Findings in a recently released survey from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and the
Medill School/Media Management Center at Northwestern University point to a significant digital media skills training shortage for business-to-business (B2B) editors.

The survey finds that B2B editors “generally receive a paltry amount of corporate training on the skills they need to benefit their audiences, their brands, and their own development”.

Although I haven’t found any relevant data for Australian publishers and editors our conversations with clients strongly suggest that the same scenario exists here. praxMatrix has initiated a series of in-house and seminar-based training programmes to address this particular gap and if any readers are interested in finding out more about our digital media skills training they can contact us and we would be happy to provide more information.

The ASBPE/Medill survey is worth taking a look at not only for its results but to get an overview of what the digital skill sets are that 21st Century publishers and editors need to be aware of – and these skill sets are, of course, equally valid for an organization that uses digital media in their communications and marketing departments.

The ASBPE/Medill survey contains 15 tables of data on skill sets related to 16 digital activities and 16 digital strategies. The data also drill down into 12 parameters related to the leadership provided by publishers.

In-depth results cover, among other topics, current and most beneficial percentages of workload currently devoted to digital media plus candid appraisals of where editors’ digital skill sets stand in relation to their brands’ transitions to digital publishing and social media.

You can download a full copy of the report from the ASBPE website (PDF format)