Haymarket morphs Printweek online

My copy of Printweek has arrived as hard copy. Thicker paper and a lot of adverts this week, but there are fewer features and the news items are short, linking to detail on the website. Jo's Helpline shows the problem in full, but you have to go to the website for the answer. So the trend seems to be to use the hard copy as promotion for the website. this is the only weekly news publication for the UK print industry so the endorsement for online is significant.

An editorial promises more analysis and longer articles on technology but these could be in a monthly publication. The longterm future of a weekly cycle for news that mostly just links to online detail is uncertain.

The website has also been redesigned with a clearer feed from Twitter. The blogs are not easier to find though, which is a pity. Jo Francis suggests the advert strength in this issue is similar to the time around IPEX 1998 or drupa 2000. It will be interesting to see how this continues, but the time perspective is interesting. I won't update the blog title or the one for IPEX. Probably more posts for drupa now as 2012 is not far off.

There is no mention of video in the print version but there is a section on the website. At IPEX it was clear that some stands had their own direct channel. As Haymarket moves online this is another area to watch.

The website is global in scope with sections linked to other print publications in Australia and Germany. This reflects the reality of web publishing, the audience is global. Printweek is ahead of UK newspapers here. Peter Preston is always complaining about the difficulty of positioning advertising for the audience outside the UK. The Guardian continues to be muddled about an attitude to the web and social media. But Haymarket has a clear direction.