As 2018 draws to a close, I wanted to update you on some of our plans for 2019. We’ve got some big doings in store related to our events and the magazine!
On the event front, we have changed and expanded our slate of Quirk’s Events, replacing our West Coast event with events in London (February 12-13) and Chicago (April 2-3) to complement our always-popular Brooklyn, N.Y., gathering (March 5-6).
As an English-language media outlet, it’s a natural for us to transport our low-cost event model, which we introduced in the U.S. in 2015, to London. (The U.K. is also our second-largest audience for the Website and magazine, after the U.S.) For those not familiar, our aim was to offer client-side researchers a quality learning experience at an affordable price (in most cases, client-siders can attend for about $100 or less), keeping costs down for everyone (exhibitors and attendees) by doing away with expensive keynote speakers and full-scale lunches.
While we’ve added to our event lineup, we have subtracted issues from the 2019 Quirk’s Marketing Research Review editorial calendar. In some ways for me, it’s like coming full-circle to when I first started at Quirk’s in 1988, just a few years after Tom Quirk started publishing the magazine that bears his name. That year, and for a long time after, we had many combined-month issues as we watched to see how Tom’s venture would fare. Print was still in its heyday, especially in the B2B sphere, and the Internet was not a factor. And as we plugged away, churning out our issues and growing the list of facility and provider directories that were included annually in several issues, we eventually expanded to 11 monthly issues plus our annual Researcher SourceBook (in place of a regular September issue).
Fast-forward to the present day and it’s a different story. While our issues are still healthy, it’s undeniable that advertisers have moved money into the digital realm and to other avenues like custom content and events – hence our recent (and very successful, IMHO!) forays into both. Happily, our own Web site and digital outlets (the e-newsletter, Daily News Queue, e-editions of the magazine, etc.) are doing well.
So, instead of 12 issues, for 2019 we will put out nine, adding April-May, June-July and August-September issues to the slate of six monthly editions the rest of the year. (The August-September issue will be taken up by our annual Q Report and directory of research product and service providers.) And, in another new wrinkle for 2019, along with the usual editorial content, the first three issues of the year will also contain previews for the respective Quirk’s Events in which we’ll highlight some of the sessions and speakers we think you should know about and offer an overview of the expo hall and networking opportunities.
On that front, while our aim is to have all of the speaking slots filled for each 2019 event by the end of 2018, if you are a client-side researcher and you’d like information on speaking at one of our events, please let me know, as we may still have some openings. Or if you have ideas for topics or subjects you would like to see us recruit speakers to address at our events, I’d love to hear from you there as well.
Maintain the quantity and quality
Hopefully, as readers, you won’t notice a difference with our revamped publishing schedule. We certainly plan to maintain the quantity and quality of the editorial content. And who knows, maybe you’ll be better able to keep up on your Quirk’s reading. Many subscribers tell us they save their issues for times when they can give them their undivided attention and thus their Quirk’s stack tends to grow when they’re especially busy. With fewer issues for you to keep up with, maybe we’ll help lower your stress level while we save some money on production costs. Sounds like a win-win to me!