The Shape of Online Things to Come
Now it can be told… Both Promo Interactive and the Promo Web site are part of a broad revamp of the Penton Marketing Group online properties, and the changes you’ll see in the next few days should make them both more interesting to read and to write.
On the Promo side, the Web site will extend ties to the other Penton marketing titles, Direct magazine and Multichannel Merchant. That makes sense; the brand marketing and direct response marketing are growing ever closer these days, and integrated promotions are making use of more consumer touchpoints, including classic DR tools such as mail.
And all the Penton marketing magazines will be grouped into a new Chief Marketer Network and a spanking new Chief Marketer Web site. Under the guidance of Web editor Beth Negus Viveiros, Chief Marketer will serve as the Web mother ship for Promo and the other marketing titles, digging up creative marketing content that crosses disciplines.
On all the new sites you’ll find daily surveys, community discussion boards, a blend of spot news and features, and new blogs. For example, the Promo Web site will include The Pro Shop, a blog for short thoughts, quick reviews and occasional outbursts from myself and my Promo colleagues Patty Odell, Richard Tedesco and Amy Johannes.
Then too, look for this column you’re reading now to mutate into a full-fledged blog about the world of interactive marketing. In other words, I’ll be eating larger helpings of the digital dog food I’ve been pushing for a year, including—God and Sir Tim Berners-Lee willing—online video.
All these changes should produce Web content that’s both more useful to you and easier to use. For us on the editorial side, it promises to be more work, yeah, but more fun too. Not only does the news never sleep anymore; these days it doesn’t even pause for breath. All these changes offer us more scope for coverage and comment than ever, and we like that.
Come to the new Promo, Promo Interactive and Chief Marketer Web sites next week and let us know how you think we’re doing.
Related Topics: Web sites, Social networks, Promo Trends, Online Video
