Reflecting on last week’s UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP) conference, Peter Kirwan discusses the growing trend away from journalism in business magazine publishing.

Citing examples of United Business Media and Reed Elsevier, Kirwan points out that many trade magazine publishers no longer generate the majority of their revenue from print-based titles. Selling events, online data and other offerings, such as Reed’s ‘workflow solutions’, has taken over.

“Measured against models like these, business journalism starts to resemble a dying craft,” writes Kirwan.

“It’s obvious why. At its most basic, business journalism involves interpreting the dynamics of an industry. Yet if these shifting dynamics can be reduced to data points, and if those data points can be sold in digital format to subscribers, the value of external interpretation – and journalism – inevitably declines.”

Imagining a future without journalists.