Rogers b2b publishing boss John Milne chuffed about new revenue stream

John Milne, the senior vice-president of business and professional publishing At Rogers Publishing, says his division has had great success with a new "fourth" revenue stream. He writes in a column in min, the media industry newsletter

At Rogers Publishing Limited in Toronto, the Business & Professional Publishing Group has been nurturing a fourth revenue stream over the past six years: research. Rogers is Canada’s largest publisher of business and consumer magazines in both of the country’s official languages.

The seeds of the business were planted in the mid-1990s, when discussions began with a pharmaceutical industry client around the importance of demonstrating thought leadership and sharing customer insights in order to develop new ones. Eighteen months of planning led to a project that has been—and continues to be—conducted annually.

As the initial project began to grow with each deployment, thoughts turned to replicating the success. After all, if one organization was prepared to invest in the high six figures for this type of branding, wouldn’t others?

In 2004, a new research sales/project manager position was created. Today, that individual holds a senior director’s position and is responsible for a department that consists of three full-time sales staff and six project managers. Last year, the group did more than 100 projects and generated revenues in excess of $2.5 million, with a 40%-plus margin.

(The column is only fully available to subscribers.)