7 February 2024

The City of London is a small place. You can walk across EC3, the postcode that houses one of the global insurance hubs, in fifteen minutes or less: the real 15-minute City. About 200,000 people work in the British insurance sector, and a large proportion of them work in this corner of London.

In January 2024, EC3, normally wrapped in its own bubble, saw a sudden flurry of interest and attention: the globally renowned press agency Reuters announced its acquisition of a trade publication, The Insurer, one of the leading titles serving the London insurance market.

Leading the insurance market

EC3 isn’t often the centre of national media attention. When global events require or a scandal rocks the market, the eyes of the national press may occasionally turn to insurance. But most news about those 200,000 people and their workplace is more likely to be read by the insurance community themselves, who are directly affected by it.

To get that information, they will turn to the extensive insurance trade press. This is where quality journalism – from breaking news stories, leaks and loss reports and detailed and expert analysis of long-term market trends – still finds a home. Their success is continuing, despite the widely publicised withering of many generalist national news titles.

Insurance trade publications have always led, rather than followed, wider trends: for example, Post Magazine, a general insurance title, is so called because it was the first magazine to be delivered by post, way back in 1840.

It’s easy to see why The Insurer made for an attractive target for a global agency threatened with a fragmenting media market: The Insurer has a captive audience of peers in a significant yet narrowly understood sector of the economy, and an expert crew of journalists. This means continued advertising revenue is likely to keep titles buoyant for years to come.

It’s also an expression of confidence in the future of industry-specific reporting: competition for talent, the need to differentiate and add value to your proposition and the critical importance of your reputation vis-à-vis your peers will remain business-critical in coming years and decades. So, the need for expert and specific news from a niche sector will only grow.

Why others engage, and you should too

That principle – of speaking to your sector in the media your peers read, and in the language they speak – also applies to organisations that want to be seen as market leaders: if you want to stake your claim of breaking ground in your industry, make sure you appear in the titles your peers and competitors are reading.

That means finding, where appropriate, national outlets where a national audience is required for your story. It means identifying broadcast opportunities where a family settling down to Channel 4 News, or an early-rising Today Programme listener, or an avid Ian King Live watcher on Sky News, would be your intended target.

But if your intended audience is your peers, the most effective, the most direct, the best value-for-money editorial opportunity can be in the trade press.

Whether you’re a fintech looking to attract outstanding talent from competitors or a financial advisor seeking to build consensus around a policy proposal, you can be sure that telling that story in a trade publication is going to reach your intended audience.

”One for the trades” – for valuable coverage look to your own sector first

Fundamentally, this comes down to a restatement of the bare essentials of the PR process: identifying a story and its intended audience, and creating a strategy that will most effectively tell that story.

Trade publications remain influential, vibrant and effective; the sheen and prestige of appearing in a national title shouldn’t take away from a basic principle of PR: do what adds value to your company, rather than getting coverage for its own sake.

At H/ Advisors Cicero, we can help you on that journey. Perhaps the next time we work with you, our advice will be: “That one’s for the trades” – do something that makes your peers jealous. And that’s a good thing.

Discuss targeting your audience through trade media with our team – get in touch.