The B2B (business to business) press, sometimes also called the trade press, is one of the largest and most dynamic parts of the UK media scene and it employs tens of thousands of journalists.

Unlike the consumer magazines (both the general consumer titles that you see in WH Smiths, and the more specialist consumer titles - hobby or interest magazines) you rarely see B2B magazines on the newstands.

These magazines aim at small niche audiences usually of professionals within a particular industry. There are dozens of journals and magazines devoted, for example, to workers in the health service, a huge number of magazines devoted to accountancy and finance, to education, to tourism, building, retails or fast food....

It is not always necessary to be an expert in the subject covered by a particular trade magazine. Trade magazine journalists are trained to report on their industry just as local newspaper or radio journalists are trained to report on their community. The skills are very similar and so at Winchester we group B2B magazine journalism work togethger with news reporting for radio, video and the internet.

These days most B2B journalists will work for their publication's website as well as the published magazine. Increasingly B2B journalists will sell information directly to readers or to groups of subscribers.

Lecturers at Winchester have experience of the B2B sector, with health and financial or business journalism being a particular strength.

Journalistic work for a B2B publisher is these days often the best way into the news and journalism profession. It may be less glamourous than the consumer press, but journalistic standards are very high - partly because you are working for a very expert and often international audience.

At Winchester we study the trade press and B2B magazines as part of both the BA Journalism and MA Journalism courses.

More about the MA Journalism

More about the BA Journalism.

We have a new and additional MA journalism website for 2013-14.