Midlands-based business title the Business Report has scrapped its print edition and gone online only.
Owner Jason Pitt said the move was ‘reflective of the change in the media landscape’and, in particular, the rise of social media.
At its peak, Business Report had a circulation of 40,000, but that figure had dipped to around 6,000.
The title, established 30 years ago by Birmingham journalist Andy Skinner, was taken over by Pitt’s team in 2002.
Pitt said the title will adopt the ‘open journalism’model, with a lot more user-generated comment and a greater focus on blogs and opinion pieces.
He believes the move will keep Business Report ‘one step ahead of what is an extremely competitive marketplace”.
‘A lot of newspapers and magazines have been forced to go digital due to falling revenues and the transition hasn’t been as effective as many would have hoped,’said Pitt.
‘We’ve taken a longer-term approach and been planning the move from paper to the web for the last six months, led primarily by a comprehensive survey that told us our readers wanted their news faster and instant.”
He added: ‘Every Thursday at 10am we will upload the new digital edition to Business Report and this will be read by more than 8,000 subscribers, all of whom will be senior managers or directors.
‘We’ve never been shy in taking exciting new steps forward and we believe a weekly online magazine offers the business community something different to what is currently out there.”
The company also runs Pressvine, a PR website allowing companies to create newsletters, manage social media accounts and distribute press releases.
It supplies the majority of the company’s revenue, along with its Made in the Midlands website, which has around 250 member companies from across the region.
‘This has proved an unbelievable platform for promoting industry across the UK and overseas and we’ve tried really hard to create a community that engages with others in sharing best practice, sales leads and inter-trading,’Pitt said.
‘We hope to reciprocate this with Business Report and will also be using social media to push this forward over the next couple of months.’
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