Priority Interrupt by Steve Ciarcia United We Stand

Every once in a while I like to use this editorial space to discuss what's going on at Circuit Cellar and what I'm planning. Circuit Cellar is but a small blip on the tech publishing world's radar but I think we have a greater voice than our diminutive stature might indicate. Over the years we've gained a reputation for technical excellence that has become hard to ignore. We've survived and prospered in a climate where other magazines have perished or merged. I credit a lot of our success to a de facto state of affairs. The technical trade magazines are the closest we have to what I'd call competition. By design or default, they traditionally approach business from the top down. By that, I mean they exist financially and obtain their advertising contracts by dealing directly with the public relations and marketing people within large corporations. I'm not inferring that there's anything wrong with that approach. On the contrary, when business is good, it's efficient one-stop shopping. A couple of power lunches and the deal is done.

I'm certainly not a person who avoids schmoozing and heaven forbid I should pass up a good lunch, but our business approach has been what I call bottom-up rather than top-down. Certainly before we became recognized by the large semiconductor companies, their PR departments would answer "Circuit Cellular?" As a result, our dealings have concentrated primarily on the staff engineers and engineering managers who know what Circuit Cellar is all about. Well below the power lunch decision-makers, these people also became our authors and readers and evolved into the strong internal support we enjoy today. Back then, the advertising contracts we got weren't the result of exhaustive negotiations or packaged deals with the marcom department, they were the predictable consequence of Circuit Cellar editorial. Publishing an article from inside their own ranks not only helped management discover its own engineering resource, it absolutely demonstrated ours.

Today it is considerably less of a rat race and I haven't heard "Circuit Cellular" in years. Now that Circuit Cellar is middle-aged, we get to enjoy our well-earned stature. A lot of it has to do with the fact that many of our readers have advanced, too. Young staff engineers and middle managers who have been with us through the years are now in controlling positions. They know us, and they know our credibility. When marcom people mention our name in meetings these days, there's almost always someone there to reply with the scoop.

Developing with a bottom-up approach to life has imparted a certain amount of humility, however. I'd be the first to tell you that Circuit Cellar's editorial success isn't a result of my personal sweat each month. It comes from the sharp editorial team that edits the technical chronicles of an equally sharp group of hands-on authors. Similarly, our commercial success has nothing to do with power lunches either. It's because we have a message you like to read and together all of you constitute one of the highest powered audiences available. It's hard for advertisers to pass up that kind of audience.

I suppose my first reaction should be simply to accept the applause and run with it. Because we are one of the few magazines that actually grew last year despite the technical sector's meltdown, it is obvious that we have staying power. It should be a golden opportunity to take advantage of timing. Raise the rates and the best show in town simply gets a little more expensive! Last year was difficult for many companies. There were large layoffs, contracts were canceled, and marketing budgets were slashed. Circuit Cellar was fortunate to avoid most of the turmoil because our advertisers stuck with us. On one hand I can say we deserved it, yet on the other hand, I also know how traumatic an economic downturn can be to a business. We're now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and businesses are starting to recover. It's the next step along the path to recovery that concerns me.

Undoubtedly justified by expenses, trade-publication response to the recovery is to make up last year's shortfall by raising advertising rates up to a whopping 18% (source: SRDS). Unfortunately, the companies most hurt during this recession, and the ones we depend upon most for our technological future, are the ones called upon to face this added obstacle to their recovery.

In light of recent world events, I view this particular round of economic recovery as more important than others. If it is not America's moral integrity that directs the world it has to be our overwhelming economic strength. I could certainly justify higher rates because we have increased costs too, but getting America back on track has to be a higher priority right now. For that reason, Circuit Cellar is not raising advertising or subscription rates during 2002. We'll bite the bullet and stay the course to help you recover faster, too. Call the reason anything you want but I think one line in American psyche defines it best, "United we stand. Divided we fall."

steve.ciarcia@circuitcellar.com

Published: February-2002