by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com
Dassault chose the opening press reception of its annual US conference and user meeting (formerly Dassault Systemes Customer Conference, or DSSC), to announce Compass, its new in-house print magazine.
Compass is printed in France, available in several languages (including English), and features subjects as far reaching as CEO Bernard Charles' vision, which extends far beyond the mere design of planes, trains, and automobiles. Its debut issue is hardly the nuts-and-bolts user interest stories of Contact magazine (Dassault's old in-house magazine), but is meant to appeal to a "higher" level of reader: those further up the corporate food chain. In its debut issue are departments such as Society, Education, Art... it even has book club recommendations.
If anything, Compass wants to put a focus on 3DEXPERIENCE, the concept which Dassault has been mentioning in just about every corporate communiqué for a several months now.
It's a beautiful magazine. Glossy. Big. It will look great in corporate office lobbies, which I am sure is its intention. It looks like money. Trade press publishers, most trying just to keep the lights on, will be jealous. Vanity press, they'll say. Does anyone read that stuff?
The Compass debut issue opens to Bernard Charles smiling face. Turn the page, and Monica Menghini, executive vp of marketing communications, greets us from her own page. Almost lost in the ensuing fine print is chief editor Michael Marshall.
Michael, who handles customer stories for Dassault, tells me that anyone and everyone who wants it can subscribe; you don't have to be a Dassault customer. Michael tells me of stories he is going to be working on. New technologies. Interesting people. Now I'm jealous.
The magazine features advertising for Dassault partners, including NVIDIA, Lenovo, Wacom, others -- though in the debut issue, the ads were gratis.
Is it any wonder that big companies put out its own magazine? Google does it. So does Bentley, ANSYS. MSC. They are bright, colorful magazines on thick paper. It leaves companies free to create their own marketing vehicles, promote the customers they are proud of, brag of new products and initiatives. They can break free of page limits imposed by trade press and not be subjected to the editors who change the stories -- if they run them at all.
Find out more, and subscribe, at www.3ds.com/compassmag
[Reprinted with permission of CAD Insider.]
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