Jun 01, 2002June 1, 2002 -- RFID Journal has announced that it will go live today as a subscription Web service. The online publication, which had a soft launch on March 1, aims to establish itself in an industry that has suffered from excessive hype and unmet expectations.
"The RFID industry, by and large, hasn't been well served by the media," says RFID Journal editor and founder Mark Roberti. "There are always lots of articles about the gee-whiz aspects of it, but very little objective analysis of what it can and can't do for businesses. We aim to change that."
The company examined the prospects for several business models, including a free service supported by ads. But the general advertising slump and the fact that the industry is made up mainly of small and mid-size companies scattered around the world made that option unattractive.
RFID Journal does plan to sell advertising on the site. But the company expects its main source of revenue will be from subscriptions. Only a handful of Web publications have succeeded in getting people to pay, but Roberti says he's optimistic.
"There's no doubt that people are reluctant to pay for information online," says Roberti. "That's something that we have to overcome. The way to do it is to provide original reporting and analysis that people just can't get anywhere else."
Unlike most trade publications, the Journal doesn't post press releases. More than 80 percent of its content is from original reporting. The rest is articles from established publications.
"If there's an interesting story by a reputable business or trade publication, we want to let our readers know about it," Roberti says. "But our goal is to filter out the dross. We don't want to waste people's time. We want to give them the information they need -- without the hype -- and let them get on with their jobs."
This week, RFID Journal will launch a weekly newsletter aimed at delivering content from the Web site directly to people to save them the trouble of having to log on.
"Our whole focus is on the value of the information," Roberti says. "We don't have any video or Flash or even 3D buttons on the site to slow people down. We will live or die on the quality of the information we provide."
