Ironically however, in times of dropping advertisement revenues and job cuts in mainstream media, the trade journalism is proving to be a feasible and possibly highly paid job for business journalists. As for the financial situation, it must be noted that, apparently, the trade press sector is more stable and actively developing today – this fact can become good news for media professionals looking for interesting work.

Field-based publications, which are specialized media for industries or occupational categories, however, have been able to sustain their presence in the media market. These outlets target audience of the readers who are industry professionals and stakeholders, offering greater density of business news, analysis and company/sector focused information. The ASBPE has described trade publications as magazines or journals, electronic and Web newsletters or a combination of these, which are primarily targeted at the business-to-business readership.

Rob Wells an associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland estimate the business to business publication earning in 2021 was $37 billion and the 84% was from the print and digital advertisement. This is markedly lower than newspaper industry for which the Pew Research Center’s “State of the News Media” project found that total estimated advertising revenue reached $9.8 billion in 2022, down 5% from 2022.

Another reason for the trade journalism to be more resistant to the changes is that it delivers sufficiently valuable, albeit narrowly addressed, information for its target audience. While business reporting is written for a lay consumer, trade journalism targets comprehensives who understand that particular sector of business most intimately. While this basic principle focused content enables the professional firstly, to be informed about the current advancement in his/ her field of working and secondly, assists him/ her to execute the responsibilities of the job in an efficient way.

Those journalists who are thinking of changing job to work for trade magazines for instance, should be prepared to do things in a different manner. Specialisation is a key element in trade journalism, and topics can cover any field from banking, law, advertising to supply chain management. This specialization enables the reporters to develop close working relations within their specialized area and this gives them the competitive edge of offering their readers insight and analysis that comes with the close working relationship with the companies within the sector.

Another related benefit coming with the job of trade journalism is realization of better opportunities for job security and promotion. While mainstream media organisations are laying off employees and cutting costs, trade magazines usually have more secure financial bases because of their narrow audiences and well-thought advertising strategies. As a result this stability may mean that there are more secure employment opportunities for journalists willing to niche their professional expertise.

In addition, the present conditions of work in the trade journalism allow the reporters to gain specialization on specific fields of businesses. This specialized knowledge may be especially useful in a constantly developing global environment where many different sectors matter a lot when combined and exhaustive business reports are being produced. While specializing in a given trade publication, journalists who establish themselves will have excellent opportunities for future job prospects within the particular industry or with other forms of business journalism.

Sensitization in trade journalism is often much straightforward in general when compared to the consumer magazines or newspapers. Such product is likely to result in situation when writers themselves can submit their writings and get more of their ideas accepted and published without significant dilution by editors. This may help enhance effectiveness of the news-carrying process and possibly, increase the parameters of the journalists’ creative autonomy.

Trade journalism as a career is recommended for those who have an appetite for going deep into different fields and be able to have personal biases while at the same type being close friends with the people from the field. The chief skill for success in this area is the capacity to effectively communicate with industry occupants and convey complicated jargon into content appropriate for the professional.

Thus, trade journalism is one of the most promising directions in media evolution as a developing and highly-paid profession for business journalists. Rather than fragmenting and becoming eliminated like other general interest magazines, trade publications are not only stable but even growing by targeting narrow categories of readers and utilizing expert information. Although, there is no certainty whether the trade press shall transform into a full fledged general business press, it is still a very good opportunity for those journalist who are willing to specialize and are ready to make heavier and more appealing profession out of trade press journalist as it will be very helpful and beneficial to professional communities of almost all types of businesses.