The return of What's New In Electronics

It’s easy to think that the glory days of the past are gone (particularly if your football team is Ipswich Town). I even dream that perhaps some of the old publications that I read when I was an engineer could return in a format that’s optimised for the new internet economy. That’s not going to happen, is it?

Actually it is! One of the best-known British publication brands from the past, What’s New in Electronics, is returning. NEW Events Ltd are rebranding National Electronics Week Expo to What’s New in Electronics Live. Even better, they’re bringing back the name in a new publication.

Wide Range of Content

The new publication promises a wide variety of content, including:

• Industry Listings – company and product directories
• News Feeds – news feeds from the industry
• Recruitment – a service to match candidates’ CVs to vacancies
• Newsletters – a monthly newsletter about industry trends
• Training – training opportunities and courses
• News – Guest editors and partnerships with trade magazines, associations and other key industry bodies
• The Library – white papers, technical information and even digital versions of magazines
• Webinars – webinar service for vendors
• Exporting – the latest news from Electronic Exporters Group (EEG), CEMA, SCS Exhibitions and UK Trade & Investment

Guest Editors and Partnerships

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that What’s New in Electronics won’t have an editor. What, a publication without an editor? That’s crazy… or maybe that’s brilliant.

The approach will be to invite guest editors in to work with What’s New in Electronics. In fact Claire Saunders, managing director of NEW Events Ltd, told me,

“We don’t want to be seen as a magazine as this is not our intention”

Claire went on to explain that she thinks the new site will be an opportunity to existing magazines to expand their reach, saying:

“In fact we want to encourage the magazines to join the site. Our aim is to create a hub for industry and encourage content. The drive for this site is to create a buzz and get industry talking and reenergised. We have a good database and want to maintain contact with it and deliver a easily accessible platform for knowledge.”

What’s New in Electronics is also taking a long view, and hoping to develop the electronics industry in the UK. Clare is keen to make a positive contribution:

“We also want to encourage new blood to join UK electronics and want to get universities and training facilities onboard to publish their courses.”

Will What’s New in Electronics Succeed?

I think this is a really interesting move. It’s great to see an old name make a comeback, and I love the idea that someone is trying a different approach to electronics publishing. NEW has a decent database, although arguably it’s rather manufacturing-focused, but this will give them an audience from day 1. From a financial point of view, the site seems to be engineered to provide several different sources of income in addition to advertising, including white papers, sponsored news stories, recruitment and the industry listing section. However success probably depends on getting a few other publications to buy into the concept and provide the news feeds.

I really hope it works. If the partnership with other publications can be engineered to benefit both sides, I’m sure that other publishers will be prepared to experiment. NEW also can, to some extent, consider the publication as a promotional vehicle for the show, What’s New in Electronics Live, which perhaps means the site will be given the time and investment that it will need to once again establish a great reputation for the What’s New in Electronics brand.