When reading Trade Journals it becomes quite obvious of the problems with many of the articles. They appear to be news worthy articles, but are simply trying to bend the mind of the reader over to their view of the industry in order to sell them something. Of course for the Trade Journal it works because it is free filler articles and means less cost in paying writers. It also gives the chance that the author of the articles or series of articles may advertise in the Trade Journal in the future. This is such common practice in trade journals that no one ever calls it into question in public, but privately they do think about this problematic situation. There is something that is worse than an industry professional writing such articles and that is a former expert in the field who has been away for 20-years from the industry commenting on the current direction of the Industry. It is like a PhD in a technology, which is 20-years old commenting on the current trends. Many are concerned about these things and one recent think tanker (me) commented on this and challenged a former PhD Industry professional on a future trend. The so-called former industry expert gentleman would not yield his view, yet today we see he was wrong, dead wrong on his assumptions. This should be too surprising, as things change; it is the only constant in fact. Think on this in 2006. |
