B-to-B lives: the B2Bportales division of Colombia's Carvajal mixes trade magazines with business-to-business portals, and finds a 75 percent Web penetration - Carvajal International

South Florida CEO, Oct, 2003 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

"There is a big hunger for information in Latin America," says David Ashe, and he looks to feed it, as CEO and president of trade magazine and Web site publisher B2Bportales. The company, a division of Colombia's Carvajal conglomerate, publishes six Spanish-language, pan-Latin magazines with a combined subscribership of 85,462. The magazines cover industries from printing to hospitals to metalworking; each is backed up by a Web portal that expands on the magazines' content and provides a deep database of worldwide suppliers for the industry.

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The Web sites are key to B2Bportales' domination of publishing for the industries it covers; more than 75 percent of the magazines' readers are registered users of the Web sites. That's a statistic few US publications can boast, contradicting assertions that low Internet penetration in the region will derail business-to-business Web initiatives. "Internet access, at least in the business-to-business area, is not a barrier in Latin America," says Ashe.

In fact, says Ashe, those businesses are eager to find suppliers, technology news and industry information from outside of their own countries--something the Web portals and magazines allow them to do. And with headquarters in Coral Gables, B2Bportales lets advertisers deal with a US company. "We act here as an ideal bridge," Ashe says. "All of our content is for Latin Americans, but all of our advertisers are from the US, and to a lesser degree from Europe and Asia, and all of that supply goes through Miami." Ashe also uses the headquarters' location to reinforce--for advertisers, readers, and the Bogota-based editorial staff--the pan-regional nature of the audience and content. "If we were in Mexico City or Bogota, for instance, we would be very devoted to serving that local market, and not be able to look at Latin America with a regional mentality," he says.

Of course, the best positioning in the world cannot guarantee healthy financials, and economic downturns in Latin America have taken their toll on B2Bportales, particularly because advertisers see weak prospects for selling their products when businesses are not expanding. Ashe expects 2004 to see recovery, and is gearing up for growth. The company this year purchased health care trade publication El Hospital, and is looking to acquire other titles for its roster, which includes Artes Graficas, Tecnologia del Plastic, Metalmecanic, Conversion and TV y Video. Ashe expects to launch other new titles in the coming years, particularly in industries which are technology heavy.

In the meantime, B2Bportales' parent company has taken good advantage of its South Florida outpost, providing customer service for US-based clients in Carvajal's printing division, and in other divisions that export to the US. And, Ashe's frequent trips to Colombia give Carvajal the opportunity to use him as a bit of a courier. "Almost every trip I take down to Colombia, I will be taking in my suitcase everything from hard drives to paperwork," Ashe says with a smile. "Everything is easier to get here."