Business-to-business media is about connecting buyers and sellers but increasingly publishers are embracing the wider corporate trend of social purpose—standing for something bigger than just the business objectives.

"This powerful mantra - [fail often to succeed sooner] - exemplifies the deep bias for action," says consultant Jeffrey Cufaude of Idea Architects. "I prefer to reframe it from as failing often (which focuses on the outcome) to experimenting more (which focuses on the process) and expecting and being okay with some things not working as anticipated."

"We need to rethink the relationship we have with paying readers," writes Jim Brady, CEO of Spirited Media and public editor of ESPN, in NiemanLab's wonderful Predictions for Journalism 2018 series. "It's not enough for us to say, 'What we do is important, and you to help fund it.' We need to listen to and engage with those who we're asking to support us. Put another way: We can't just be of the people; we need to be with them."

At our BIMS conference last month, Elizabeth Green, CEO of Brief Media—a leading publisher in the veterinary medicine field—delivered a keynote titled Disrupting Goliath: Tales of a Small Cap Media Innovator. "I've spent my entire tenure as a publisher watching Goliath," she said. What she learned helped her to build one of the top brands in the field.

"You have to be proactive and anticipate what a client wants even before they know they want it," Kristina Dorsey, client director at CQ Roll Call, told us at a Customer Onboarding and Retention event earlier this year. "It's about making sure that our clients are educated on our value proposition, and know that we're the only one doing this—legislative tracking, advocacy, and news and analysis—as well as keeping up with what's going on with the market."