B2B Print Media

Executive Summary

This is an updated edition of the original report which was published in October 2007.

B2B publishing remains a small and heavily fragmented market in Asia when compared with major markets in the U.S. and Europe. In preparing this report, BSG included general business titles and B2B trade magazines with an audited circulation of more than 2,000. Audited circulation data comes mainly from BPA Worldwide. That approach resulted in a list of 75 publications which fall into three broad categories - 1) general business and finance titles; 2) technology, electronics and telecom titles; and 3) other trade titles.

General business titles only account for 17 of the 75 publications, but the category accounts for 9 of the top 10 magazines ranked by circulation. Moreover, the average circulation of the business titles is 131,586 - or more than 3.5 times higher than technology titles and more than 12 times higher than the other trade titles category. Technology title circulation averaged 36,564 and accounted for 23 of the 75 publications. Other trade titles accounted for 47% the 75 titles, but the average monthly circulation was just 10,807.

All of the top ten magazines ranked by circulation are Chinese language titles. Nine of the top ten magazines are Chinese general business titles. The one exception is Electronic Supply and Manufacturing which targets electrical engineers in China. Half of the top ten titles are produced by Chinese publishers including Caijing, Manager, Business Management Review, China Entrepreneur and 21st Century Business Reviews. The remaining five are owned by Hong Kong-based or other non-Chinese publishers such as Global Sources or CCI Asia-Pacific (which publishes Fortune China under license from Time Inc.).

The circulation of the top nine Chinese language general business publications ranges from 220,000 to 135,000. NASDAQ-listed Global Sources succeeded in placing two titles in the top ten (Chief Executive China and Elegant Living). Moreover, the company has three titles in the top ten if you include Electronic Supply and Manufacturing which it publishes through its joint venture between Global Sources and CMP, e-Media Asia.

The technology category consists of 23 titles, but only three magazines have circulations in excess of 50,000. e-Media Asia and Reed Business Information (RBI) have multiple titles ranked, but e-Media Asia dominates the top half of this category, while RBIs title have much smaller circulation figures. e-Media Asias Electronic Supply & Manufacturing with a circulation of 124,885. RBI also has a strong presence with five titles published through its various subsidiaries and a joint venture with IDG.

The other trade title category features 35 titles or 47% of the ranked magazines. The average circulation of this category is just 10,807. Only the top four titles maintain circulations of over 20,000 and a mere seven magazines circulate 15,000 copies or more. RBI, Haymarket, Eastern Trade Media and TTG Asia Media all publish three or more titles in this category.

It is worth noting that a number of important publishers with significant operations in Asia do not appear in these tables because they currently do have audited circulation figures. Three examples are CCID, Ringier and Vogel.