journals are

5. interactive; for example, clicking on an article title brings up the complete text of the article, plus its
pictures and all other information about it. This means that anyone in the client’s organisation can
see what is available for publication or has been published. Also, each journal can be clicked on for
further information; firstly, basic information Minett Media has on the journal – geographic and
functional coverage, circulation figures, contact details etc. If even more information is required,
there is a hyperlink through to the journal’s own website.
Published articles are included in the status report, in their appropriate locations. These published
copies are one of the key benefits of the Minett Media system because they provide ideal sales
material - they have all the credibility and legitimacy of editorial publication which can make them
more effective than company brochures.
To make it easy for sales people to find an appropriate piece to take to a prospect meeting, there is a
key word search facility on the Minett Media system status report. Using that facility, sales people
can enter the name of one of their company’s products, a business area, a country, an application, a
customer etc. and find an appropriate published piece. This ability for anyone within a multinational
organisation to access any of the company’s worldwide editorial coverage/potential sales collateral
offers a significant advantage .. .. it avoids the potential, within very large, globally dispersed
companies, for one particular business unit or country sales force to remain unaware of published
material emanating from another business unit or country unit.
Other Services
There are three further services available to clients of Minett Media.
i) Concept Only Articles
This service enables clients to test the potential interest in an article before committing
to the time and cost of writing it. Clients insert a one-paragraph description of the story
idea in Minett Media’s system. This enables them to determine whether any, and/or
how many, journals might be interested in publishing it. This facility allows clients to
commit to the time and expense of producing an article with a much greater degree of
confidence that the article will be published.
ii) Expert contacts
This service allows clients to enter into the system a one-paragraph description of
individuals within their organisation who are experts in a given field. The description will
encompass their qualifications and experience. Editors are often keen to identify a
technical expert whom they can interview and quote and this service allows editors to
easily identify such an expert. The service generates good publicity for the client
company and is also a good way to motivate the company’s highly qualified personnel.
Once an editor has identified an expert and shown interest in contacting him or her, the
system allows two levels of response from the client: either a “we will get back to you”
response, which leaves with the client the initiative for further contact with the editor;
or the system can respond with contact details for the client’s individual, allowing the
editor to contact that individual directly.
Editor responses to Concept Only Articles and Expert Contacts also appear in the client’s
status report, providing full internal information across the client’s global organisation as

6. to what article production is being planned and what internal knowledge resources are
available.
iii) Press Release Tracking
The Minett Media system provides the same type of support for issuing and tracking
publication of press releases as the main service provides for feature articles. The text of
the press release is sent to appropriate editors with a message that high-resolution
pictures to accompany the release are available to download from the Minett Media
website. Details of those editors who download the pictures are captured and a report
emailed to the client advising of which journals are planning to publish the press release.
The system only handles technical press releases. It does not handle financial PR or
general company news.
For further information contact:
Contact: Steve Minett PhD, Managing Director or Hylton Barnes MBA
Minett Media, 6 Middlewatch, Swavesey, Cambridge,CB4 5RN, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1954 230 250 Fax: +44 (0)1954 232 019
steve@minettmedia.co.uk hylton@minettmedia.co.uk www.minettmedia.co.uk