Atrade magazine, also called atrade journal ortrade paper (colloquially or disparagingly atrade rag), is amagazine or newspaper whosetarget audience is people who work in a particulartrade or industry.[1] The collective term for this area of publishing is thetrade press.[2]
In 1928,Popular Aviation became the largest aviation trade magazine with a circulation of 100,000.[3]
Asdigital journalism grew in importance, trade magazines started to build their presence on the internet. To retain readership and attract new subscribers, trade magazines usually imposepaywall on their websites.[4]
Trade publications[5] keep industry members abreast of new developments. In this role, it functions similarly to howacademic journals orscientific journals serve their audiences. Trade publications includetargeted advertising, which earns aprofit for the publication andsales for the advertisers while also providingsales engineering–type advice to the readers, that may informpurchasing andinvestment decisions.
Trade magazines typically contain advertising content centered on the industry in question with little, if any, general-audience advertising. They may also contain industry-specific job notices.[6]
For printed publications, some trade magazines operate on asubscription business model known ascontrolled circulation, in which the subscription is free but is restricted only to subscribers determined to bequalified leads.
Charles Babcock, editor of Digital News, a trade publication, said
