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Welcome! This is a session on Finding Business Information in Trade Magazines.
By the end of this session you will be able to identify a trade magazine, understand why
these sources are important for researching business topics, know how to find articles
from trade magazines and identify the kinds of information they offer.
Trade magazines are publications that are also called the trade press, industry magazines,
trade journals or professional magazines. As the name implies, they are written for
people who work in a specific industry or profession.
Trade magazines are written for professionals in their industry, rather than a general audience.
For example, Entertainment Weekly is written for anyone interested in entertainment news
on celebrities, TV shows, movies, music and books. But Hollywood Reporter is written
for industry experts who want to know about business deals, trends, successful shows,
and other entertainment industry information. There are hundreds of trade magazines for
all kinds of industries and professions. These magazines help professionals and industry
experts keep up with companies, products, trends and other topics in their field.
You can recognize trade magazines by some of their features:
The authors are paid journalists. The articles may not always be signed by the author. The
purpose of these articles is to inform professionals who work in the industry. The articles are
short and generally easy to read, but may include terminology from the industry. They
often include photos, charts, lists, and other graphics. Most trade magazines have websites
in addition to their print subscriptions. Trade magazines contain information that is
not easy to find in other sources. They cover topics in their industry that are not written
about elsewhere.
Second they publish reliable information since their audience is made up of professionals
and industry experts who depend on the authority of the magazine
The information is current, usually monthly but sometimes weekly or daily.
Articles in trade magazines help you identify key sources, such as industry associations,
government agencies or research firmsTrade magazines include career information, track
salaries, and discuss job opportunities There are three major kinds of information
found in trade magazines-- information about products, companies, and industries.
Trade magazines have lots of information about products and services.
Trade Magazines can help you find different types of information about products: market
share and size, leading brands, customer information, new products and product development.
Trade magazines are excellent sources of market share information. In this article from
Beverage Industry , a chart displays the leading brands and market share for energy drinks.
Trade magazine publish information from market research firms. For example, Beverage Industry
obtains information from a research firm called SymphonyIRI. This information would be really
expensive to purchase, but the trade magazine provides a free summary.
Trade magazines are good sources about the sales of individual brands.
This article from Drug Store News shows that the annual sales of suntan lotion reached
over $388 million and lists the sales of leading brands.
Trade magazines provide analysis about consumers preferences. Here is an article from Women's
Wear Daily that discusses a survey of consumers. The survey indicates that consumers prefer
apparel made in the United States versus China. Trade magazines cover new products in their
industry. This article from Dairy Foods discusses new coffee drinks that include milk
ingredients. One of the new coffee drinks is from Archer Farms, a brand sold in Target
stores. Articles on product development reveal markets
where companies hope to sell new products. In this example from a chemical industry magazine,
a cosmetic is being developed by Lockheed Martin, a military defense company. This product
is being developed for a target audience that needs skin protection from extreme heat, such
as soldiers or firefighters. In addition to product information, Trade
Magazines include different types of Company Information.
Trade magazines compile rankings of companies in their industry. Rankings are typically
based on sales, but may include statistics or other indicators.
Rankings in trade magazines can have additional information. For example, these rankings
from Food Management magazine include brief profiles about the business segments of foodservice
companies. Aramark, a leading food service company, gets the most sales from their sports
and entertainment, healthcare, and education segments.
Joint ventures are deals companies make to expand their markets and generate more sales.
Articles about joint ventures have insights about how companies try to gain a competitive
edge. Articles about buyouts contain information
about the future strategy of a company and may have details about why companies merge
or acquire other firms. Trade magazines are sometimes the only source
for learning about the supply chain operations of a company.
Trade magazines will have articles about company strategies for building new facilities. This
article from Food Engineering describes a new processing plant that will reduce energy
cost for Hormel. Trade magazines are good sources for learning
about how companies expand their market in different geographic locations.
Trade magazine have articles about the competitive landscape of an industry.
Some trade magazines have special issues, such as this State of the Industry Report
from Beverage World. These annual overviews are valuable for learning about the size and
segments of an industry. Articles in trade magazines often cite key
information sources such as market research firms, government agencies, or industry associations.
This article on beauty products for girls includes information from a market research
report published by NPD, a consumer research firm. trade magazines will include summaries
and statistics from these types of reports. There might be additional information on the
market research website. Trends often involve multiple industries.
Digital billboards are becoming a new source of revenue for the advertising industry. This
article from ABA Bank Marketing describes how the financial industry will use digital
billboards. Consumer surveys are important for researching
industry trends and preferences. This article from Publishers Weekly summarized a survey
of attitudes toward reading e-books on tablets. Natural disasters can have a positive or negative
effect on an industry. Trade magazines include information on this impact.
Trade magazines closely watch how government regulations impact their industry. This article
from Candy Industry discusses a recent ruling by the Food and Drug Administration to deny
replacing the term "high fructose corn syrup" with "corn sugar". Trade magazines reflect
the perspective of their industry. Articles from trade magazines predict the
future demand for products or services. In this article from Southeast Farm Press, the
future prices of cattle are based on information gathered from various government sources.
Libraries have article databases that include content from trade magazines. These databases
have good search features to help you find information from trade magazines without paying.
The library has three databases with lots of articles from trade magazines: Business Source Premier,
LexisNexis and Factiva. Almost all trade magazines have websites where
you can find their articles and reports. The amount of free content varies, often with
a mix of free and paid . A few have migrated completely to only websites
For example an article from Women's Wear Daily is not free on their website but can get the
full text of the article from a library article database called Business Source Premier.
Finding the right trade magazine is helpful for researching industries. Directories from
the library are good tools for finding trade magazines. These directories collect information
about thousands of magazines and organize them by industry
There are also free directories available, but they are not as comprehensive.
Industry reports rely on trade magazines as sources of information. The library subscribes
to several good databases where you can track down trade magazines that are listed as references.
These industry reports have other useful information for researching a major industry.
To wrap up, here are some of the main things you should remember about trade magazines
Trade Magazines are written for professionals in a specific industry
They have information about products, companies, and industries
They include rankings, statistics, and other information not found easily
They cite references to expert sources
And you can find articles from trade magazines in library databases or from the magazine
website. If the website requires a subscription, check with the library first.
Need more information?
Visit the library website for more business databases for article research, market research
reports, company information, industry reports, consumer data, and sources for international
business research.