Is the web killing the printed journals?



I give consulting services to a publisher in the Medical area. The company is well established since 1988 and publishes about 20 Medical journals in different areas: Pediatrics, Opthalmology, General Medicine, Hypertension, Urology, Cardiology, etc..

The journals are dispatched free of charge for Sick Fund and Hospital physicians. The business model is based on advertising.

What I noticed lately is that pharmaceutical companies decreased dramatically their advertising in Medical Journals. Those who do advertise, whish to place the advertisement by an article related to their product. This of course is based on physicians' testimonies that if the advertisement is not among the pages of the article he is interested to read, he will never see it. I personally would not do request to link the advertisement to an article, and there are many reasons for that: First of all  because it may cause suspicion among the readers: "How did it happen the advertisement is connected to the article?????

Regarding the excuse that physicians see only the advertisement printed between the pages he reads an article he is interested in, I doubt if this is the whole truth. I do hear physicians telling me that they like to relax with a journal, and "feel" the paper when they turn the page.

So, is the web killing the printed journals?

I do not think so.

A web published journal will not always reach the target.

Is it really true that there is a total shift for information search to the web?

Well, the web did change all information flow but still, the printed media will not disappear. As costumer differ one from  the another, there will always be those who like the printed journals.

So, what would I recommend to pharmaceutical companies regarding printed journal advertisement?

Like in many areas, do segmentation of your costumers, split your budget accordingly, verify the effectiveness of alternative marketing tools, do not rely only on F2F visits of the sales force.

The Human contact at Aida Opera at Masada

I had a wonderful weekend. I attended Verdi's Aida at the Masada fortress. It was a fantastic experience. The historical place in the dessert became so alive with thousands of people coming from all over the world to enjoy this unique production.
Beside the joy of the opera, I met personally Marianne Cornetti, performing Armedis and had the privilege to be exposed to the fantastic world of an opera diva.

But how is all this connected to what I am supposed to write in my blog? Well, I met there so many physicians, KOLs, pharmaceutical executives and had so many professional good conversations that I thought all the time how can anybody imagine shifting all the marketing efforts to internet?

Can we give up on personal contacts of the representatives and the doctors? The human contacts and the personal relationship are of enormous value and no e-learning and nothing can replace it.
The passion to opera: Can we pharmaceutical marketers take advantage of the passion of so many physicians to opera?
In my conversations we even raised up new ideas like new topics for medical congresses, new ideas for coaching new product managers, "thinking out of the box", and the difficulties in a physician’s career.

Funny, the most classical entertainment brought me fresh ideas and made me think out of the box.
My feeling is that this is exactly what the pharmaceutical market needs. Think out of the box!!!
What do you think?