Evolving to serve in the digital age

THERE wasn’t a lack headlines in July 1997. What should have been the big story – Hong Kong’s handover to China by the United Kingdom – was quickly eclipsed by the financial crisis that knocked out Thailand and quickly pummelled more economies across Asia. Industrial projects ground to a halt, banks shut down, and investments dried up.To observers, only China was unmarked by the pounding that the rest of the region was taking.

B2B multimedia publisher Michael R. Hay agreed with this observation and saw positive prospects for trade media in China. In contrast to the rest of Asia, investments were still pouring in to China and industrial activity was ramping up. Domestic companies, for instance, were venturing into OEM operations to serve international demand for competitively priced products and components.

“I saw that in China that manufacturers had a very strong need for information and knowhow – on technology and on manufacturing. They were learning how to market and create their products but they were still very backward in technology in terms of production and manufacturing,”recalls Mr Hay, president and publisher of Ringier Trade Media – one of the most successful industrial media companies in the region.

In this dearth of information, Mike saw potential to publish trade magazines for core industries. He identified Plastics Processing and Packaging as two of these industries requiring technology to achieve greater levels of efficiency and reach global standards.

“I saw a real opportunity there, because plastics manufacturing consumption was rapidly rising 15 years ago and China was very active in developing export markets, which require packaging, so it seemed like a natural fit,” he explains.

It was 15 years ago, he set up Ringier Trade Media with joint business partner, the Swiss media giant Ringier AG. Although at that time the B2B sector was a huge departure for the Swiss firm, having always been in the commercial sector, they have been supportive from the get-go.An incident early on proved to be a very pleasant surprise and also gave Ringier AG a great deal of confidence of the potential of B2B magazines.

In March of 1998, Ringier Trade participated in the trade show Sinopack in Guangzhou, with the prototype of their first magazine International Plastics News for China（国际塑料商情）. To their amazement, they got nearly 3,000 requests for subscriptions in just three days. “We were just overwhelmed. The booth was just swamped with visitors to the trade show trying to sign up for subscription – we had to fight them off. It was amazing,” Mike recalls.

“Then the same thing happened a few months later at Chinaplas, also in Guangzhou. We reintroduced our International Plastics News for China. Again the booth was just absolutely overwhelmed with people demanding to get sample copies of the magazine,” he adds.

China at that time had a very high demand and respect for product and machinery made in Taiwan, and Ringier Trade was the first publishing operation to set up in Taiwan with the specific objective of helping Taiwan exporters break into the China market. “So really, you know, 50% of the business was coming from Taiwan, and we also discovered that we had another opportunity not just for China, but also had a great opportunity to introduce Taiwan machinery makers to markets in Latin America, USA, Europe, and we did this by establishing partnerships through our partner media. So it was a very good story that we have for our clients in Taiwan: that we are present in China, Europe, Latin America, and so on,” says Mike.

In the 15 years since, Ringier Trade has added over 30 titles to its portfolio including for other core industries, including Metalworking and Food & Beverage. The company has alsoNike Roshe Run Men